Judge Rules Gilgo Killings Suspect Must Give DNA Swab

RIVERHEAD, NY — A judge has granted a motion by prosecutors that orders suspect Rex Heuermann to submit to a cheek swab for DNA analysis, despite his defense attorney's opposition.

Attorney Danielle Coysh, defense attorney of Rex Heuermann, who is charged with six counts of murder in the deaths of three sex workers, wrote an opposition to a request by prosecutors on Monday, for a DNA swab from her client.

She argues the Suffolk County District Attorney failed to demonstrate probable cause that their client killed anyone, according to newly filed documents obtained by Fox News.

Heuermann pleaded not guilty last month in the deaths of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy. and Megan Waterman, whose remains were found in 2011 along Ocean Parkway.

Prosecutors want the sample to compare it to already obtained DNA evidence from a discarded pizza crust. But The defense filing said that prosecutors failed to show a direct connection between Heuermann and a pizza box law enforcement recovered outside his Manhattan office for evidence.

The DNA possibly belongs to someone else who happened to be eating pizza, Coysh wrote.

"The People (prosecutors) essentially concede that they have no evidence establishing that defendant Rex A. Heuermann actually ever came into contact with the pizza crust or the used napkin found in the discarded pizza box," Heuermann's court-appointed lawyer Danielle Coysh wrote.

However, in a document obtained by Patch on Wednesday, Judge Timothy Mazzei wrote that contrary to the defendant's contentions, there is probable cause to "believe that the defendant committed the crimes charged and, therefore, a basis to compel the buccal swab."

In Heuermann's bail application, Tierney wrote that FBI officials observed him eating the pizza and throwing it in a garbage bin on Fifth Avenue.

A swab taken from the pizza crust matched the DNA from the hair found in the burlap sacks that Barthelemy, Waterman, and Costello were strangled and stuffed in.

Heuermann is also a suspect of interest in the death of Maureen Brainard Barnes, 25, whose remains were also found in similar patterns with the other three sex workers.

Found within days of each other, they were known as the "Gilgo Four."

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who is prosecuting the case, presented a "tremendous amount" of evidence on four, two-terabyte hard drives and six CDs to Brown. The drives included thousands of pages of documents and video surveillance, Tierney said at a press conference.

Heuermann's next court appearance is Sept. 27.

Patch reached out to Coysh, and Tierney's office, as well as the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office for comment and more information.