On February 29, human remains were found in Babylon Park. Over the next few days, more remains emerged in other locations. It was determined that the various body parts that had been scattered by unknown perpetrators belonged to a man and a woman.
On March 6, Suffolk County Police homicide squad detectives arrested and charged Steven Brown, 44, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, and Amanda Wallace, 40, all of 25 Railroad Ave., in Amityville, and Alexis Nieves, 33, who is without a known residence, with first-degree hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence and concealment of a human corpse, police said. The four were placed on supervised release with GPS monitoring, will have to report to probation in person, and in addition, had to surrender their passports, officials said. They were released without bail, and they were not charged with murder.
The public was outraged that the arrested foursome, strong suspects for having carried out the heinous crime, were released with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. A feud erupted between Governor Hochul and Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney over who was to blame for such lax charges and the release of the suspects.
“It is our understanding that the Suffolk County Police Department is still investigating these murders,” Tierney said. “Unfortunately, due to ‘bail reform’ passed by the New York State Legislature in 2019, charges relating to the mutilation and disposal of murdered corpses are no longer bail-eligible, meaning my prosecutors cannot ask for bail.”
Tierney went on to blame the system, saying, “This is yet another absurd result thanks to ‘bail reform’ and a system where the Legislature in Albany substitutes their judgment for the judgment of our judges and the litigants in court. We will work with the Suffolk County Police Department to resolve this investigation as soon as possible and implore our Legislature to make common sense fixes to this law.”
Hochul rebutted by accusing Tierney of not doing his job—to find more evidence of murder. But Tierney fired back, saying, “Governor Hochul is either completely clueless or being deceitful about how the criminal justice system works”.
Now lawmakers, as outraged as the public, are demanding changes in the laws that allowed such a travesty to occur. New York State Senators Anthony Palumbo and Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, along with New York State Assemblyman Mike Durso and members of the Senate and Assembly Republican Conferences announced the introduction of legislation that would toughen up what they called “New York’s notoriously flawed bail laws.”
The newly proposed bills would make the crime of body dismemberment/concealment of a human corpse a bail eligible class E felony; and would strengthen the use of electronic location monitoring, the lawmakers said.
Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, of the 9th Senate District, stated, “We must address the glaring gaps in our bail laws that allow individuals suspected of heinous crimes to walk free without appropriate safeguards. While New York’s bail reforms still need a comprehensive overhaul, this horrific case in Babylon underscores yet another glaring loophole in the law that needs to be corrected immediately. Members of the community should not have to fear that those credibly suspected of such depraved acts may be released back into the community with no way to monitor them.”
And Assemblyman Mike Durso concurred. “To have to explain to members of the Babylon community, my constituents, that those suspected of chopping up a human being can be arrested and just walk free is horrifying,”
