FULL SENTENCING HEARING Part 1: Victims Speak Directly to Rex Heuermann

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: All rise, hear ye, hear ye, all persons having business in trial term, Part 7 of Supreme Court, State of New York, held in and for the county of Suffolk, we'll draw an ear, give your attendance and ye shall be heard, the Honorable Timothy Maysley presiding, be seated and come to work. [00:00:15] Speaker 2: Good morning. [00:00:22] Speaker 1: On the Part 7 calendar, number one for conference, Dennis Grandos Terzios. [00:00:26] Speaker 2: That's June 22nd, defense request. [00:00:30] Speaker 1: Also number two for conference, Dennis Grandos Terzios, June 22nd. [00:00:35] Speaker 2: Correct. [00:00:38] Speaker 1: Number four for VOP hearing, Anthony Sands. July 23rd, defense request. Number three on for sentencing, Rex A. Heuergen. [00:00:49] Speaker 2: Let's get him out. [00:01:00] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:01:30] Speaker 2: Actually, while we're waiting for the defendant to be brought out, the Office of Court Administration requires me to read the following. Before we proceed, the court is in receipt of numerous applications from media and press agencies seeking permission to video record and or photograph today's proceeding. The court is mindful of the significant public interest in this matter and the important role of the press in ensuring transparency and public access to the judicial process. At the same time, the court must ensure full compliance with New York law governing media coverage of court proceedings and the court is duty-bound to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings. Accordingly, the court will permit limited media access as follows. One pool video camera from News 12 and one pool still photographer from Newsday will be allowed to record and photograph the proceedings. The camera persons, Mr. Ryan and Mr. Carbone, have been expressly advised that they are under order of the court to promptly disseminate the videos and photographs that are obtained herein to any and all members of accredited media agencies upon their request. It is the court's understanding that relatives of victims in this case will be addressing the court this morning. If any person does not wish to be recorded or photographed during the address of the court, please notify the court immediately and the court will direct the camera persons to turn off their equipment. Camera persons are directed and applied by the following conditions. Now, I've been advised by both sides that there is no one who does not wish to be recorded. Is that correct, Mr. Danny? Yes, Your Honor. Thank you. Fixed cameras positions. No panning and no view of gallery blurred out gallery. No close-ups of victims during impact statements. No flash or supplemental lighting. No audio recording of off-record matters, private conversations, sidebars, or other court proceedings. Pool sharing required. Compliance with all courts and instructions. Like any other case, no one else here or in the overflow courtroom is permitted to film, tape, audio record, photograph, or otherwise record today's proceeding. This determination reflects the court's efforts to balance the public's right of access with the legal requirement prohibiting coverage of testimonial proceedings as well as the need to preserve the fairness, dignity, and orderly administration of justice. Let's do this. What the hell is that? What the hell is that? [00:05:21] Speaker ?: What the hell is that? [00:05:23] Speaker 3: What the hell is that? [00:05:31] Speaker ?: What the hell is that? [00:05:37] Speaker 4: What the hell is that? [00:05:49] Speaker ?: What the hell is that? What the hell is that? What the hell is that? [00:06:15] Speaker 1: What the hell is that? What the hell is that? What the hell is that? [00:06:23] Speaker 5: What the hell is that? [00:06:31] Speaker 6: What the hell is that? What the hell is that? What the hell is that? What the hell is that? [00:06:41] Speaker 2: Good morning. Mr. Brown, is your client ready for sentencing? [00:06:45] Speaker 6: We are, Your Honor. Thank you. [00:06:47] Speaker 2: People wish to be heard? [00:06:48] Speaker 6: Yes, please. Your Honor, prior to the people making this recommendation as to sentencing, people wished for several victim impact statements to be delivered. Some of these victim impact statements will be delivered live here in the courtroom and others will be read on behalf of members of the victims' families who could not be here or wish for us to read the statements on their behalf. These statements will provide the court an opportunity to experience the tragedy, the consequences, and the personal impact experienced by these families based on the defendant's actions. The first presenter or speaker, Your Honor, would be Mr. and Mrs. Ed and Joanne Mack. [00:07:27] Speaker 2: You may proceed. [00:07:28] Speaker ?: Mr. and Mrs. Mack. [00:07:28] Speaker 2: You may proceed. [00:07:29] Speaker ?: Mr. and Mrs. Mack. [00:07:30] Speaker 6: You may proceed. Mr. and Mrs. Mack. [00:07:32] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:08:02] Speaker 2: You may proceed, sir. [00:08:11] Speaker 4: Mr. Heurman, you have done horrendous things to Valerie's earthly body, but you have not touched the real Valerie. