Rex Heuermann / Gilgo Beach Case

A New York judge overseeing the Gilgo Beach serial murder case sharply warned alleged killer Rex Heuermann’s defense team that the trial will start after Labor Day "come hell or high water" despite a fresh wave of pretrial motions. At a Tuesday hearing in Suffolk County Court, Judge Tim Mazzei expressed frustration after defense attorney Michael Brown filed a new stack of motions late Monday challenging roughly 20 search warrants and seeking to suppress DNA evidence drawn from a discarded pizza crust and an energy drink can, arguing such trash searches gut the Fourth Amendment. Mazzei previously ruled in September that prosecutors can use the DNA evidence, and Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney reiterated his office will not consider a plea deal and is ready for trial. Tierney also said he does not believe Brown is intentionally stalling, calling the barrage of suppression challenges "the nature of the business" in a case where Heuermann is accused of killing seven sex workers whose bodies were found along Long Island between 1993 and 2010. The judge’s firm trial deadline and the defense’s renewed attack on warrant and DNA collection methods set the stage for a major evidentiary fight in one of the country’s most closely watched serial‑murder prosecutions.