A judge on Wednesday scheduled hearings to hear arguments from lawyers who want accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to receive five separate trials.
Judge Timothy Mazzei will also hear from both sides to determine how much of the prosecution’s mountain of evidence against Heuermann will actually be admissible in court.
Heuermann, 62, appeared in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead Wednesday with his lawyers, who said they have not received all of the documents and materials from prosecutors and questioned the validity of DNA evidence against Heuermann.
Prosecutors assured the judge that materials had been turned over and that DNA evidence was consistent with new technology accepted within the scientific community.
“We say new technology. It’s not new technology,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “It’s used in all of our everyday lives. It’s used in medical forensic paleontology, identifying 9/11 remains. So we’re just applying this very effective, tried and true technology to the courtroom.”
Tierney also renewed his objections to dividing the case into several different trials.
“I think, if you look at intent, what was the intent?” Tierney said. “What was the alleged intent of this individual. And some of the evidence that we have in this case, I think the alleged intent of the evidence was clear with regard to all seven charged crimes.”
Heuermann was charged with a seventh count of murder just last month after prosecutors said they connected him to the death of Valerie Mack, 24, who was killed, dismembered and mutilated some time between Sept. 1 and Nov. 19, 2000, according to a superseding indictment.
A woman’s hair found on Mack’s remains was linked through DNA to Heuermann’s wife and daughter, indicating that the victim’s body was dismembered in the architect’s Massapequa Park, Nassau County, home, prosecutors allege.
Heuermann is charged with killing six other women whose remains were found on Long Island. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
In 2010 and 2011, the bodies of 11 people were found on or near Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said it is unfair to put everything under the umbrella of a single trial.
“Despite a judge’s instruction, it leads a jury to say, ‘You know what, there’s so much there. He may not be guilty of this, but maybe he’s guilty of that,’ Brown said. “And it’s what we call a cumulative effect. Each case has to be proved with the elements beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s the law, that’s the requirement, and that’s what the judge will tell the jury. The danger of having count after count, victim after victim in the same trial is that ‘smoke, there’s fire mentality.’ They shouldn’t be tried together.”
Mazzei set the next hearing date for Feb. 18.