Why Did Rex Heuermann Use His Victim’s Phone to Call Her Family?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:08)
Rex Heuermann was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus a hundred years in Suffolk, in a Suffolk County courtroom. Those extra hundred years just for good measure, just in case. The judge called him disgusting, told the officers to remove him, and the families of eight dead women stood up and cheered. But inside the plea deal that put him there is a confession to a murder He was never charged with an appeal, right? His lawyers fought three years to protect, and then gave away. And an agreement with the FBI, and an agreement with others, and the FBI agreements that the DA swears isn't an investigation.
Eric Faddis, defense attorney, former prosecutor with us, to help break down what actually happened in that courtroom and what it cost. Heuermann, he looked at the judge and said, I killed Karen Vergata. No charges were filed in that one. That's what a lot of people are wondering about here. Her family was right there in the courtroom. He never had the charge, but part of it was admitting to the murder. Eric, why? Why is it kind of a half-assed admission that he can't be prosecuted on?
I think we're all kind of confused about that.

**Eric Faddis** (1:20)
You know, it's pretty unusual, Tony. And think about if you were that victim's family. And this person is being convicted, there'll be a final conviction of all these other murders. And then for your family member, it's just sort of some lip service saying, oh yeah, I did that one too, but not going to sustain a conviction, not going to have a sentence for that one. If I was the family, I would be super peeved. I haven't seen this kind of something built into a plea like this, where you admit to a crime for which you're not charged and for which you're not going to be convicted or sentenced.
I don't know if it was just some kind of attempt at closure, but I think it was probably a failed attempt.

**Robin Drake** (1:59)
I'm sorry, go ahead, Tony.

**Tony Brueski** (2:00)
I would just say, yeah, it just seems very empty for that family. Go ahead, Robin.

**Robin Drake** (2:05)
Yeah, I was just thinking empty for the family, which is the greatest injustice, but how did that come about? It struck me as really Rex doing an oopsie and his defense not catching. Is that possible?
How is the defense, his attorneys miss that if they miss it all? Why even have that out there?

**Eric Faddis** (2:26)
Yeah, I don't see how it confers any substantial benefits to either side. The prosecution does not secure a conviction. They don't get a sentence. On the defense side, you're making this admission of some horrible wrongdoing.
For what benefit are you getting an exchange for that? It just seems like a bizarre way to try and loop in this other alleged incident into a criminal case that's already going on, but doing so in a half-assed way.

**Robin Drake** (2:55)
Yeah, because when you think about it, because again, I'm still 100 percent in the camp that he's got zero empathy. He's not trying to reconcile with anyone. He's not trying to be remorseful. He's incapable of all those things. So he's not doing it to satisfy the family's need to know. The only thing that he still holds as his currency is the knowledge of what he did, and he'd hold on to every little scrap he had. I mean, he literally gave up one more thing he could use to get leverage later on if he wanted attention. So that also then begs me to say I think there's more.

**Tony Brueski** (3:30)
I think there's more to the story as to why he added that, or why that was added in there. And I don't know if it was just a slip of the tongue to Asa and then it was added.
Is it a timing thing, I wonder? That's what I kind of keep going back to. I'm like, okay, well, it looks like he might have done this. He's confessing to it, but we don't have the goods to truly, if we were to take this and prosecute him to go all the way and get him convicted. But he's saying it. So is it just, let's just, you know, not waste time here attempting this. I also have a wonder, pure conjecture of, I wonder if they're looking at the timeline of Rex Heuerman's existence on this planet, if there's something else going on behind the scenes and the thought process was, he's admitting to it now, the time it's going to take to get a conviction on this extra charge, is going to push this back by years or months. I don't know, I think it might go a little bit of a ways, and let's get him admitting to this on the record while he's still on Earth. I don't know. I mean, he's not super old, but who knows, it doesn't look like the healthiest ogre on the planet.