Rex Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, Long Island, N.Y., will serve multiple life sentences for the murders of seven women. Photo courtesy of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office
Rex Heuermann, who pleaded guilty in April to the murders of seven women in Long Island, N.Y., and admitted to one more, was given multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole Wednesday.
Judge Timothy P. Mazzei asked if Heuermann was sorry for what he did. “Yes, I am,” Heuermann replied.
“You are a disgusting, despicable and small man, and you are a coward,” Mazzei said before announcing Heuermann’s life sentences, which he will serve concurrently without parole.
“Get him out of here,” Mazzei said, causing an eruption of cheers in the courtroom.
Heuermann, 62, admitted to the murders as part of a plea agreement.
Heuermann had pleaded not guilty to killing the women and dumping their bodies near Gilgo Beach on Long Island but changed his plea. He also admitted that he intentionally caused the death of Karen Vergata, 34, of Manhattan, and left her remains.
The sentence capped a hearing full of anguish from the family members of victims who delivered victim impact statements.
Melissa Cann, sister of victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes, sobbed as she said her sister was “not just murdered, she was the victim of a predator and a serial killer so evil, it has been unbearable,” NBC News reported.
“You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women behind a mask, a man without empathy, without a soul, who hunted, tortured and murdered women,” Cann said.
Amanda Funderburg, sister of victim Melissa Barthelemy, described her sister as “kind-hearted, told you like it was, ambitious and an amazing role model.”
She told Heuermann, “Several times you called me using my sister’s phone and you said raped her. I was 15. I know you don’t care; you robbed me of my youth,” Pix11-TV News reported.
“I hope you take a spot in hell,” Funderburg said. “Because I will see you there.”
Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of Jessica Taylor said the details of the case were hard to understand.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around the word ‘torso.’ Headless and handless, it’s a chopped‑up body,” she said. “Monstrous. Brutal. They didn’t find all of her. That weekend, she was supposed to come home, she never picked up the phone. Because of you.”
Mazzei asked Heuermann if he wanted to speak.
“There are no words I can say,” Heuermann said. “The words I would say have no meaning.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney asked the judge for the maximum sentence and said that Heuermann’s “character, or lack thereof, cry out for the maximum.”
“There is no doubt he is sorry. He is sorry. He is sorry he got caught,” Tierney said.
All the women slain were believed to have been sex workers.
There were 11 bodies found between 2010 and 2011, but police don’t believe Heuermann committed all 11.
Heuermann is an architect who was married with children at the time. He was arrested in 2023 and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The other four charges came later.
Heuermann was first charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Costello, 27. Barthelemy was reported missing in 2009, and Waterman and Costello went missing in 2010.
In 2024, he was charged with killing four more: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Jessica Taylor, 20; Sandra Costilla, 28; and Valerie Mack, 24. Brainard-Barnes disappeared in 2007, Taylor went missing in 2003, and Mack in 2000. Costilla’s remains were found in a wooded area in Southampton in 1993.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about restoring commercial fishing access to areas of the Pacific during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI | License Photo
