Published at 3:10 PM, January 29, 2025
NEW YORK CITY (AP)– The New York designer dealing with murder charges in a string of deaths referred to as the Gilgo Beach killings is challenging the DNA proof versus him and looking for different trials in the stretching case.
SUBMIT– Rex Heuermann, center, charged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings on Long Island, stands for a hearing, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (James Carbone/Newsday through AP, File, Pool)
Rex Heuermann’s attorneys argue DNA analysis depended on by district attorneys is not extensively accepted in the clinical neighborhood and needs to be left out from the trial. The Long Island local’s defense group likewise wishes to break out the case versus him into numerous trials.
Because late 2010, authorities have actually been examining the deaths of a minimum of 10 individuals– primarily female sex employees– whose remains were found along a separated highway not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s south coast.
Heuermann was apprehended in 2023 and charged in the deaths of 3 of the victims in between 2009 and 2010: Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Megan Waterman.
While in custody, he was consequently charged in the deaths of Valerie Mack in 2000, Jessica Taylor in 2003, Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007 and Sandra Costilla in 1993.
Huermann has actually preserved his innocence and pleaded innocent to all counts.
Michael Brown, Heuermann’s lawyer, stated following a Wednesday court hearing that his customer dangers being poorly founded guilty since of the “cumulative result” of the proof advanced by district attorneys.
ASSOCIATED|District Attorneys: Rex Heuermann kept file to ‘plan’ criminal offenses
He likewise argued there’s a “considerable variation” in the proof in the a few of the deaths, which he kept includes various timespan, eliminating approaches and places for getting rid of the bodies.
“The threat of having count after count, victim after victim in the exact same trial is that ‘If there’s smoke, there’s fire’ mindset,” Brown stated. “They should not be attempted together. One concern has absolutely nothing to do with the other.”
District attorneys on Wednesday submitted a written action to the DNA difficulty and stated they will react to the movement for different trials later on. Heuermann’s next court date is Feb. 18.
DNA arises from hair strands discovered at a few of the criminal activity scenes are amongst the essential pieces of proof district attorneys have actually advanced in the event.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has actually kept the DNA science is sound which his workplace will oppose different trials.
In their Wednesday filing, district attorneys argued that the “entire genome sequencing” method used in the event has actually been accepted in peer-reviewed clinical journals and by federal regulators, paleontologists, virologists, and medical neighborhoods.
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The findings by Astrea Forensics, a California laboratory, were likewise separately substantiated by mitochondrial DNA screening, an approach long accepted by New York courts, district attorneys stated.
Entire genome sequencing “makes it possible for more detailed collection and assessment of DNA,” district attorneys composed. It is “so commonly utilized for clinical, medical, and forensic functions, it would appear there is little concern regarding whether it has actually been accepted in the pertinent clinical neighborhood.”
District attorneys likewise state Heuermann kept a “plan” of his supposed criminal offenses on his computer system that consisted of a series of lists with jobs to finish in the past, throughout and after the killings, along with useful lessons for “next time.”
