Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann will stand one trial for the alleged killings of seven women – with DNA evidence playing the central role – a New York judge ruled on Tuesday in a major victory for the prosecution.
State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei announced in a Riverhead courtroom that the highly anticipated trial will move forward as a single trial, a blow to the defense, which wanted five separate trials.
“We wanted one and that’s what we got,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters after the ruling.
Judge Mazzei also reaffirmed that prosecutors may use nuclear DNA evidence to tie Heuermann to the victims, rejecting a final push by the defense to have the evidence excluded and the cases split into multiple trials.
The DNA ruling is also a major victory for Tierney, whose case against the 62-year-old Massapequa Park architect hinges largely on forensic science.
“If I wasn’t confident in this case I would’ve never brought it to trial,” Tierney said.
Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 after a decade-long investigation into the infamous Gilgo Beach murders.
He is accused of killing seven women – the Gilgo Four – Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, as well as Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack.
Their remains were discovered along desolate stretches of Ocean Parkway, Manorville and North Sea between 1993 and 2010.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty.
Defense attorneys had argued that the killings were too different – spanning 17 years, involving varied methods and occurring in separate locations – to be tried together.
They also attacked the credibility of DNA evidence processed by Astrea Labs, claiming the California-based facility lacked the proper New York State Department of Health permits.
But Mazzei was not persuaded. He ruled earlier this month, and reaffirmed Tuesday, that the lab’s work was admissible.
Prosecutors described the defense’s objections as an “11th-hour attempt” to suppress key evidence. The judge also set a January 13 deadline for additional pretrial motions.
Tierney’s office has indicated it will present an enormous case at trial, calling more than 100 witnesses from 15 states and introducing some 6.5 million documents.
The Gilgo Beach investigation haunted Suffolk County for more than a decade, beginning in December 2010 when police searching for a missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, stumbled upon human remains near the barrier island.
The case gained momentum after former NYPD chief Rodney Harrison took over as Suffolk police commissioner and reopened the probe, leading to Heuermann’s arrest outside his architecture firm in Manhattan last year.
Since then, Heuermann has been held without bail.
His defense team continues to insist the DNA linking him to the women is unreliable, with attorney Michael Brown dismissing the prosecution’s case as built on “magic.”
A trial date has not been set but Brown told reporters on Tuesday that he and attorney Danielle Coysh now “guess-timate” the trial won’t start until late 2026.
