A New York judge has directed two of Robert Durst's longtime friends to testify at a pretrial hearing in the eccentric millionaire's murder case in California this month.
Acting Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Christopher Quinn said Stewart and Emily Altman, who are from Long Island, are "material and necessary witnesses" in the Durst case. Stewart Altman has been a friend of Durst's since their high school days in the early 1960s.
Durst, who was featured in the HBO documentary "The Jinx," is facing murder charges in Los Angeles in the 2000 killing of his longtime friend, Susan Berman. Prosecutors suspect Durst shot Berman because he feared she might divulge incriminating information regarding the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen.
Durst, 74, was never charged in Kathleen Durst's disappearance and has denied killing either Berman or his first wife.
In "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," he is heard muttering that he "killed them all." He was arrested in New Orleans in 2015 just before the final episode aired.
Attorneys for the Altmans argued that their testimony is not necessary at a pretrial hearing. Elizabeth Johnson, one of their attorneys, said Wednesday that she would appeal Quinn's ruling.
Los Angeles prosecutors say they want to question the Altmans about their friendship with Durst. Stewart Altman, who is a labor attorney, indicated in court papers that he may be entitled to claim attorney-client privilege about conversations he has had with Durst.
But Quinn said, "Any rulings based upon exerting the privilege must be made on a question by question basis before a California judge."