Durst arrest warrant should be 'thrown out,' attorneys say
Los Angeles Times
By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE
"In the latest legal wrangling over Los Angeles murder suspect and New York real estate scion Robert Durst, his attorneys on Tuesday challenged his recent New Orleans arrest and underlying search warrants as unconstitutional."
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In Robert Durst’s room at the J.W. Marriott, investigators from the Louisiana State Police found a .38 revolver and marijuana and charged him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled substance.
“Louisiana has to prove the lawful search of that room to get the gun and marijuana in” to court, Durst’s lead attorney Dick DeGuerin, told The Times on Tuesday at his Houston office. Durst is expected back in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing in New Orleans.
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DeGuerin and New Orleans co-counsel Billy Gibbens argue in their latest motion to have Durst’s arrest warrant thrown out that the search of his hotel room by state investigators was “warrantless” and that his previous convictions do not prohibit him from possessing a firearm in the state.
They said that Louisiana does not bar all convicted felons from owning guns, just those who committed particular crimes – not including Durst’s prior federal convictions for possession of a firearm by a fugitive from justice and interstate shipment of a firearm by a person under indictment.
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When two FBI agents confronted Durst in the hotel lobby at 3 p.m., they had yet to receive a search warrant, according to the court filing.
“The FBI frisked Mr. Durst in the lobby and found no weapons or contraband, but they removed Mr. Durst’s room key from his jacket pocket,” the filing says.
“At that point, the agents should have released Mr. Durst, because it is undisputed that during the encounter in the lobby the FBI agents did not know that a California arrest warrant had been issued.”
Durst’s attorneys said that had the agents known, “they should have taken him to jail right away…. If agents had reason to search the room – and they did not – they should have secured the room and obtained a search warrant.”
Instead, Durst’s attorneys note, “The FBI escorted Mr. Durst to his hotel room and held him there, incommunicado, for almost eight hours” taking inventory while they contacted Los Angeles police.
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At 6 p.m., the FBI agents “began a warrantless general search of Mr. Durst’s hotel room and discovered a gun in a coat hanging in the closet and marijuana in sealed luggage.” Durst’s attorneys note that “there was no contraband in plain sight.”
At 11 p.m., Durst was booked on the California arrest warrant on suspicion of murder.
“The California murder warrant is one page long, lacks a probable cause statement and does not authorize a search,” Durst’s attorneys note in their filing.
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“Nowhere in Detective Whelan’s warrant application does he inform the court that room 2303 had already been searched by the FBI. The search warrant purports to seek a handgun, which Detective Whelan knew the FBI had already found,” the attorneys note.
So much more. Information packed article, lots to read
