Should DNA evidence be admissible in the trial of the Gilgo Beach serial killings suspect?
The question of whether DNA evidence can be used in the upcoming trial of a Manhattan architect charged in a string of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach killings is the focus of court hearings beginning Friday on Long Island.
Lawyers for Rex Heuermann want DNA tests conducted on hairs recovered from most of the seven victims in the case to be excluded from the trial, saying such analysis has never been accepted in a New York court of law.
But a genetics expert testifying in a pre-trial hearing in Riverhead court Friday said the DNA techniques used to analyze the hairs are widely accepted in the scientific community.
Dr. Kelley Harris, a University of Washington professor of genome sciences, described the type of testing used, known as nuclear DNA or 'whole genome sequencing,' as an 'elegant and powerful method' for testing whether hair fragments pulled from a crime scene match those taken from suspects.
Lawyers for Heuermann, who attended the proceedings, were expected to cross-examine Harris later Friday.
No ruling was expected Friday from Judge Timothy Mazzei, as other experts are expected to testify in the coming days.
Asa Ellerup, who reached a divorce settlement with Heuermann on Thursday, was also in court Friday, along with the couple's daughter and the family's lawyer.
No trial date has been set for the case, which spans decades of killings on Long Island.
Michael Brown, Heuermann's attorney, also wants to break the case into multiple trials over concerns about the 'cumulative effect' of the evidence presented by prosecutors.
Prosecutors have opposed that request and Mazzei is expected to rule on it soon.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney's office, which is prosecuting the case, has argued that whole genome sequencing has been accepted in peer-reviewed scientific journals and by federal regulators, paleontologists, virologists, and medical communities.
In legal briefs, they say the findings by Astrea Forensics, the California-based lab that conducted the nuclear DNA analysis, were also independently corroborated by another lab's mitochondrial DNA testing -- a methodology long accepted by New York courts.
Since late 2010, police on Long Island have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people — mostly female sex workers — whose remains were discovered along an isolated highway not far from Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann, who lives in nearby Massapequa Park, was arrested in 2023 and charged in the deaths of three of the victims between 2009 and 2010: Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Megan Waterman.
While in custody, he was subsequently charged in the deaths of four other women: Valerie Mack in 2000, Jessica Taylor in 2003, Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007 and Sandra Costilla in 1993.
Heuermann has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all counts.
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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
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