By Michael Malaszczyk
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann may seek separate trials for the six murders he is currently charged with, according to his defense attorney.
Heuermann, 60, of Massapequa Park, took longer to get to court than anticipated, spurring Judge Timothy Mazzei to quip to court officers, “Did you walk him over from the jail?”
Asa Ellerup, Heuermann’s estranged wife, also appeared in court with their family dog, who was recently registered as a service dog. She did not speak to reporters.
Heuermann appeared to shake his head as prosecutors announced the turning over of new evidence to the defense, including up to 30 more terabytes of data seized from the searches of his house. The data includes 1,600 pages of lab reports. The prosecution team also announced that up to 60,000 pages of evidence had been turned over to the defense since his June 6 court appearance, when he was charged with the murders of Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor.
In addition to Taylor and Costilla, Heuermann is charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Lynn Costello. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“There’s definitely going to be a motion at some point in time to sever the [trials for the] six individuals,” Michael Brown, Heuermann’s defense attorney, told reporters. “The most recent two were victims of the indictment, specifically Costilla and Taylor, I know strategically why the prosecutor wanted to put them in, because the more the merrier, but they have nothing to do with the others. The MO is different, the way that the murders allegedly were carried out were different, where those bodies were deposited or left is completely different. So as we know here about these Gilgo Beach murders, those two have nothing to do with this.”
Partial remains of Taylor were found in Manorville in 2003 and off Ocean Parkway in 2011, just east of Gilgo Beach.
Brown also said a motion for a change of venue for the trial is on the table.
“In Suffolk County, everybody knows about this case,” Brown said. “In Nassau County, everybody knows about this case. In every other county in our state, I would suggest that everybody knows about this case. So we’re definitely going to explore a potential change in venue.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney appeared to welcome Brown’s suggestion of staggered trials.
“I think that’s a motion that defense in all likelihood will explore,” Tierney said. “I think if you look at those reasons why you would want to try these cases together, obviously that is going to be something that the defense is going to look at and make the appropriate decision.”
Tierney also added that Heuermann remains a suspect in the 2000 murder of Valerie Mack, whose partial remains were found then in Manorville in 2000 and in 2011 near Gilgo Beach, similar to Taylor.
Brown continues to question the veracity of DNA testing in the case, saying that the DNA allegedly linking Heuermann to the victims was initially deemed unsuitable for nuclear testing, and was only suitable for mitochondrial testing.
“It’s unsuitable for nuclear DNA testing [at first], and this magical company on the West Coast, does it all of a sudden, after we pounded that issue at a press conference,” Brown said.
Mitochondrial DNA testing is only able to rule out a percentage of the human population, while nuclear DNA testing is more linear, and able to identify specific individuals it belongs to with a higher statistical amount of the population ruled out.
Both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA testing in the case have linked Heuermann to the victims in the case, via hair found on them allegedly belonging to him or to his family members.
Brown continues to assert that there are other suspects in the case, discussing an unnamed suspect from Massapequa Park with the initials “WH,” and another suspect he claims to have seen pole camera footage of.
A belt with the initials “WH” or “HM” was found on victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose murder Heuermann was charged with in January. Rex Heuermann’s grandfather’s name was William Heuermann.
“The former DA in this county was prepared to move forward with an arrest of this suspect who now is so significant because that’s the belt,” Brown said. “It’s my client’s grandmother’s uncle’s neighbor and therefore it’s tied to my client. There were a solid 30 points of evidence against WH. The sole reason that they decided not to charge WH is because there’s an overlap in phone calls – who has personal phone and this burner phone. So because people can’t have two phones on at the same time, WH has been eliminated as a suspect.”
Heuermann has been held without bail since his July 2023 arrest.
