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.