Lawyers for Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann get more evidence from prosecutors
The team prosecuting suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann shared with his lawyers lab reports and disclosures focused on 388 leads detectives were investigating.
Heuermann appeared in court Wednesday with his lawyers, who despite the shared information, said they have not received all the evidence they are entitled to.
But Suffolk County DA Raymond Tierney said there is a mountain of material, and that it is hard to turn it all over in a timely fashion.
“We’re talking about a tremendous amount of material,” Tierney said outside of court. “When you’re talking about terabytes upon terabytes upon terabytes of information it doesn’t happen overnight. It can’t. It’s impossible.”
Tierney said the material includes 6,000 pages of various background checks, and thousands of pages on persons of interest and missing persons investigations.
Heuermann, in a wrinkled gray suit, stood with his hands cuffed behind his back. His estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, watched from the gallery with her attorney Bob Macedonio next to her.
Large square sunglasses covered her eyes. Ellerup filed for divorce just days after his July 2023 arrest in the high-profile case.
Ellerup declined to comment on her way in and out of the courtroom.
Ellerup has said she didn’t think Heuermann was capable of the crimes.
“I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial,” Ellerup said in a statement last month. “I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt as we all deserve.”
In the statement, she said, “Nobody deserves to die in that manner.”
Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, said the defense team requested information from prosecutors related to an earlier investigation of another potential suspect. Prosecutors turned over these documents to Brown Wednesday morning.
As for Heuermann’s state of mind, Brown said his client is eager to get to trial.
“You have to remember he’s not with the general population. He’s isolated in one jail cell. He has no interaction with any other inmates,” Brown said.
“I see him as frequently as once a week. He wants to get to a trial. He maintained from the beginning of this case, and still maintains today, he is not the guy. He said that over and over.”
Heuermann, 59, was initially charged in July with the murders of three young sex workers, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.
This January, he was also charged with the murder of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Their bodies were found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, dumped along Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Judge Timothy Mazzei said he wants the pretrial phase to be done by July.
The next court date is June 18.
