Gilgo Beach killings: Cases against suspect Rex Heuermann should be tried separately, defense says

Defense attorneys for alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann said Tuesday that murder charges stemming from six killings against the Massapequa Park defendant should be tried separately.

Attorney Michael J. Brown said "at a minimum," the second-degree murder charges for the deaths of Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor should be heard at a different time given the different circumstances in those two killings.

"They have nothing to do with the other four," Brown told the media after a half-hour conference in Riverhead on Tuesday, weeks after his client appeared in court for the first time since he was charged with two additional killings in June after prosecutors unveiled a superseding indictment. "There's nothing, no relevance to the four. The MO is different. The way that the murders were allegedly carried out was different. The way that the bodies were . . . deposited, for lack of a better word, was different."

Brown said because of how the case was presented to the special grand jury and charged in a superseding indictment as a single case, the defense would have to file a motion to sever "at some point." Brown said ideally, that motion would be filed after completing discovery, but could happen sooner as prosecutors continue to turn over a massive amount of evidence in the decades-old investigations.

The defense also said it is exploring the possibility of filing for a change of venue, but hasn't made a decision yet.

"The problem is, and I don't think we've committed to anything yet, is in every county in our state, I would suggest that everybody knows about this," Brown said.

On Tuesday, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Nicholas Santomartino told State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei that prosecutors have turned over additional discovery on five dates since Heuermann's previous appearance June 6, totaling 30 terabytes of data.

The newly turned over evidence includes 1,600 pages of lab reports, grand jury minutes, all of the raw data from the mitochondrial DNA lab work and 60,000 pages of documents seized from Heuermann's home and office in July 2023, Santomartino said.

Additionally, prosecutors handed over more tips they've received from the public related to the case and information generated through subpoenas.

Santomartino said many of the lab reports turned over recently pertain to the Costilla case, which dates back to 1993.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney added that additional discovery relates to the original missing persons case involving Melissa Barthelemy, who, along with Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, make up the "Gilgo Four," the first bodies found in the original case and the first four killings charged against Heuermann in two earlier indictments.

"Suffice to say it is a voluminous amount of material," Tierney told reporters afterward, "especially since we've superseded the original indictment twice with additional murders."

Asked for his thoughts on separating cases for separate trials, Tierney said "there are reasons why you would want to try these cases together."

"Principally, for judicial economy," the district attorney said. "We anticipate there will be a lot of pretrial motions in this case — there are a lot of pretrial motions in most cases — but in this case it is just going to be a lot of motions given the length of time and breadth of this case." 

Brown also hinted at additional potential pretrial hearings regarding DNA, reiterating that witnesses from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office initially told the special grand jury that certain hairs were "unsuitable for testing," though prosecutors later used an outside lab to turn up additional DNA evidence against Heuermann.

"I don't understand how the Suffolk County Crime Lab who come in to testify every day said it's unsuitable for testing, and we reinforced that to the folks in the media," Brown said. "Within a month or two we have some magician on the West Coast who says it's my client."

Brown said the DNA testing of hairs is the "strongest piece of evidence they claim they have." In the case of Costilla, Brown said hair is the only thing prosecutors presented to the grand jury connecting Heuermann to her.

Both Brown and Tierney declined to say when they think a trial might be held.

Mazzei said the additional discovery that must be turned over following the most recent indictment means "it would not be fruitful" to conference the case again until mid-October. Mazzei set Heuermann's next court appearance for Oct. 16.

Tierney declined to say if Heuermann might face more charges before then, but prompted by a reporter, said he remains a suspect in the killing of Valerie Mack, whose remains were found near Taylor's in Manorville and near Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann, 60, has pleaded not guilty to each charge against him — three counts of first-degree murder and six counts of second-degree murder — and Brown said his client continues to maintain his innocence in each of the six alleged killings. He has been held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead since his arrest last July.

Appearing in a black suit and dark blue tie, Heuermann glanced briefly at the audience, which for the first time included the family dog, Stewie, who has been certified as an emotional support dog for Heuermann's estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, who declined to comment.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.