Killers Get Slashed Sentences After Claiming Victims Abused Them

At a Glance

• Jeffrey Mackey, Steven Brown and Alexis Nieves were sentenced to prison for the 2024 murders and dismemberment of Malcolm “Craig” Brown, 53, and Donna Conneely, 59.
• Mackey received 22 years, Nieves 11 years and Steven Brown five years; all pleaded guilty.
• The defendants shared the victims’ Amityville, N.Y. home and claimed prolonged abuse.
• Why it matters: New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act cut the sentences, angering the victims’ relatives and the Suffolk County district attorney.

Three roommates who admitted killing and dismembering a couple in their shared Amityville, New York home have received sharply reduced prison terms after citing a state law meant to protect domestic-violence survivors.

Jeffrey Mackey, 40, was sentenced on Jan. 13 to 22 years behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. His girlfriend, Alexis Nieves, 35, received an 11-year sentence on a misdemeanor charge, while victim Malcolm Brown’s cousin, Steven Brown, 35, was handed a five-year term for conspiracy. All three entered guilty pleas, according to court records cited by News Of Losangeles.

A fourth housemate, Amanda Wallace, 34, had earlier admitted to concealing the couple’s remains and is scheduled for parole eligibility in November 2025 after receiving a sentence of 1½ to 3 years.

How the killings unfolded

The violence erupted on Feb. 27, 2024. Prosecutors say Mackey stabbed Malcolm Brown repeatedly in the neck and once in the torso, then turned on Donna Conneely when she tried to intervene, fatally stabbing and strangling her. Nieves allegedly struck Conneely in the head with a meat tenderizer and stabbed her multiple times in the neck and back.

Two days later, a student walking through Southards Pond Park in Babylon Village discovered a severed male left arm. Police soon found:

• a second male arm
• a female head and torso
• female arms and partial legs

Additional remains turned up on March 5 in West Babylon and Bethpage State Park, leading investigators to the Amityville residence the four defendants shared with the victims.

Inside the house, officers seized:

• a large folding knife
• a large kitchen knife
• two meat cleavers
• blood in multiple rooms

Prosecutors contend the defendants dismembered the bodies in the bathroom, scattered the parts across three public parks and cleaned the scene.

Sentences reduced under abuse claims

The shorter terms stem from New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA), which allows judges to cut penalties for defendants who prove they were abused by the victims. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney blasted the statute after the sentencings.

> “So far as the defendants suffered such abuse as defined under the DVSJA, the sentences were substantial, notwithstanding the absurdities of New York State’s defendant-friendly sentencing structure,” Tierney said, according to the New York Post.

Mackey’s attorney told NBC 4 that “Jeffrey Mackey and his wife were physically, emotionally and financially abused by the victims. Those facts brought up and motivated these crimes.”

Victims’ relatives voice outrage

Relatives of Malcolm Brown and Donna Conneely called the penalties woefully inadequate.

> “Heartbreaking… Heinous crime shaken us to our core,” Malcolm’s sister Coreen said in court, per PIX11. “For our cousin, Steven Brown, getting five years, that’s a slap on the wrist. For killing two people… dismembering, chopping up body parts, disposing of them like they were just trash, and you are getting five years for two people?”

Malcolm’s brother Charles added, “Can’t find words to describe what this has done to us. This has broken our family.”

During his sentencing, Mackey apologized: “I really wish none of this had ever happened. I wish they could still be alive. I wish I had never met them. I apologize to family members, for I wish this had never occurred.” Nieves offered a brief “I’m sorry.”

Legal timeline

The guilty pleas avoided a lengthy trial and brought a measure of closure nearly a year after the grisly discovery that rattled Long Island communities.