Babylon body parts case: Defendant Amanda Wallace, of Amityville, arrested on larceny charge while free without bail

One of four defendants released without bail on charges of discarding the body parts of two victims at various parks on Long Island has been arrested again — this time for allegedly stealing beauty products from a Lindenhurst CVS store while under court-ordered electronic monitoring, officials said.

Amanda Wallace, 40, of Amityville, was arrested and charged with petit larceny on Friday, authorities said. Police were called by an employee of the store on East Montauk Highway at about 10:50 p.m. Friday and she was arrested a short time later, authorities said.

Wallace admitted to a police officer that she stole items, according to a misdemeanor information filed in Suffolk District Court.

“I did — eyelashes and nail polish,” Wallace told an officer, according to the court documents. “I forgot my money and really didn’t feel like walking back over.”

Prosecutor Dena Rizopoulos, who asked that Wallace be held on a $10,000 cash bail on the petit larceny charge, told the judge Monday in Suffolk District Court in Central Islip: “She did it while wearing a GPS monitor, your honor.”

Wallace’s attorney, Keith O’Halloran, entered a plea of not guilty on the petit larceny charge.

Judge James McDonaugh ordered Wallace held without bail on the body parts case for not complying with the conditions of her earlier release and set bail for the petit larceny charge at $5,000 cash bail, $10,000 surety bond or $50,000 partially secured bond.

The judge told Wallace: “At the bare minimum, you should be able to go nine days without being rearrested.”

Wallace’s boyfriend and co-defendant in the body parts case, Steven Brown, 44, of Amityville, also appeared briefly in court on Monday. McDonaugh said Brown must continue to follow the release conditions set earlier this month, including GPS monitoring. He was ordered to return to court on April 1.

Also charged are Jeffrey Mackey, 38, of Amityville, and Alexis Nieves, 33, who police say is homeless. Mackey and Nieves are also a couple, his attorney has said. They're due back in court Tuesday. 

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty to felony counts of first-degree hindering prosecution, concealment of a human corpse, and tampering with physical evidence by concealing or destroying.

Police have identified the female victim as 59-year-old Donna R. Conneely and the other victim as a 53-year-old man.

Their body parts were located on Feb. 29 and March 5 in a park in Babylon, Bethpage State Park and a wooded area in West Babylon, police said. Conneely and the other victim, whose identity is pending confirmation by the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, lived at the same address in Yonkers.

O’Halloran, speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, said of the charges against his client: “Again, we need to start a new investigation. We have no paperwork on the new cases, we have no discovery on the old case. We are still looking for the information that will tie her to either of these two cases. We are going to have to review whether or not the judge acted properly in remanding her without bail.”

All four defendants had been released without bail after their arrests in the body parts case, which sparked a verbal sparring match between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, who blamed the 2019 bail reform for preventing prosecutors for asking for bail on certain criminal charges, including the ones the defendants are facing. Hochul questioned why the district attorney hadn’t charged the defendants with a higher-level felony that would have mandated bail.

Prosecutors have said the evidence against the defendants includes human remains, meat cleavers, butcher knives, significant amounts of blood and video surveillance.

According to charging documents, between Feb. 27 at 10:53 a.m. and March 4 at 4:08 a.m., the defendants removed from their shared Railroad Avenue home in Amityville “sharp instruments, multiple body parts and other related items and dispose[d] of them to conceal the crime of murder in the second degree.”