Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann asks for multiple trials in killings of seven women

Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann wants numerous different trials for the seven women he’s charged with murdering, claiming he could be unfairly convicted due to a “cumulative effect.”

Lawyers for Heuermann argued in court papers Wednesday that the initial three women he’s charged with murdering should not be tried at the same time as the four women he was later also charged with slaying, according to Newsday.

In fact, they want separate trials for each of the latest four murders he”s charged with — Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costillo.

“Much of the evidence will involve lengthy testimony, multiple exhibits and be of a technical nature,” Heuermann lawyer Sabato Caponi wrote in the filing. “A trial encompassing all 10 counts would unjustifiably create a strong risk that the jury will be unable to segregate the evidence by its separate and distinct relevance to each individual incident.”

Also, the cases of the seven women are too different — with the deaths having occurred between 1993 to 2010 and with there being a “substantial disparity” between the evidence in the cases, Caponi argued.

The office of the Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has previously said it would fight any efforts to break the case into multiple trials.

Heuermann, the 61-year-old former architect of Massapequa Park, was first charged with first- and second-degree murder for the 2009 and 2010 deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman in July 2023.

Additional charges were added in 2024 for the murders of the four other women.

Heuermann — a married father of two — pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Barthelemy, Costello, Waterman and Mack’s remains were all found wrapped in burlap along Gilgo Beach — forming the basis for the so-called “Gilgo Four.”

A years-long investigation was launched after 10 sets of human remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway along the Beach. All of Heuermann’s victims were among those remains, except for Costillo’s who was killed in 1993 with her body found by the North Sea, on Long Island.

Heuermann — who is behind bars pending trial — is due back in court on Jan. 29.