PHILADELPHIA — More than a year after eccentric millionaire Robert Durst was acquitted of first-degree murder for killing his neighbor, the New York real estate heir was sentenced on federal gun charges in what his lawyers hope is the last footnote to his 2001 murder indictment.

The former cross-dressing fugitive was sentenced Tuesday to nine months in prison, a $30,000 fine and two years supervised release in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Savage also agreed to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that Durst receive credit for time already served in his sentence.

In an agreement with U.S. Attorneys in October, Durst pleaded guilty to transporting two guns across state lines in November 2001, when he was on the lam from murder charges in Galveston, Texas, for the death of 71-year-old Morris Black.

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He would have faced up to 15 years on the charges had he gone to trial.

In an surprise twist, Savage told the court he would accept the plea deal, except for the omission of a fine to be paid by Durst.

The judge gave Durst the opportunity to withdraw his plea after informing him he intended to impose the maximum fine, but the gaunt-looking defendant seemed anxious to close the book on this latest chapter in his courtroom woes.

"Do you understand what's going on here?" Savage asked Durst.

"Beside the fact I'm being made very nervous, I understand it's being said I should pay a fine not agreed to previously," Durst said. "I am agreeable to changing the agreement and paying a fine."

Outside the courtroom, counsel from both sides expressed satisfaction with the sentence.

"Given the complexities that the indictment arose from, we feel this is a just and fair compromise," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reed.

"This is it," said Dick DeGuerin, Durst's lawyer from Houston.

"The sentence gives him clarity and finality," said Theodore Simon, Durst's Philadelphia attorney, who donned pointed-toe cowboy boots to show "solidarity" with DeGuerin and co-counsel Michael Ramsey.

Today's sentencing is the latest event in the embattled millionaire's tangles with the law since he was found not guilty of murder in November 2003.

A jury concluded there was not enough evidence to prove Durst intentionally killed his neighbor, even though he admitted in court to accidentally shooting Black as they fought over a gun.

He also told the jury that he chopped Black's body into pieces and tossed them in the Galveston Bay in a panicked haze. Black's head was never recovered.

At the time of the murder, Durst was posing as a mute woman in the ramshackle housing project where he lived across the hall from Black.

He was hiding out in Texas amid investigations into the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathie, and the 2000 murder of his friend, Susan Berman. He has not been charged in either of those cases.

Durst fled Texas after he was indicted for Black's murder and posted bond in September 2001. He was a fugitive from justice for almost two months when police in Bethlehem, Pa., arrested Durst for shoplifting a sandwich and Band-Aids from a supermarket.

Authorities agreed to not prosecute him for shoplifting in exchange for waiving extradition back to Texas.

That was the last he heard from authorities in Pennsylvania until October 2004, when he was indicted on two counts of interstate transportation of a gun as a fugitive from justice.

At the time of the indictment, Durst was just days away from mandatory release on separate charges of bail-jumping and evidence-tampering, also stemming from the murder trial.

Galveston authorities indicted Durst in February 2004. The first charge stemmed from his flight from Texas, the second for tampering with evidence from the murder trial by chopping up Black's body.

After his lawyers successfully moved to bounce the judge who sat on his original murder trial — and who was publicly outspoken about her disappointment with the jury's verdict — Durst struck a plea with Galveston prosecutors which netted him a five year sentence, for most of which he received credit for time served.

If the BOP grants him credit, Durst may be out of jail by April 2005 and a free man for the first time since November 2001, although he will then have to return to Texas for two years of parole.

But even then, Durst's litigious wrangling may still continue.

In August, Durst's lawyers in New York filed suit against his brother and cousin, claiming they changed the terms of a family trust to bar Durst from willing his share to his estranged wife, Debrah Lee Charatan, who was present for his sentencing.

Durst is one of 13 heirs to the fortune of New York real estate magnate, Joseph Durst, who was his grandfather. His family runs The Durst Organization, a billion-dollar New York real estate company.

The suit accuses his cousin Jonathan and brother Douglas of amending the original agreement with the intention of limiting Durst's control over how he decides to dispose of his assets when he dies.