Although he was acquitted last year of murdering his neighbor, New York real estate heir Robert Durst still sits in jail on charges of bail jumping and evidence tampering. The bail: $3 billion.

But Tuesday an appeals court rejected that amount, which had been set by his trial judge, ruling it unconstitutionally excessive.

"The state has not cited, and we have not found, a decision in which bail has ever been set, let alone upheld, at even one percent of any of the three amounts set in this case," Justice Richard Edelman wrote in the majority opinion.

Last November, in a verdict that appeared to surprise even Durst, the 61-year-old multimillionaire was found not guilty after jurors concluded there was no evidence to prove that he intentionally killed his 71-year-old neighbor and drinking buddy, Morris Black.

Story continues

advertisement

Prosecutors argued during the month-long trial that Durst accidentally shot Black in the face in self-defense when the two men wrestled for Durst's gun. Durst admitted to dismembering Black's body, and throwing the parts in the Galveston Bay, but jurors later told reporters that they believed Durst's story that he panicked when he decided to cut up the body.

But in February 2004, Durst was indicted for tampering with evidence — the remains of Morris Black. State District Judge Susan Criss, who presided over Durst's trial, set his bail for the third-degree felony charge at a staggering $1 billion, noting that he was a flight risk.

Durst had also previously been hit with two $1 billion bond amounts by Criss in connection with two bail-jumping charges, which stemmed from his failure to appear in court in October 2001, after posting $350,000 bail.

Criss denied Durst's lawyers' request to reduce his bond to $10,000, and they appealed the three bond orders to the 14^th Court of Appeals in Houston.

"We can find no conceivable justification for bail amounts remotely approaching the order of magnitude of those imposed in this case," Edelman wrote. "We therefore conclude that they are unconstitutionally excessive." A new bond amount has not been set.

Criss told Courttv.com that she was not allowed to comment on the pending case.