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Everyone you've joked with, worked with, married, snuffed, or even killed, is born an immortal creature. Each will live forever, either in majestic glory or imaginable order. I can only imagine when my day comes and I find myself standing before Jesus, Valerie will be at his side. [00:09:12] Speaker 3: Your Honor, I would like to say to Mr. Heurman, what you have done to our family is beyond what words can express. Even though justice is done, it cannot replace what you have taken from us. Or can it give our beloved Valerie back her life here on earth? I do, however, want you to understand that even though you were able to commit these horrendous atrocities against our daughter, and no matter what sense of power or control you felt over Valerie's body, you were never able to touch her soul. I'm telling you, unless you get yourself right before God, Valerie is the one who is free today, and you are not. She is living her life with her Savior, Jesus Christ, and what you have done has gained you nothing. I'd like you to understand the thing that is the saddest to bear is that you took away every chance that she ever had these past 26 years since you took her life to attain any of the goals that she had set for herself, and she did. She had hopes, and she had dreams, and took it all away from her. And you can never give it back, no matter how much remorse or regret, or if you're sorry, I'll never know. But you cannot give her back what you took from her and her son. You took away a lifetime for him of his mother's love. That's all. [00:11:28] Speaker 2: Thank you, Pam. [00:11:37] Speaker 6: Your Honor, Miss Danielle Mack, adopted sister of Valerie Mack, wishes to address the court. [00:11:43] Speaker 2: Very well. [00:12:03] Speaker 7: Hello. Today, I'm here to talk about the impact of Mr. Hewerman's crimes. I don't come to address him because I don't believe he is worth addressing. He doesn't have the humanity to feel remorse. He is a selfish, entitled man who felt like my sister and the other victims' lives were his to destroy. My sister was not in a good place when she met Mr. Hewerman, and he took advantage of that. She'd never have looked twice at him if she hadn't been struggling. Despite her struggles, despite the mugshot that the media has spread of her, Valerie Mack had a fire inside of her that lit up the world around her. She was strong, protective, sharp, funny, and beautiful inside and out. From what I have heard of Jessica, Maureen, Melissa, Megan, Amber, Sandra, and Karen, this is something all these girls shared in common. Mr. Hewerman may have snuffed out their lives and took them away from us, but the fires they lit roar inside each and every one of us, and that is something he can never rob us of. [00:13:10] Speaker 6: Mr. I am the son of Valerie Mack's son, Benjamin Aaron Torres, and asked that the following statement be read on his behalf. The record, he is here and in support of the sentencing today. I am the son of Valerie Mack. The amount of pain and loss you have caused my life is insurmountable. The web of destruction you have lifted spans well beyond me and my wounds. So much so, words fail to convey it properly. Such a degree of evil and selfishness you have acted out warrants no possible excuse. I will leave you with this. You will reap what you have sown. No one exempt from that universal truth. Your Honor, next, Ms. Jasmine Robinson and Violet Swagger, cousins of Jessica Taylor, wish to address the court. [00:14:15] Speaker 8: I'll never forget how I felt when I got that call. I couldn't wrap my mind around the word torso. No way could someone do that to someone I love. [00:14:41] Speaker 9: Torso. Headless and handless. These words haunt me. Our prefrontal cortex had barely finished. Torso? I thought that was a midriff. It's a chopped up body. No way. Disgusting. Awful. Terrifying. Monstrous. Brutal. What? Parts of her are all over the place missing? They didn't find all of her? All of her. Headless and handless. I still don't understand. That weekend. That weekend, she was supposed to come home. That weekend, family and friends were looking for her. Loved ones were calling her. She wasn't going to miss that weekend. She never picked up the phone. She didn't call anyone back. Because of you. I will hate Khalil forever. I can't even put into words the viscerating loading I have for you. My heart broke even more that there were more victims. Sick, twisted, heartless. There aren't enough words for these murders. My heart sinks even low for the victims that have not been named or found. May they, too, get justice. 