Suffolk County DA says it lacks resources to meet 'ambitious' deadlines in Gilgo Beach murder case
RIVERHEAD, Long Island (WABC) -- Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann returned to a Riverhead courtroom on Wednesday.
It marked his second appearance since his arraignment on a superseding indictment charging him in six killings of women, mostly sex workers, dating back to more than three decades ago.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
The Suffolk County District Attorney has turned over virtually all of the evidence -- 99.9% of the material extracted from 400-plus electronic devices -- to Heuermann's lawyers.
"It's a tremendous amount of information, we are pumping out an extraordinary amount of discovery," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said following court in Riverhead on Wednesday morning.
Judge Timothy Mazzei said he wants to set a trial date when the case returns to court Dec. 17
Tierney called that trial schedule "ambitious," given the large amount of evidence.
"I think the timeline right now is very ambitious and very compressed, again, given the ridiculous nature of our discovery laws, where I have to provide every single piece of paper that was generated in a case that started in 1993," Tierney said.
Tierney is asking for millions in federal asset forfeiture proceeds frozen by the Justice Department as part of an ongoing investigation into a previous district attorneys. He estimated about $13 million is tied up in the investigation.
The federal government "controls our forfeiture, I'm sure they are thrilled about me talking about it, but it's a fact, they have chosen to freeze all of our money," he said.
Prosecuting Heuermann presents "a singularly unique strain on our budget," he said.
Meanwhile, Heuermann's attorney Michael Brown says he is considering filing a motion to separate the four killings for which Heuermann was charged with the two most recent charges.
"The evidence on the '93 case Miss Castilla and the Taylor which I believe is 2002, 2003, there is virtually no evidence on those cases and from the Gilgo four, it's our position that the evidence is very weak," Brown said.
He also wants some of the DNA evidence dismissed.
"The crime lab in Suffolk County indicated not just in their paperwork, but under oath to a grand jury, that these hairs that we're talking about were unsuitable for DNA nuclear analysis," Brown said.
Meanwhile, an attorney for Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, said she is in South Carolina taking care of personal matters. She is not implicated in the case.
FOLLOW TO THE EYEWITNESS TO GILGO BEACH PODCAST
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