Four people were charged Wednesday with hiding pieces of two dead bodies that were hacked up with meat cleavers, then scattered across Long Island — but they were freed on supervised release in an “absurd result” blamed on the state’s bail reform laws.
The gruesome foursome allegedly tried to conceal the corpses in a scheme so grisly that the drains, toilets, sinks and showers stopped working in the Amityville home where three of the accused had just moved weeks earlier, prosecutors claimed in Suffolk County court.
Roommates Steven Brown, 44, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, and Amanda Wallace, 40, were charged alongside homeless woman Alexis Nieves, 33, for hindering prosecution, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence – but none of the four have yet been accused of murder, Suffolk police said.
They each pleaded not guilty and were released with ankle monitors as the crimes are not bail-eligible under New York state’s criminal justice reform laws.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney slammed the state’s bail laws in a statement just before the arraignment, saying his prosecutors couldn’t ask for cash bail because recent reforms declared the crimes of mutilation and disposal of a murdered person’s corpse were no longer eligible.
“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,” Tierney said in the Wednesday statement.
“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.”
Mackey is expected to face additional charges as the member of the team whose actions included “hacking off the limbs of two human bodies and scattering them in several areas in the county,” Assistant District Attorney Frank Schroeder said at Mackey’s arraignment.
Cops believe the remains belong to the same two victims, who police have described as a 59-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man, who lived at the same address in the city of Yonkers in Westchester County.
Authorities have not hinted at what the motive for the killings might be – or how the victims and the accused may have known each other.
Whatever led up to the deaths and hacking, the four allegedly removed “sharp instruments, multiple body parts and other related items” from the two-family house on Amitville’s Railroad Avenue between Feb. 27 – when the first remains were found by a child walking to school – and Monday, when cops raided the home, Suffolk police said.
Schroeder said authorities collected a heap of evidence including body parts, meat cleavers, butcher knives and a significant amount of blood.
“In disposing of the body, this defendant rendered the sink, showers, drains and toilets inoperable,” Schroeder told the court each time one of the four appeared to answer the charges.
“The barbaric lengths this defendant went to in disposing of these bodies should show the court the lengths this defendant would go to flee the prosecution of these charges.”
But despite the prosecutor’s attempts to paint the alleged butchers as flight risks, District Court Judge Edward Hennessey opted for supervised release.
“The court understands that it has a responsibility to release on recognizance unless this defendant is a risk to public safety,” District Court Judge Edward Hennessey said each time. “Cash bail is not available with current statutes.”
The court appearances came after a tumultuous week on the island’s south shore that began Feb. 29, when a girl walking to school with her friends first stumbled upon a severed arm near Babylon park.
Since then, police have found an assortment of body parts – including two severed heads – near the same park, in the West Babylon woods several miles away and in Bethpage State Park, police and sources have said.
Brown, Mackey and Wallace all are listed as residents of the Railroad Avenue horror house. Nieves moved in sometime during the last three weeks, Schroeder told the court.
Attorneys for the accused maintained their innocence after their arraignments.
“We’ll see what they claim is their evidence,” said Ira Weissman, attorney for Brown.
Mackey’s attorney John Halverson said his client maintains his innocence and plans to fight the charges “vigorously.”
“Because the district attorney and the police say it’s so, doesn’t mean it’s so,” Halverson said
Nieves and Mackey are due back in court March 8. Brown and Wallace are set to return on March 11.
