RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge on Wednesday allowed DNA evidence obtained through advanced techniques into the forthcoming murder trial of Rex Heuermann, the man accused of being Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial killer.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei, in his 29-page ruling, concluded that experts presented by defense lawyers provided no “empirical proof to refute the validated empirical evidence“ presented by prosecutors and their expert witnesses during recent hearings and court filings.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said the decision marked a “significant step” in forensic DNA analysis. Prosecutors and experts have said it would be the first time advanced DNA analysis has been allowed as evidence in a New York court — and one of just a handful of such instances nationwide.
“We were able to prevail for one simple reason: The science was on our side,” Tierney said after the brief hearing in Riverhead court.
“This is where we are heading in terms of the science,” he continued. “It just mirrors all the other scientific fields that use this evidence. The criminal justice system caught up today.”
Heuermann’s attorney Michael Brown said he was disappointed in Mazzei’s decision and that his legal team has filed a new motion to get the DNA evidence excluded from trial.
He argues that evidence developed by Astrea Forensics, a California-based lab, violates state public health laws, which he said require that laboratories conducting tests used in criminal cases be licensed by the state.
“This is part of the process,” Brown said. “We fight for our client.”
Tierney responded that he’s not convinced the defense’s latest argument applies as prosecutors worked with the FBI and followed national standards on DNA testing.
Mazzei said he’ll rule on the defense’s latest motion, as well as their pending into multiple trials, at a hearing on Sept. 23.
No trial date has been set. Heuermann appeared in court Wednesday but didn’t appear to react to the proceedings.
The 61-year-old Manhattan architect, who was arrested more than two years ago, has been charged in the deaths of seven women in a series of killings that prosecutors say stretched back
Most of the women were sex workers whose remains were discovered along an isolated parkway not far from Gilgo Beach and Heuermann’s home in Massapequa.
Prosecutors say DNA analysis conducted by two separate labs using different testing methods strongly links Heuermann to the killings that haunted the New York City suburbs for years.
Mazzei’s decision pertained only to the analysis conducted by Astrea Forensics, which used whole genome sequencing to analyze highly degraded hair fragments recovered from some of the victims’ remains.
Heuermann’s lawyers argued the lab’s calculations exaggerate the likelihood that the hairs match their client’s DNA. They also complained the statistical analysis Astrea conducted was improperly based on the , an open-source database containing the full DNA sequence of some 2,500 people worldwide.
But prosecutors dismissed the critique as “misguided” and a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the lab’s methods. Mazzei, in his ruling, agreed, calling the defense arguments “flawed.”
Whole genome sequencing allow scientists to map out the entire genetic sequence, or genome, of a person using the slimmest of DNA material.
While it is relatively rare in criminal forensics, the technique has been used in a wide range of scientific and medical breakthroughs for years, including the mapping of that earned a Nobel Prize in 2022.
Prosecutors and experts say whole genome sequencing has the potential to allow researchers to generate a DNA profile of a suspect in instances where long accepted DNA techniques fall short, such as when a sample is very old or highly degraded, as is the case with the hair fragments found on the Gilgo Beach victims.
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