23 years. 23 years we've waited. For a while, it felt like this day would never come. The pain and devastation your murders have caused is immeasurable. Sometimes it doesn't feel real. Decades later, her presence is missed. Always. Decades, we have wondered. Who could have done that? And then the call. They found her skull. Her skull? My cousin's skull. Was found. Years later. Miles away. We had a memorial to celebrate her. I daydream of the woman she'd be today. And I smile with pride. Today she turns our age. Her half birthday was my birthday. And my half birthday was her birthday. And we would laugh. Because the calendar map is wrong. I miss her. I know she'd be just as obsessed with my nephew as I am. My sister and I are super close. And we were young. The three of those girls were weekend warriors. It was like Jazzy got a big sister cousin and I got a twin cousin. We were amazing together. Always coming up with stuff. Always creating, exploring. We knew how to be free when we were together. Weekend warriors. 80s and 90s kids. Kids playing double Dutch. And that old memory game Husker Du. Hand-clacked lanes. And Nintendo when we could get a turn. Learning the tipsy roll at a dance party in a church basement. Being at Aunt Beth's house. Having dance parties. And movie family nights. Staying up late. Soda milk. Some people call it dirty soda. But it's soda milk. Speaking, watching tales from the crypt was. With my sister when maybe she was too young. Using whatever you can to lay your edges. She was always fly. Some weekends we were country mice. Some weekends we were city mice. Slick and sly in any environment. Adaptable. We'd explore and we'd strive for more. Forever curious. And longing to experience more. Longing to live full lives. We shared everything. Family secrets that will never be yours to know. We shared the good and the bad. We loved each other and knew we always had each other's backs. Even when time and distance kept us apart. And then we almost grew up. I was working and noticed my cousin's face on TV. It was her awful mugshot. And that terrible photo of her scratched up tattoo. Terrible. And the way they were describing her. Like she had no one. Estranged. And nobody. My bestie called me immediately and told me my cousin was on the TV and I'm not going to like how they portray her. She was right. And I had already seen it. And was more than angry. Just because someone's family doesn't want to talk to the press does not mean they aren't suffering extreme loss and pain. Pain and grief are different for all of us. The narrative and language regarding Jess and the other victims is finally starting to take a turn. But we can't unhear and unfeel the past. Until you come. Until you came around. Nobody ever questioned who is or isn't my family. The way the press has treated the victims and their families over the years is painful. Bringing out the worst of the worst. This will never be over. Maybe now strangers will stop trying to figure out our family. You won't get it. And quite frankly, I don't give a damn. Pierman, you fill me with so much repugence. It's suffocating. But I can't let you overtake me and I will stand strong for my cousin and the many other victims. Including the ones you're holding on to. Like a carrot over the FBI because of this behavioral health study. You went from freak to clown, better work, creep. I hope you and I believe that science and detectives will beat you to the punch. Remember when they surrounded you out of nowhere to arrest you? I love that footage. I can watch it over and over. I almost feel sorry for not publicly speaking before this. And the voices that still can't. But if ever there was a time for me to talk about Jessica Taylor, my cousin. My brave, fun, hilarious, spunky, smart, beautiful friend. There are songs that I listen to and I can still hear. He did not just say, shave your face with some base. Then laugh. In the 80s and 90s would not have been the same without each other. And the future won't be the same without her. A million years isn't enough because you won't suffer for that long. You will spend the rest of your forever in prison and it doesn't feel satisfying. Nothing will ever make this right. This kind of grief stays. Knowing you can never do it again does give me some comfort. Just as always does. [00:21:12] Speaker 10: Do you want to end up like Jessica? That is a question I heard many times as a teenager. Something spoken out of the fear of knowing what a monster is truly