New York police find meat cleavers in bloody home after group ambushes couple and scatters remains: indictment
Two men and two women in a suburb east of New York City have been indicted in connection with the ambush murder of a Yonkers couple who they allegedly chopped up before scattering the remains across two parks and a wooded area before a child stumbled upon a severed arm.
The four suspects, Jeffrey Mackey, 36, Alexis Nieves, 33, Steven Brown, 44, and Amanda Wallace, 40, stand accused of luring Malcom Brown, 53, and Donna Conneely, 59, to a house in Amityville and stabbing them to death inside on Feb. 27.
The four allegedly cut the victims to pieces in a bathroom and tossed their remains at Southards Pond Park, Bethpage State Park and a stretch of woods in West Babylon.
LONG ISLAND BODY PARTS SUSPECTS FREED AGAIN UNDER NEW YORK BAIL RULES
Investigators searching the home found blood throughout the residence, two meat cleavers and other large knives, prosecutors said.
The victims' family members told reporters outside the Suffolk County Courthouse in March that the two Browns were cousins. But prosecutors allege he and his friends plotted to kill the couple anyway.
A child soon uncovered a severed arm in a park on her way home from school, and police recovered other pieces of the victims in other places.
The four Long Island body parts suspects were arrested on March 4 and released without having to post bail on lesser charges under New York law, prompting outrage.
Under New York's bail reform laws, passed in 2019, charges of merely chopping up and disposing of dead bodies aren't eligible for bail, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who skewered the state's bail reform laws and demanded they be changed.
"I would like to thank the hard-working men and women of the Suffolk County Police Department and my prosecutors for their tireless work in bringing this investigation to the point where we are able to charge the responsible individuals with murder and seek bail," he said Monday after the indictments on more serious charges were unsealed. "Those in law enforcement must do their jobs without fear or favor. Ethically, charges can and should only be brought when the facts and evidence are clear. I thank the team for ignoring the distractions and doing just that."
After their arraignments on the new indictment Monday, a judge ordered Mackey held without bail. The judge set bail for Nieves at $1 million cash or $10 million bond.
Those two each face murder charges and are due back in court on June 3.
Days after the initial arrests, police took Wallace into custody again for allegedly stealing makeup from a CVS store, and a judge was able to set bail.
She and Brown, who had not yet been booked into the county jail, were due back in court Tuesday.
Other charges against the group include conspiracy, evidence tampering and concealment of a corpse.
The house where the suspects were staying is just 4 miles from the infamous "Amityville Horror" house where Ronald DeFeo Jr. slaughtered his own family inside their pristine colonial home in 1974.