Alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann has maintained his innocence since he was first arrested in July 2023 — but some are speculating that he will reverse course and plead guilty as soon as this week.
If Heuermann pleads guilty, it would “spare the seven victims’ families of listening to the horrific nature of these allegations,” said Bob Macedonio, lawyer for Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter, Victoria Heuermann, who both stood next to him as he spoke to reporters inside the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead on Sep. 23.
“And you also have Rex Heuermann’s family that could be spared of listening to these allegations,” he continued. “But that’s a decision that would be made by Mr. Heuermann and Mr. Tierney’s (the prosecutor’s) office.”
Rumors that Heuermann will plead guilty are still only speculation, Macedonio said. But he is confident of one thing — even if Heuermann does plead guilty, there will be no plea bargain.
“What could you possibly offer someone that’s accused of seven homicides?” he asked. “It’s not the nature of a grand larceny or a robbery case where you can lighten the sentence.
“There’s going to be no plea bargain, I can assure you that.”
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From their arrival in the courthouse parking lot to their departure after the hearing, Victoria Heuermann, Asa Ellerup and Macedonio were followed closely by a camera crew from NBC Universal. A producer instructed them on where to stand and when to walk, calling “action” when they were situated. A sequel to the Peacock documentary “House of Secrets,” in which Victoria Heuermann said she believes her father Rex is the Gilgo Beach killer, may be in the works.
The court session saw Judge Timothy Mazzei deny two more motions from Heuermann’s defense team, led by attorney Michael Brown. The first argued that the nuclear DNA evidence linking Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders — which Mazzei ruled admissible on Sep. 3 following a lengthy pre-trial hearing — violated a state health law when it was sent to California-based Astra Labs.
The second sought to have Heuermann tried in five separate trials for the seven murders he is linked with: one for Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello; and one each for Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costillo, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The seven murders are “inextricably interwoven,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who is leading the prosecution against alleged Gilgo Beach killer Heuermann.
Mazzei’s rulings mark two more losses for Heuermann’s defense, which has had each of its motions denied since the case began in 2023. That isn’t out of the norm for such a case, Tierney said. The prosecution losing even one motion could be “fatal to your case,” he told reporters.
The losing streak hasn’t slowed down Heuermann’s lawyers, Brown and co-counsel Danielle Coysh. They plan on filing additional motions, including one that alleges that “some of the evidence that the prosecutor and the police department may have obtained was [done so] illegally,” Brown said. Another seeks to establish that insufficient evidence was presented to the grand jury to establish the charges Heuermann was indicted on, and should therefore be thrown out.
Mazzei’s ruling to admit the nuclear DNA evidence in the Gilgo Beach killer trial, however, did seem to catch the defense off guard.
“[Coysh] did a great job in the Frye hearing,” Brown said, and then paused.
“I thought we won the Frye hearing,” he admitted.
As the pre-trial hearings continue, Heuermann is having a difficult time behind bars, Brown said.
“This was an individual who was married,” he said. “He has children. He was working … So you take his custody away and his liberty, and he’s in a cell contemplating the rest of his life, maintaining his innocence, and wants his trial.
“So he’s doing the best he can until we get into that.
Mazzei set a Jan. 13 deadline for Heuermann’s defense to file additional motions. Brown doesn’t expect the trial to begin in earnest, he said, until at least late 2026.
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