capable of. The answer was yes. I did want to end up like Jess. She was fierce, kind, compassionate, beautiful, and intelligent. She loved every person she met better than she found them, even if they only met for a moment. She never met a stranger. She was pure sunshine. I wish all of the time that I could know her as the woman that I am today. That I could see the woman she would have become. That I would have hugged her tighter the last time that I saw her. That she could know my son. The trips us and my sister could have had. The memories we could have continued to make. Instead, I try to remember her through the memories that I'm lucky to hold on to. I pray to her and I leave flowers in memory of her. In the places that she was left behind. I fought for her when she couldn't fight. I promised her until the wheels fell off. And I never gave up. Even when it felt like I was screaming underwater. If I could say something to her murderer, I would say this. You thought you took her voice. But you didn't know that she had people who loved her. You hunted her. And I hunted you. I would say to her murderer, for someone who spent so much time perfecting his skill. You certainly were sloppy. You made a whole planning document to kill my cousin. And you couldn't even do that right. Let's go through your lists. Problems. DNA. Left it. Messed up there, huh? Supplies. Hairnet. Well, so much for that. Body prep. Roof DNA. Once again. You wrote it down twice and you still couldn't get it. And remove ID marks. Well, we know you couldn't do that because she was identified by the tattoo that you couldn't cut out properly. I can wrap my head around why you would kill. Because who would want to be around you? What I can't wrap my head around is why would the FBI even want to waste their time with you? You're boring. You're not prolific. You couldn't even be top five. You're a nobody. You didn't evade the police. It just wasn't worked properly. If the police work and the technology was the same as 2023, you would have been locked up then. You were right there the whole time, losing control while the clock ticked. I know why you did what you did to my cousin after you killed her. It's because she saw you as the huge freak that you are. I know she let you know up until the end. I know she did not go out without a fight. You chose small women because you were nothing more than a weak, disgusting coward. It makes sense how you didn't see them as human. It's kind of the same way nobody saw you as a human in high school. You tried to fit in your whole life and you never could. Your whole life was fake. All for you to perfect a craft that you couldn't perfect. You could never get it right. You could never have full control. You want to know what it is to play God? Well, you will have to face him. Today is Jessica's birthday. She'd be turning 43 today and I would be able to make fun of her for being an old lady with my sister. When I started my fight for her, there was a piece of me who thought I could bring her back if I got answers. While unfortunately that will never be true, I know one day I will get to hug her in heaven. I'm so grateful for this day of justice and I know she is too. I hope she's singing with the angels today and we will forever celebrate her and all of you victims with love. Happy birthday, Jess. Thank you. [00:25:26] Speaker 6: Next, Your Honor, Melissa Missy Ken, sister of Maureen Granite-Barnes, wishes to address the court. She will be accompanied by her husband, Tracy. [00:25:53] Speaker 5: Your Honor, in this court, nothing could have prepared me for the day that Maureen didn't come home. At first, I kept telling myself that she would call at any moment, that everything would somehow be okay. But as days turned into years, that hope slowly faded into a devastating reality. After years of searching for Maureen, my world shattered. The day my sister was found in the brambles on the side of a dark, lonely highway. She was not just murder, she was a victim of a predator. A serial killer. This was not just a murder, this was a calculated, unimaginable evil. It was a shack so profound that my mind and body could not process it. Because when Maureen was identified, it meant facing the truth that she was gone forever. And that pain is unbearable. I lived with survivor's guilt for over a decade. I replayed every moment. Over and over again in my mind. Asking myself what if, what if I'd done something differently when Maureen would still be here today. That question became a weight I carried everywhere. It was constant, heavy, and painfully real. That guilt changed me. I held on to it because I believed that I had to. I told myself that if I let go, then what kind of sister would I be. I didn't allow myself to feel happiness or peace for long. Because Maureen never got