The 66-year-old Florida man accused of murder in a decades-long cold case long believed to be linked with the Gilgo Beach serial killings, has requested a second attorney for his defense.
Andrew Dykes, a resident of Ruskin, Florida, returned to Nassau County Court on Jan. 16 in front of Judge Tammy Robbins as his court-appointed defense attorney, Joseph LoPiccolo, filed a motion requesting a second counsel: criminal defense attorney Robert Schalk, for Dykes’s defense. Nassau prosecutors did not object. Schalk is a former Nassau County Assistant District Attorney and his current practice is based in Mineola.
Dykes pleaded not guilty to murdering Tanya Denise Jackson at the Nassau County Court House last month. In June 1997, parts of Jackson’s dismembered body were found in Hempstead Lake State Park. Her body was unidentifiable at the time and she was referred to as “Peaches” due to a heart-shaped peach tattoo located on her chest. Officials released Jackson’s identity last April.
In 2011 more of Jackson’s remains, along with the body of an unidentified child, were discovered buried alongside Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach during a search for victims of the Gilgo Beach serial killer. In 2016 DNA evidence linked Peaches to the body of Baby Doe as mother and daughter.
An American Army veteran and former Tennessee state trooper, Dykes is the father of Jackson’s daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes, who was also murdered. Her remains were found near Cedar Beach in 2011. Dykes and Jackson were not married at the time of the murders. His DNA was found at the crime scene via a vaginal swab on Jackson’s remains. Detectives in Florida tailed Dykes and recovered a discarded straw, which was found to be a match.
“The grand jury minutes point out that, unfortunately, she was killed, and she had a relationship with Mr. Dykes,” LoPiccolo acknowledged to reporters outside the courtroom, however, he also claimed that “it does not show anything that establishes that he caused her death.”
Representing the District Attorney’s Office were Assistant District Attorneys Daryl Levy and Ania Pulaski, they did not speak to the media after the hearing, and in an email the District Attorney’s Office said that it had no comment “beyond our statements made on the record,” during the proceedings.
Robbins addressed Dykes, dressed in a grey sweat suit and handcuffed behind his back, several questions asking if he understood the motions being filed. “Yes, your honor,” he answered each time. Robbins set a date of Feb. 25 for the next hearing in the case, both to rule on the motion for a second chair as well as to turn over more evidence to the defense. Dykes will not present in court for that meeting. Aundrey Dykes, his 43-year-old son who maintained his father’s innocence, was present for the proceedings.
