The suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, Rex Heuermann, kept dozens of illegally purchased guns in his Long Island home and should not be granted any access to the illicit firearms, prosecutors said.
Shortly after Heuermann was arrested July 13, police found a cache of weapons at his home in the Nassau County community of Massapequa Park — firearms that have since been deemed to have been illegally purchased, according to a court filing by Suffolk County prosecutors.
Several “of the firearms seized were apparently illegally purchased,” Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Opisso wrote in court papers filed this week. The collection of guns include “at least 26 unregistered handguns, 15 unregistered assault weapons and 10 high-capacity magazines” in violation of state law, he added.
The 59-year-old Heuermann claims to have a “continued financial interest” in those guns and has “requested that the firearms be returned to him,” in a request the district attorney opposes, according to Opisso.
Heuermann, an architect who worked in Manhattan, has until Oct. 25 to respond before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro is expected to rule, prosecutors said.
The suspect’s attorney could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27.
He’s also a suspect in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, with prosecutors saying they could still tie Heuermann to other unsolved murders. Brainard-Barnes was 25 when she disappeared in 2007 and her remains were found near Gilgo Beach in late 2010.
The women have been called the “Gilgo Four,” in reference to Gilgo Beach, along the southern shore of Long Island, where other bodies have been discovered.
