It’s one other Amityville horror.
A killer couple who hacked their roommates to items with meat cleavers formally dodged life sentences Tuesday in a Lengthy Island courtroom after they blamed the victims’ abuse for the grisly crime.
Jeffrey Mackey, 40, obtained 22 years in jail, whereas his girlfriend Alexis Nieves, 35, landed 11 years below the phrases of a unprecedented plea deal struck in November.
The pair efficiently contended they suffered abuse by the hands of Malcolm Craig Brown, 53, and his spouse Donna Conneely, 59 — making them eligible for lighter sentences after they confessed to murdering and chopping up the couple of their shared Amityville house in 2024.
“We’re glad with the sentencing given our limitations below the legislation,” stated Ray Tierney, district legal professional for Suffolk County, in an announcement.
Tierney famous the state’s Home Violence Survivors Justice Act mandates decreased jail sentences for any defendant who suffered “abuse.”
“And as far as the defendants suffered such abuse as outlined below the DVSJA, the sentences had been substantial, however the absurdities of New York State’s defendant-friendly sentencing construction,” he stated.
The abuse accusation added a sickening wrinkle to the case, which gripped Lengthy Islanders when the severed heads and limbs of Brown and Conneely had been discovered scattered throughout Suffolk County over a grim week in early 2024.
The dismembered our bodies fashioned a path of proof that finally introduced Suffolk County police to a sleepy Railroad Avenue house within the shadow of a State Route 110 overpass.
Brown and Conneely, who hailed from Yonkers, had just lately moved into the house with Mackey and Nieves — one other Westchester County pair.
The scenario within the house soured, resulting in a ugly Feb. 27, 2024 altercation wherein Nieves smashed Conneely within the head with a meat tenderizer — and kicked her as she choked on her personal blood — whereas Mackey fatally stabbed Brown.
A 3rd couple who lived within the house — Brown’s cousin Steven Brown, 46 and Amanda Wallace, 42 — then helped reduce up the our bodies with meat cleavers, leaving drains, bogs, sinks and showers choked with blood.
Steven Brown and Amanda Wallace finally pleaded responsible to felony fees related to dumping the stays.
Mackey and Nieves adopted swimsuit, respectively copping to second-degree homicide and manslaughter pleas.
A still-sealed forensic psychiatric report in the end detailed the abuse Mackay allegedly endured from Malcolm Brown, Lohud reported.
“I actually want none of this ever occurred. That I by no means met them. That they’d each nonetheless be alive,” Mackey stated throughout his sentencing, in keeping with the report.
