Which Piece Of Evidence Made Rex Heuermann Plead Guilty?

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers' half year in review. A look back at some of the most compelling cases of 2026 so far.
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:17)
A man charged with allegedly killing seven women across nearly two decades on Long Island is now expected to walk into a courtroom and plead guilty. After almost three years of maintaining his innocence after his defense, fought to throw out DNA, split the case into separate trials, dismiss a murder charge for insufficient evidence and point the finger at another convicted killer, Rex Heuermann reportedly has decided to stop fighting. The question nobody can stop asking is, why now? And whether this was always inevitable or whether the prosecution boxed him into a corner that he couldn't think his way out of. Joining me to discuss this new development in this horrific case, Eric Faddis, former prosecutor, defense attorney and of course, my co-host Robin Drake, retired FBI special agency for the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program for the FBI. Eric, let's start here. A man stands before court for nearly three years saying he did not do this and then reportedly decides to plead guilty to seven murders from someone who's sat on both sides of this. Eric, what exactly is happening inside of those conversations between Rex and his attorney that seems to have brought us to this?
Sure, Tony.

**Eric Faddis** (1:43)
So, you know, from the outset with a client, you kind of have a strategic plan. You're kind of like, hey, we're going to explore these defenses. We're going to assert these potential constitutional violations. We're going to file these motions and we're going to try to improve your legal position. But as the trial is looming and as it gets closer, reality starts to really kick in and the client, hopefully, kind of appreciates their exposure at that juncture.
And it's not uncommon for plea agreements to happen once trial is getting closer and people start to get freaked out.

**Robin Drake** (2:18)
So, Eric, what do you think he's pleading for on this one? I guess that's the huge question. You know, there's so many questions on this one. But, you know, inside New York, no death penalty. So it's not like the Kohbeger case where they're trying to leverage life, you know, for Kohbeger with a plea deal. So that's not in it.
And the son of Sam Law, I researched it, but you probably know this better than me. So I'm curious about your take on whether this impacted or not. So son of Sam Law says that he cannot profit from any proceeds from his story. But his family can according to the law. But it really depends, I guess, on what the judge says. Is that true? I mean, what do you think was the motivation?

**Eric Faddis** (2:55)
Yeah, good question. There could be certain provisions included within a plea agreement whereby Heuermann could not benefit in some form or fashion from selling his story to HBO or something like that. But yeah, what is his incentive? Because there's not death on the table. And usually the step down from that is life without the possibility of parole. I can't imagine that they're offering some sort of cap on prison time, like a cap of 40 years or something.
But then again, he might just be done and ready to resolve this and see the writing on the wall. But what are the benefits he might be trying to seek? Those are a little bit unclear. I don't know if it's prison placement. I don't know if it's something else.

**Robin Drake** (3:44)
Sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. Does the judge have the ability or does the court have the ability to do prison placement?

**Eric Faddis** (3:52)
It usually depends on the jurisdiction. Oftentimes not. Oftentimes it's up to the Bureau of Prisons.
But there are certain things that can be written into a plea agreement that might be valuable to Rex. And so perhaps those are being negotiated presently.

**Tony Brueski** (4:07)
I mean, even if they do have some sort of initial set of like, okay, we're going to send you off to this prison here.
Isn't that ultimately always up to the Bureau of Prisons at the end of the day? I mean, like, okay, well, initially, we'll send you here. Couldn't that just switch at any moment in time? I mean, maybe I'm completely off on this, but I don't believe that at some point in time, they'd be like, well, no, we can't move this prisoner because of the part of the plea agreement says he's going to be housed here indefinitely. Is that ever part of it?