Thursday, October 1, 2026
Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Tim Mazzei ruled that accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann will face one trial for his seven alleged murders.
“We had faith in our arguments,” Heuermann’s court-appointed lawyer Michael Brown said after Mazzei’s written ruling on Sept. 23 at the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court in Riverhead.“We think we were right on the law,” Brown said, acknowledging that “it's up to the court to make that decision, Judge Mazzei didn't agree with us. We move forward.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney argued that due to the “inextricably interwoven,” nature surrounding the evidence of Heuermann’s alleged crime, the case had to be litigated as one trial.
“That's particularly applicable in this case,” he said. “The evidence needed to prove one charge can necessarily prove the other charges.”
Mazzei also ruled in favor of admitting nuclear DNA evidence at trial for a second time this month. Heuermann’s attorneys filed a motion following his initial decision to admit the nuclear DNA evidence, arguing that California-based Astrea Labs did not have proper state Department of Health permits.
Heuermann’s defense filed a motion to sever and to split the seven murders into as many as five separate trials in January. Tierney and Brown both emphasized again that Heuermann had not considered taking a plea deal.
Mazzei set a Jan. 13 deadline for both parties to return to Riverhead and for any additional pretrial motions to be filed. Brown indicated that they would be appealing the search warrants and the evidence presented to the grand jury.
“Several of the victims, the grand jury presentation is really bare bones,” Brown argued. “We don't believe that there's a reasonable cause, a probable cause, that was presented to the grand jury on two specific victims, at a minimum.”
Brown declined to share which victims they would be focusing on as well as when he anticipates the motions being filed, although he added that he was confident they would meet the January deadline.
Heurmann’s estranged wife, Asa, and daughter, Victoria Heuermann, attended the Sept. 23 hearing accompanied by their attorney, Robert Macedonio. Both declined to comment. Macedonio spoke for them.
“We are here,” he said, to see these proceedings play out in the courtroom. “Not in the media, not in the podcast-sphere she wants to see and hear for herself, as her daughter does any evidence of guilt that they may have against Rex.”
No trial date has been set for the case, which spans decades of killings on Long Island. Several true crime documentaries have been released about the Gilgo Beach murders, including "Gilgo Beach Killer: The House Of Secrets," which debuted on Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, on June 10 and features Macedonio, Asa, and Victoria.
A week prior to the premiere of the three-part documentary, Victoria "told the producers that based on publicly available facts that have been presented and explained to her, she now believes her father is most likely the Gilgo Beach killer," according to text flashed on the screen at the end of the series' third episode.
Heuermann, a 62-year-old who lives in Massapequa Park, now stands charged with the murders of seven people in total: Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has maintained his innocence since his July 2023 arrest.
