ALLEGED Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was 𝒄𝒂𝓊𝓰𝒉𝓉 by surprise when he was apprehended by law enforcement officials outside his office in Midtown Manhattan.
After being surrounded by nearly a dozen undercover officers and taken into custody on July 13, 2023, a blindsided Heuermann repeatedly asked officials if they were making a mistake.
Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann (R) appears for his court hearing on TuesdayCredit: Getty
Heuermann’s defense team is seeking to dismiss the murder charge related to Sandra Costilla’s killingCredit: Family Handout
Rex Heuermann was arrested outside his office in Midtown Manhattan on July 13, 2023Credit: Getty
Law enforcement investigators conducted several searches at Rex Heuermann’s home in Massapequa on Long IslandCredit: AP
“What is this about?” Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect and married father of two from Massapequa in Nassau County on Long Island, asked FBI officials and officers with the Suffolk County Police Department.
Heuermann once again questioned, “What did I do?” before telling the arresting officers, “It’s a mistake.”
However, on the long, hour-and-a-half drive with detectives from Midtown Manhattan to the Suffolk County Police Headquarters in Yaphank, Heuermann appeared “calm.”
The new details regarding Heuermann’s statements to detectives, and his sudden demeanor shift, were disclosed in court documents filed by his defense attorney before his scheduled hearing on Tuesday.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Tim Mazzei emphatically informed prosecutors and defense attorney Michael Brown that Heuermann’s murder trial would “begin after Labor Day, come hell or high water.”
Heuermann is facing seven counts of murder for the grisly killings and dismemberments of Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello – the latter four collectively known as the Gilgo Four.
Mazzei’s blistering declaration came after Brown filed an extensive 178-page motion, where he asked the judge to suppress certain evidence from the jury, including Heuermann’s statements to detectives and court officers during his July 14, 2023 arraignment.
Brown’s filing shed new light into Heuermann’s first 24 hours in custody, where he apparently munched on French fries, onion rings, peanut butter crackers, and a Coca-Cola, and slept on a chair for over five hours ahead of his arraignment.
At his arraignment, a court officer informed Heuermann that a $6,000 watch he inquired about was “not among his personal property at the courthouse,” to which the defendant replied, “I guess I won’t be needing that.”
DEFENSE PUSHES BACK
Brown is looking to ban a potential jury from hearing his client’s statement, arguing it was “obtained in violation of Heuermann’s constitutional rights.”
“Said statements were involuntarily made and may not be used in evidence against the defendant,” Danielle Coysh, Heuermann’s other attorney, wrote in their filing.
Heuermann’s lead attorney, Brown, is also seeking to dismiss the second-degree murder charge related to the 1993 killing of Costilla.
Costilla, a 28-year-old native of Trinidad and Tobago, was described as a “drifter” and was living in New York at the time of her disappearance.
Her remains were uncovered in the woods in Southampton on November 20, 1993.
Costilla had numerous sharp force injuries to her face, torso, breasts, left thigh, and vaginal area.
Heuermann was linked to Costilla’s death after investigators said they had determined that a hair found on a striped rugby-style shirt, which was wrapped around her arms and pulled over her head, belonged to the defendant.
However, Brown, Heuermann’s lead attorney, dismissed the prosecution’s assumption, arguing, “the presence of a single hair on a shirt fails to establish” his clients caused Costilla’s death or that he “acted with the requisite intent.”
But prosecutors also argued in court filings that a second hair found at the crime scene where Costilla was found was “likely to have come from Heuermann’s former wife,” whom he was living with in 1993.
Prosecutors claim Heuermann allegedly killed and dismembered his victims when his second ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and his two children were always out of town on family trips.
In response to Judge Mazzei’s impatient remarks, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said his office was “ready” to move forward to trial.
“The judge was very 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓽, and we are ready,” Tierney told reporters after Heuermann’s court hearing.
The district attorney again refused to consider offering a plea deal to the alleged serial killer.