A scheduled status conference in the case of the Manhattan architect accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer has been postponed for two weeks to give prosecutors time to respond to a motion the defense made last week to exclude DNA results on some evidence.
Rex Heuermann, charged with killing seven women, was to appear in court on Wednesday, but that conference has been pushed out to January 29, when Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei is expected to schedule a hearing on the defense motion to exclude testimony related to tests conducted on rootless hairs found at six of the crime scenes, Newsday reported.
The defense contends that the testing done by the California laboratory has been been generally accepted as reliable. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney noted that the case is the first to use the techniques of Astrea Forensics in New York, but he said that prosecutors believe in the “efficacy and admissability” of the evidence and are “prepared to defend it.”
Tierney has called the work done by te lab a “key component” to the case, while the defense argues that the methods they used are “fundamentally different” from those used in other labs for the past 30 years.
Prosecutors say the lab linked hairs found at with the bodies of Sandra Costilla, Megan Waterman, and Jessica Taylor link to Heuermann, while hairs found with the bodies of Maureen Brainard Barnes, Amber Costello, and Valerie Mack linked to Heuermann’s wives and daughter and were likely transferred from another surface during the murders.
Evidence linking Heuermann to the seventh victim, Melissa Barthelemy, does not include DNA.
Mazzei has said he intends to scheduled the hearing in late February or early March.
