A court hearing for millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst was postponed for one week after FBI agents subpoenaed by the defense failed to show Thursday morning.
Wearing a yellow jumpsuit, the 71-year-old real-estate scion looked on as his lead attorney sparred with the prosecutors about whether the agents who had detained Durst and searched his hotel room two weeks ago were in contempt.
"We needed more time ... to make sure our employees are well prepared to take that stand," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Duane Evans, conceding that the government asked the agents to ignore the subpoenas from Durst's team.
"It doesn't take any time to prepare to tell the truth," Durst lawyer Dick DeGuerin shot back, accusing prosecutors of playing a game of "hide the ball."
The defense wants to grill the agents about whether they searched Durst's room at the J.W. Marriott in New Orleans — and found a gun and marijuana — before a warrant was issued.
They have filed a motion to get those Louisiana charges dropped so they can take Durst to Los Angeles, where he has been charged with murdering his Beverly Hills confidant, Susan Berman, in 2000.
Authorities have suggested in court papers that Berman may have been killed because she knew too much about the disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathie, in 1982.
To counter that, defense lawyers have also subpoenaed an ex-prosecutor, former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who was investigating Kathie Durst's disappearance before Berman was killed.
The attorneys say they want to establish that Pirro never contacted Berman before she was killed.
Pirro — who is now a television personality — was a main character in the HBO documentary series, "The Jinx," which focused on Durst's links to Kathie's disappearance, Berman's murder and the dismemberment of his elderly neighbor.
The series ended with Durst appearing to confess by muttering into a hot microphone: "What the hell did I do? ... Killed them all, of course."
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