Los Angeles authorities say are working with the FBI to build a criminal case against millionaire Robert Durst's wife and she may testify against her husband to avoid criminal charges . Durst is currently being investigated for the shooting death of Susan Berman in 2000 and police say wife Debrah Lee Charatan, 58, allegedly tried to help Durst flee to Cuba before his recent arrest. The New York Post reports that Charatan, who married Durst less than two weeks before Berman's death, could face a federal charge of aiding and abetting a flight to avoid prosecution. Los Angeles authorities say are building a criminal case against millionaire Robert Durst's wife Debrah Lee Charatan (pictured in 2012 and 2014) and she may testify against her husband to avoid criminal charges . If convicted, Charatan could do up to five years behind bars. 'The wife is definitely in play, a police source told The Post. 'If she’s smart, she’ll waive [spousal privilege] and tell investigators everything she knows and put the final nail in his coffin — and then she might escape prosecution.' Durst was preparing to fly to Cuba when he was arrested on March 14 and police believe that Charatan was going to meet him there or help him flee. The Post reports that police are going over Charatan's financial records to look for money transfers or other incriminating evidence. Charatan was in Florida which is just 90 miles from Cuba when Durst was arrested in New Orleans. 'She knew this was coming and that [Durst] was going to be arrested and this was all going to blow up,' a police source told The Post. Recent arrest Robert Durst poses for a mugshot photo after being arrested for murder and detained on March 14 in New Orleans, Louisiana . On Friday, Millionaire Robert Durst's attorneys claim that he was illegally arrested on charges that he murdered Susan Berman in California, as well as drug and weapons charges filed in New Orleans. In the papers filed at the State Criminal District Court in New Orleans, William Gibbens and Dick DeGuerin asked a magistrate judge to schedule a preliminary hearing so that they can prove that there is no probable cause to keep Durst jailed. They say he should be released. 'I think he's an easy target and everybody's piling on. ... They're gonna find nothing," Dick DeGuerin, the lead attorney on Durst's team, told  KTRK-TV. 'I think Louisiana and their elected officials want a piece of the publicity pie.' 'Invalid arrest': Robert Durst's legal team accused authorities in documents today of arresting the real estate heir illegally, as his attorney blasted Louisiana officials for wanting a piece of the 'publicity pie' 'I think he's an easy target and everybody's piling on ... They're gonna find nothing, Dick DeGuerin (pictured), the lead attorney on Durst's team, said on Friday . The judge agreed to schedule that hearing during another court appearance by Durst on Monday in New Orleans. The attorneys also asked the judge to order that evidence be preserved from the hotel where Durst was arrested. They are seeking any and all records related to Durst and Everett Ward, the pseudonym Durst used to check into the hotel. The documents blasted the arrest, which the attorneys say was orchestrated 'to coincide with the final episode of the HBO docudrama The Jinx. The six-part documentary concluded Sunday. Durst's arrest came shortly before the HBO finale about his links to three killings — that of his first wife, who disappeared in New York in 1982; Berman, the daughter a mobster and a close friend who acted as his spokeswoman after his wife disappeared; and a 71-year-old neighbor in Texas whose dismembered body was found floating in Galveston Bay in 2001. Frail: Durst is on suicide watch at a Louisiana detention center . Durst has only ever been tried for the Texas killing, and he was acquitted of murder. Durst waived extradition in New Orleans but is being held there on charges that he was a felon in possession of a gun and with illegally carrying a weapon with a controlled substance. Court documents say investigators found nearly $43,000 in cash, a gun and a rubber mask that could cover his head and neck in his hotel room when he was arrested. Authorities have also said marijuana was found in the room. However, Durst's attorneys say his previous convictions are not serious enough to merit the gun charge. In the case, prosecutors could seek to play portions from The Jinx that concluded with the eccentric millionaire off camera talking to himself in a bathroom with his wireless microphone still live. He has been charged in Los Angeles with first-degree murder in the 2000 killing Susan Berman, the daughter of a mobster and a close friend who acted as his spokeswoman after his wife disappeared in New York in 1982. Durst, 71, who is estranged from a family that has a real estate empire worth an estimated $4 billion, has long denied killing Berman and Kathleen Durst, who was declared dead even though her body was never found. Investigators had reopened that case and planned to speak with Berman when she was shot once in the back of her head at her home near Beverly Hills. After the killing, Durst disguised himself as a mute woman and moved into a cheap Galveston, Texas, boarding house where he killed an elderly neighbor in 2001. He claimed self-defense and was acquitted of murder but was convicted of unlawfully disposing of the man's body, which was found chopped up and floating in Galveston Bay. While legal experts said Durst's remarks off-camera and to filmmakers during the production will most likely be admissible, prosecutors will have to decide if they outweigh the possibility that the defense would play other portions of interviews showing him denying any killing. 'I would see this moment of unguarded truth as worth a lot of those denials,' said George Fisher, a former prosecutor and professor at Stanford Law School. 'The flat out meaning of the statement is very clear on its face.' In the case of Blake, prosecutors sought to introduce a portion of a jailhouse interview of the actor discussing his family with Barbara Walters because it contradicted other evidence. The defense then successfully pushed to bring in the rest of the interview. 'It did a great deal both to humanize him and so he wasn't just seen as a celebrity,' said M. Gerald Schwartzbach, who won Blake's acquittal on a murder charge involving the killing of his wife. 'There was an image projected that a lot of people had about Robert as a difficult person. In this video, he came across as a very sympathetic person.' Prosecutors are not commenting on the Berman case while Durst is still held in Louisiana, where he also faces firearms charges.
Robert Durst's wife Debrah Lee Charatan, 58, could 'testify against her husband to avoid criminal charges'
Police are investigating whether or not Charatan helped Durst Flee to Cuba prior to his March 14 arrest . If convicted, Charatan could do up to five years behind bars . Durst was arrested on March 14 for the murder of Susan Berman in 2000 . Durst's legal team say authorities made an 'invalid arrest' on March 14 . Claim he was illegally arrested on murder, drug and weapon charges . Lawyers say it was a publicity stunt to coincide with The Jinx finale . Judge agreed to a hearing Monday in New Orleans; Durst to appear . The 71-year-old is on suicide watch at a Louisiana detention center .