Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann’s lawyer argues against admission of pizza crust evidence

NEW YORK — The attorney for accused serial killer Rex Heuermann wants to block prosecutors from collecting the Gilgo Beach suspect’s DNA, arguing authorities failed to establish probable cause in the triple-murder probe.

Defense lawyer Danielle Coysh, in the nine-page Monday filing, opposed the request for a cheek swab from the 59-year-old defendant while arguing the discarded pizza crust and napkin recovered by an FBI agent this past January were never linked to her client.

“The people essentially concede 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 a discarded pizza box,” she argued in the Suffolk County Supreme Court document.

“The people acknowledge that presently they can state nothing more than Rex A. Heuermann is purported to have used or touch those items.”

The Massapequa Park suspect was arrested July 13 outside his Manhattan office and charged with the cold-case murders of three sex workers in 2009 and 2010, ending a long and fruitless investigation into the killings.

Court documents filed last week showed the Suffolk district attorney’s office wanted an order allowing investigators to swab the inside of Heuermann’s cheeks to obtain the sample.

An accompanying prosecution affidavit said investigators obtained DNA samples from the pizza crust and used a napkin obtained from a trash can where the defendant tossed them. But the affidavit acknowledged more testing and samples are needed.

Another Heuermann attorney, after his Aug. 1 court appearance, said the defendant insisted on fighting the charges and declared his innocence. The accused killer arrived in handcuffs for the hearing, with a chain around his ankles.

The Monday filing on his behalf argued prosecutors acknowledged there was no direct link between the evidence and the defendant.

“By the people’s own admission, the nexus between the partially-eaten pizza crust and used napkin and the defendant ... is at best a matter of conjecture and assumption, not fact,” wrote Coysh.

The judge is expected to rule on the motion on Tuesday.