Judge allows advanced DNA evidence in Gilgo Beach serial killing trial

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge on Wednesday allowed DNA evidence obtained through advanced techniques into the forthcoming murder trial of the man accused of being Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial killer.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei made the decision Wednesday but didn’t explain the ruling at a brief hearing in Riverhead court in the case against Rex Heuermann.

He set another court date of Sept. 23, noting the defense has notified the court that it intends to file another motion in the case, before adjourning.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said simply “we won.” He was expected to address reporters later.

The 61-year-old Manhattan architect has been charged in the deaths of seven women in a series of killings that prosecutors say stretched back at least to 1993.

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.

Experts say the decision marks the first time such techniques are allowed as evidence in a New York court — and one of just a handful of such instances nationwide.

Mazzei’s decision pertained to DNA analysis generated by Astrea Forensics, a California lab known for using new techniques to analyze old, highly degraded DNA samples.

Prosecutors say Astrea’s whole genome sequencing analysis, combined with other evidence, overwhelmingly implicates Heuermann as the killer in the brutal deaths that have haunted the New York City suburb for years.

But Heuermann’s lawyers argued the lab’s calculations exaggerate the likelihood that the hairs recovered from the burial sites match their client’s DNA.

They complained the statistical analysis Astrea conducted was improperly based on the 1,000 Genomes Project, an open-source database containing the full DNA sequence of some 2,500 people worldwide.

Prosecutors dismissed the critique as “misguided” and a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the lab’s methods.

They also noted that a separate DNA analysis, completed by another crime lab using traditional methods long accepted in New York courts, also convincingly link hairs found on some victims to either Heuermann or members of his family.

Heuermann was arrested more than two years ago but has yet to be given a trial date as he remains in custody in Riverhead.

Whole genome sequencing allows 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 the Neanderthal genome 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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