A Long Island couple and their accomplice were sentenced after dismembering their roommates with a meat cleaver and spreading body parts across Suffolk County.
Jeffrey Mackey, Alexis Nieves and Steven Brown were sentenced to jail time on Tuesday for the 2024 murders of Malcom Brown and his wife, Donna Conneely.
Mackey, 40, was sentenced to 22 years in Suffolk County jail for two counts of second-degree murder.
Nieves, 35, was given an 11 years for one misdemeanor. Malcom’s cousin Steven was sentenced to five years for conspiracy.
All three pleaded guilty when they were charged in April 2024.
Mackey’s and Nieves’ were given a plea deal in November due to reported abuse by the victims, according to People.
The New York Domestic Survivors Justice Act allows judges to alter sentencing in cases where ‘certain domestic violence criteria was a significant element of the offense.’
Mackey’s attorney told NBC 4 that the couple was ‘physically, emotionally and financially’ abusive.
Malcom Brown and his wife Donna Conneely were brutally killed and dismembered in February 2024
Jeffrey Mackey and Alexa Nieves were given reduced sentences Tuesday. They are pictured leaving a hearing in March 2024
Amanda Wallace (left) was sentenced for her involvement in the murders last year. Steven Brown was given five years for conspiracy on Tuesday
‘Those facts are what brought up and motivated these crimes,’ he said.
Mackey expressed regret for the brutal killing on Tuesday, News Nation reported.
‘I really wish none of this had ever happened. I wish they could still be alive. I wish I had never met them,’ Mackey said during the sentencing hearing.
‘I apologize to family members, for I wish this had never occurred.’
Malcom’s family called the sentencing a ‘slap on the wrist,’ but Suffolk County District Attorney said prosecutors were ‘satisfied.’
‘We are satisfied with the sentencing given our limitations under the law,’ said Ray Tierney in a statement.
Steven’s partner, Amanda Wallace, was arrested alongside the defendants in 2024, per PIX11.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said he was satisfied with the couple’s reduced sentence
Wallace pleaded guilty to concealment of a human corpse and was sentenced to one and a half to two years in prison last November.
Both couples reportedly lived with Malcom and Conneely in central Long Island.
According to a press release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the victims were ‘violently’ stabbed while entering their Amityville home on February 27, 2024.
Nieves reportedly hit Conneely over the head with a meat tenderizer and kicked her as Mackey stabbed Malcom multiple times in the neck and torso.
Mackey allegedly turned to Conneely and stabbed her in the neck and back.
Steven and Wallace helped cut up the bodies and dispose of them, per the release.
Mackey expressed some regret for the murders, saying ‘I apologize to family members, for I wish this had never occurred’
Law enforcement later found blood spattered throughout the home, on a folding knife, a large kitchen knife and two meat cleavers.
A student came across Malcom’s disembodied arm at Southards Pond Park in Babylon two days later, prompting the investigation.
Law enforcement found additional body parts across the park, in Bethpage State Park and wooded areas of West Babylon.
The killings were previously linked to a tortured love triangle.
