(6 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Riverhead, New York – 6 June 2024
1. Attorney Michael Brown greeting reporter
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Brown, attorney for Rex Heuermann:
"He’s obviously horrified by new charges, new murder allegations. We didn’t have much of a conversation, but new charges are always horrific and yeah, he’s in a bad place in terms of the new charges."
++BLACK FRAMES ++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Brown, attorney for Rex Heuermann:
"Most people assume, and I think rightfully so from a criminology standpoint, that the M.O. would be the same. So you have burlap bags, you have Gilgo, you have, a 2 or 3 year period. You have prostitutes. Now the allegation is it’s obviously expanded tremendously. Now you’re talking about – any murder is horrific – but the way in which they claim the murders occurred were horrific. You have 20 years prior, you have a completely different location. You have dismembered bodies is the allegation. So so it definitely changes the dynamics. It’s inconsistent with the initial theory. I’d like to see the evidence that they have in terms of establishing it."
++BLACK FRAMES ++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Brown, attorney for Rex Heuermann:
"Again, any one murder is a tremendous amount of discovery. Now you’ve just added two more to the fray. And by adding two more to the fray, what we asked for in chambers this morning is we want (John) Bittrolff files now, too, because Bittrolff was, he is a convicted murderer in this county. His M.O. is exactly what the Costilla M.O. is. And quite frankly, the police department and the district attorney’s office all had the finger pointed at Bittrolff, for that murder. So we want to look at the Bittrolff murders as well."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
The New York architect previously accused of killing four women and leaving their corpses scattered along a coastal highway was charged Thursday in the deaths of two more, after prosecutors said they gathered new DNA evidence and found a planning document he had used to “blueprint” his crimes.
Rex Heuermann, 60, appeared before a judge on the eastern end of Long Island to face charges that he killed Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, two young women who were long suspected of being the victims of men preying on sex workers.
"He’s obviously horrified by new charges, attorney Michael Brown said. " He’s in a bad place in terms of the new charges."
Taylor disappeared in 2003. Costilla was killed in 1993. The new charges came just days after police finished extensive searches of Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home and a wooded area on Long Island tied to the investigation of a string of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings.
In a court filing, prosecutors said they were able to use new forensic testing methods to match hairs found on or near the vicinity of both victims to a DNA profile that is a likely match to Heuermann. Additionally, prosecutors say they recovered a “planning document” on a hard drive in his basement used to “methodically blueprint” his killings.
A decade ago, Suffolk County prosecutors said publicly that they believed Costilla had been killed by a carpenter who lived in the area, John Bittrolff, who was convicted of murdering two other women whose bodies had been found on the same part of Long Island.
But Bittrolff was never charged with Costilla’s death due to lack of evidence. He insists he is innocent of any murders.
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/9a9ed276e9ac4672baa1565fcb8ce70d