that chance. Deep down, I convinced myself that somehow this was all my fault. It has taken me years to know the truth. My actions did not cause my sister's death. The guilt is not mine to carry and never was. This burden belongs to Rex. And Rex alone. I hope he is forced to sit with the reality to feel even a fraction of the weight, the trauma, and the pain I've carried for so long. Your Honor, I would like to tell you about my sister, Maureen. Maureen was a rare soul, someone you didn't come across often. She was intelligent in a way that walked beyond books. She was deeply insightful and the kind of person who would understand you with just a few minutes of conversation. Anyone who sat with her, even for five minutes, will walk away knowing how extraordinary she truly was. Maureen was there for me through every chapter of her life, that she was alive to witness it. She comforted me when I was a scared child and thunder shook the house. She was the first person I saw when I woke up from a medically induced coma on life support after a serious car crash. Standing beside me, picking cloths and dirt out of my hair, in my most vulnerable moment, she advocated for me and made sure I was cared for. She was there on her own birthday while I was being induced into labor and my daughter was born the very next day. When I look back on my life with Maureen, I remember her as my protector, someone who loved me unconditionally. She never judged me or tried to change me. She loved me exactly as I was. If Maureen life had not been taken, I believe she would have gone on to touch countless lives in a deeply positive way. That's the kind of person she was. She was loving, selfless, and unforgettable. She had a nurturing spirit, always putting others before herself. Her kindness, her warmth, and selflessness, it left a lasting mark on everyone who knew her. She was vibrant, and she is my sister. The last words she said to me were, I love you, I'll see you tomorrow, because she was supposed to come home from New York City. Her words never left me. They still echo in my mind. Maureen, my brother Will, and I were inseparable. He died a year before Maureen was found. I will be his voice today. He lived and died not knowing what happened to her. He never stopped searching. He went to New York over and over, handing out her pictures, knocking on doors, chasing any lead he could find. He wrote on her MySpace, hoping she would somehow see it and come home. He wrote, I love you, Maureen. I'll never forget you. And if you could see this, please contact me. You know, no matter what's going on, I'm here for you. I love you, Maureen. That loss never left him, but it changed him. He carried the weight of her disappearance every day, the guilt of feeling like he couldn't protect her, like he should have done more. And he carried that pain with him until the day he died. Your Honor, you see, this was not only a destruction of life. This has became a lifelong devastation of a family who's loved her. The trauma he created didn't end with me, has affected my children, is something that then passed down to children, mother to child and beyond. That is the lasting actions, damage of his actions. Rex didn't just take my sister. He ripped her out of my life and shattered everything I thought I knew about safety, trust, and the world around me. When he took her life, he destroyed mine as I knew it. There is a permanent emptiness, a wound that will never heal. I am not who I was before because of him, and I never will be again. Since Maureen's murder, this case has changed the way I see the world. What once felt normal now feels unpredictable and unsafe. My mind doesn't go to what's likely. It goes straight to the most unthinkable outcome. Every situation can spiral into fear. I overthink, I panic, and the danger I imagine feels real, like it's already happening. I've spent years trying to heal. I've gone to EMDR therapy, PSD treatment, and counseling. But no matter how much work I've done, there's a wall I can't seem to break because I struggle trusting people with my story. And without trust, it feels impossible to fully heal. When Rex chose to take Maureen's life, he didn't just take her from us. He took my sense of safety. He took my peace of mind. He took the way I used to move through the world without fear. In many ways, I became one of his victims, too. I live with this every day. It's like being trapped, shackled in your own mind, imprisoned by fear and constant fear I can't escape. But I'm here today to take back my sense of safety that was taken from me and confront my deepest fear. Rex, while you thought you'd gotten away with what you'd done, I made it my life mission to see you found and brought to justice. Without you knowing it, I became your worst nightmare. You thought you were hidden, and