Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann appears in court
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Rex Heuermann was back in court in Riverhead Tuesday morning, where a judge is considering what DNA evidence to admit and whether the Gilgo Beach charges should be broken into separate trials.
Heuermann's defense team, in a pair of motions, has asked Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei to exclude DNA evidence in the case and to try three of the seven charged killings separately.
Heuermann's attorneys want him to stand trial first for the murders of three women - Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman - whose bodies were found near Gilgo Beach. The defense wants him tried separately for the murders of four other victims, fearing a cumulative effect if the judge put him on trial for all seven killings at once.
Mazzei set the next court date for March 12, when defense attorneys must file paperwork in their ongoing attempt to break off some of the murders.
The Suffolk County district attorney's office said severing the cases is "inappropriate as the victims are inextricably interwoven by geographic proximity, victimology, digital and physical evidence, forensic analysis, and defendant's own planning document" that allegedly contained detailed instructions for killing women, dismembering bodies and burying them.
"In other words, the proffered evidence set forth by the People for each victim is substantially the same with regard to each of the charged crimes," prosecutors said. "Despite minor discrepancies amongst the attacks against the seven victims, the victimology, methodologies surrounding the initial encounter, defendant's choice in 'dump sites' for each victim, and retention of publications covering each of the charged murders remain largely, if not entirely consistent across each of the charged crimes."
Mazzei also intended to set a date for pretrial hearings related to the admissibility of DNA evidence, but the defense is still waiting for a hard drive with discovery from prosecutors.
The lawyers said they are still waiting for 5% to 10% of the data from California laboratory Astrea Forensics, which they argue has not been generally accepted as reliable in the scientific community.
The DNA match came from a technique called whole genome sequencing, which has never been used in New York State courts.
Heuermann, who was arrested in July 2023, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women whose remains were found discarded on Long Island between 1993 and 2011.
ALSO READ: 'Eyewitness to Gilgo Beach': The horror by the sea -- and the hunt for justice
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