What happened at the second DNA hearing for Rex Heuermann, accused Gilgo Beach killer

The second day of hearings to determine the validity of DNA found at six of the crime scenes involving accused Gilgo Beach killer, Rex Heuermann took place on April 2 in Riverhead.

Heuermann was back in front of State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei for the second time in less than a week for the continuation of a Frye hearing, a legal procedure used to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence in court. The standard for proof in these hearings specifically focuses on whether the science used to generate the evidence is "generally accepted" by the relevant scientific community. 

For this hearing, the state relied on the testimony of Nicole Novroski, the Associate Director at the Center for Human Identification for the University of North Texas. 

Novroski explained some of the history and current uses of genome sequencing. To underscore her argument, Novroksi brought a 39-slide PowerPoint that contained several scientific charts and analysis of single nucleotide polymorphism and whole genome sequencing. At one point during her presentation, prosecutors played a clip for the judge from the first “Jurassic Park” movie that was released in 1993.

The scene, which illustrates how dinosaur DNA from a mosquito preserved inside amber was the building blocks to be used to bring back the animals that have been extinct for over 66 million years, was included to underscore her argument that DNA sequencing is not new and has been verified “thousands of times” by people in the scientific community.

Heuermann’s defense attorney Michael Brown said that characters in Jurassic Park “thought they had good science” but “the dinosaurs ended up eating everyone.” He reiterated his claims from the first hearing that the science was not real and likened it to “magic.”

Novroski touted the accuracy and reliability of the science repeatedly saying that the science has been around for decades and is widely used throughout numerous scientific fields, adding that “I don’t believe there is a field that doesn’t rely on it.”

Heuermann’s defense has insisted that DNA tests conducted by Astrea Forensics on hairs recovered from most of the seven victims in the case should be excluded from the trial, arguing the California-based lab’s method has never been accepted in a New York court of law.

At the first hearing on March 28 the prosecution called Kelley Harris, a University of Washington professor and population geneticist, as their first witness. 

Heuermann, an architect who lives in Massapequa Park, was arrested in 2023 and charged in the deaths of three of the victims between 2009 and 2010. 

He now stands charged with the murders of seven people: Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has maintained his innocence since his arrest.

No trial date has been set for the case, which spans decades of killings on Long Island, and has been the subject of a three-episode documentary on Netflix titled "Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer.”

The series looks at the course of the investigation that led to the architect’s arrest and contains exclusive interviews with family members of the alleged victims known as the "Gilgo Four" and one member of his own family.

The proceedings will continue on April 3, as other experts are expected to testify before Mazzei makes his decision. 

This is a developing story.