you thought you were smarter than anybody else, able to live in the shadows without consequence. But you were wrong. The voices of our families grew louder, our grief turned into strength, and the determination of law enforcement and this district attorney's office only intensified until the truth got up with you. I noticed the slight smile on your face when the judge spoke about corroborating with the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. You looked proud, almost honored to be associated with something you yourself have studied, read, and studied about. But there's no honor in this. You are not going to be part of something admirable. You are going to be a subject, confined, examined, reduced to a case study, nothing more than a case specimen picked apart so others could understand the depth of your cruelty. Hear this clearly. Your name will never rise above the woman you sold from this world. We will now not allow it. They are the ones who matter, and they are the ones who will be remembered. In the end, they will be remembered for only what you are, small, hallow, and defined entirely by the destruction you caused. I don't know what shaped you or what pain or anger you may have carried, but I know this with certainty. It wasn't Maureen. It wasn't Melissa, Megan, Amber, Jessica, Valerie, Sandra, or Karen. They did not create the darkness inside you. They were innocent and paid the price for something that was never theirs to begin with. You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women you hid behind a mask presenting yourself as normal, a father, a husband, someone people could trust, but that mask was a lie. Beneath the truth is who you are, a man without empathy, without a soul, someone who hunted, tortured, and murdered women to satisfy the darkness within you. For years, we lived in the shadow of what you did. We carried the pain, the fear, the unanswered questions, but today, that changes today. You are no longer the one in control of this story. Maureen was not just a victim. She is a daughter, a sister, a mother, a woman who was loved deeply and will never be forgotten. And while you tried to silence her, you failed. You may have taken her presence, but you can never erase her voice and the memories of her. It lives on in every truth spoken, every tear shed, and every act of courage inspired by her memory. I found my strength through her voice. From the pain you cause, I feel resilience. From the silence you try to force, I rose louder to you. This is about more than justice. This is me stepping fully in my life after years of surviving. Your darkness is about reclaiming what you try to break and honoring what you can never destroy. Love. [00:36:27] Speaker 6: Next, Your Honor, Miss Nicolette Brainerd-Barnes and Dylan Haggett, the son and daughter of Maureen Brainerd-Barnes, wish to address the court. They will be accompanied by Marie Ducharme, Maureen Brainerd-Barnes' mother. [00:36:42] Speaker 5: My name is Nicolette Brainerd-Barnes. I am the daughter of Maureen Brainerd-Barnes. Before we talk about the case, I'd like to talk about my mom. She was a warm, bubbly, funny, intelligent, and artistic person. Most of all, she had the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known. When she would pass an unhoused person on the street, she would literally give them her last dollar or at least stop to acknowledge them and see how they were doing if she didn't have any money on her. She was a language arts girly, a poet, an avid reader. She was politically outspoken and that carried through in her writing. She loved hip-hop and R&B music and would write raps in her poetry notebooks, saying she wanted to be a rapper. She had a strong sense of humor and the most contagious laugh. She was young at heart, but she was also just young. She lived for only another few weeks past her 25th birthday. When I myself turned 25, it wasn't the joyful milestone that most young people enjoyed. It was jarring and painful because I knew that it meant I'd now lived longer than my mom did. Today, I'm nearly two years older than she will ever be. Rex Hurman stole decades of life from a woman who should still be here making memories with the people who love her. The loss of my mother and the circumstances surrounding her death have impacted me in many ways. I've had to go to years of therapy and I've tried many different treatments and medications. I've dealt with extreme paranoia and anxiety and experienced severe PTSD. It's affected every aspect of my life. Even now that Hurman's been caught, I will never be someone who can relax because I had such overwhelming fear at such a formative age. I was only seven years old when I lost my mother and for the next three years, she was missing. I had to wonder what happened to her. The first time