NEW YORK (AP) — The New York architect going through homicide prices in a string of deaths referred to as the Gilgo Seashore killings is difficult the DNA proof towards him and searching for separate trials within the sprawling case.
Rex Heuermann’s legal professionals argue DNA evaluation relied on by prosecutors shouldn’t be broadly accepted within the scientific neighborhood and ought to be excluded from the trial. The Lengthy Island resident’s protection staff additionally desires to interrupt out the case towards him into a number of trials.
Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of not less than 10 folks — largely feminine intercourse employees — whose stays have been found alongside an remoted freeway not removed from Gilgo Seashore on Lengthy Island’s south shore.
Heuermann was arrested in 2023 and charged within the deaths of three of the victims between 2009 and 2010: Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Megan Waterman.
Whereas in custody, he was subsequently charged within the deaths of Valerie Mack in 2000, Jessica Taylor in 2003, Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007 and Sandra Costilla in 1993.
Huermann has maintained his innocence and pleaded not responsible to all counts.
Michael Brown, Heuermann’s lawyer, mentioned following a Wednesday court docket listening to that his shopper dangers being improperly convicted due to the “cumulative effect” of the proof put ahead by prosecutors.
He additionally argued there’s a “substantial disparity” within the proof within the a number of the deaths, which he maintained includes completely different time frames, killing strategies and places for disposing the our bodies.
“The danger of having count after count, victim after victim in the same trial is that ‘If there’s smoke, there’s fire’ mentality,” Brown mentioned. “They shouldn’t be tried together. One issue has nothing to do with the other.”
Prosecutors on Wednesday filed a written response to the DNA problem and mentioned they are going to reply to the movement for separate trials later. Heuermann’s subsequent court docket date is Feb. 18.
DNA outcomes from hair strands discovered at a number of the crime scenes are among the many key items of proof prosecutors have put ahead within the case.
Suffolk County District Legal professional Ray Tierney has maintained the DNA science is sound and that his workplace will oppose separate trials.
Of their Wednesday submitting, prosecutors argued that the “whole genome sequencing” method utilized within the case has been accepted in peer-reviewed scientific journals and by federal regulators, paleontologists, virologists, and medical communities.
The findings by Astrea Forensics, a California lab, have been additionally independently corroborated by mitochondrial DNA testing, a technique lengthy accepted by New York courts, prosecutors mentioned.
Complete genome sequencing “enables more comprehensive collection and evaluation of DNA,” prosecutors wrote. It’s “so widely used for scientific, medical, and forensic purposes, it would seem there is little question as to whether it has been accepted in the relevant scientific community.”
Prosecutors additionally say Heuermann saved a “blueprint” of his alleged crimes on his pc that included a sequence of checklists with duties to finish earlier than, throughout and after the killings, in addition to sensible classes for “next time.”