I remember experiencing depression in my life was my first Christmas without her. I didn't realize at the time that that's what it was, but I remember just feeling so empty and wondering why I felt so sad when it was Christmas and I had received every present I wanted. But I didn't have my mother. I was a little girl and I needed my mom. And there are moments that have yet to come when I will need her and she will not be there. People tell me how alike we are. Our mannerisms, views on things, interests, hobbies. Those seven years with her set the blueprint for who I am. My life has been immeasurably altered by the loss of my mother. There is no part of it untouched by her absence. Her death did not create a single moment of grief. It created a lifetime of them. My life is largely defined by the countless ways it could have been different if she were still here. I often think about the person I might have been if I had the chance to grow up with my mother. That question has no answer and that is part of the injustice that I live with every day. I have been shaped as much by my mother's absence as I would have been by her presence. I want to shift focus for a moment to acknowledge the investigators and members of the task force who took over this case in 2022. Throughout an unimaginably painful process made more painful by the court of public opinion slandering my mother and the other victims, they treated my family and my mother's men with dignity, compassion, and respect. They never allowed her to become just a file or a headline. They kept the victims and our families at the center of their work and that has meant more than I can fully express. In a case that often felt defined by stigma, they gave our family moments of humanity. My mother was not a headline, a statistic, or a label. She was not defined by one chapter of her life and she certainly was not defined by the circumstances of her death. Like every sex worker, my mom was an entire human being. When Rex Hurman took her from the world, he took someone with hopes and plans for her life. He took a mother, a daughter, an aunt, a friend. He took someone who was deeply loved and can never be replaced. He reduced vibrant women with families, personalities, dreams, humor, and histories into names on a list. But they are all far more complex, compassionate, and interesting people than he will ever be. My mother lived a real, colorful, complicated life. She loved, she struggled, she mattered, and she deserved the chance to keep living. The women he targeted were not disposable. They were deeply loved and their absence has left permanent wounds in the lives of everyone who knew them. My mother's life had depth, warmth, humor, and meaning. The same is true for the other women whose lives he stole, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Castilla, Karen Bragata, Valerie Mack, and Jessica Taylor. They will be remembered for who they were and how deeply they were loved. He will be remembered only for destruction. For all the attention this case has brought him, he remains the least interesting person in it. My mother and the other victims lived full, complex lives that mattered infinitely more than the man who cut them short. and to Rex, I know you want the world to think you have the capacity for love and that you love those close to you, but the mask you wear does not fool me. You are a pathetic man who thinks you're better than women. You need to believe that sex workers are subhuman because you're a coward who takes out your own shortcomings on others. I feel bad for you because your capacity for hate means that you can't possibly understand love, the purity of it, the kind of love I have and still have for my mother. Seeing your last appearance and the way you smirked as you finally confessed to what you did to my mother proves that you need to be locked away for the safety of the community. There are no words extreme enough to communicate the level of depravity within you. You make me sick and I don't forgive you. [00:43:17] Speaker 11: My name is Dylan and I am the son of Maureen. When I lost her, I was just one year old. My earliest memories are defined by anxiety, fear, and sadness, not knowing where she had went and why I did not have her in my life. I don't remember her voice or her face or the love she gave me as a baby. I never had my mom to see me on my first days of school. I never had her when I graduated. I never had her when I needed her and I will never have her in the future when I need her. She never got to see who I would become and she never got to play a role in shaping who I will become. The trauma of losing my mom in such a way at such a young age affected every part of my life and will continue to affect every part of my life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.