Inset: Jeffrey Mackey and Alexis Nieves walking to a courtroom appearance (Newsday). Background: The house where Mackey and Nieves killed another couple in Amityville, N.Y. (Google Maps).
A New York couple has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for the gruesome murder of another couple with whom they shared a home, followed by the disposal of the victims’ dismembered remains across Long Island.
In November, 40-year-old Jeffrey Mackey admitted to two counts of second-degree murder for the February 2024 killings of Donna Conneely, 59, and her husband, Malcolm “Craig” Brown, 53. His accomplice, 35-year-old Alexis Nieves, accepted a plea for first-degree manslaughter. On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice John Collins handed each of them an 11-year prison sentence in separate hearings. Mackey’s sentences will run concurrently, meaning he will serve 11 years in total.
The attack saw Mackey fatally stab both victims, while Nieves used a meat cleaver on Conneely and inflicted a fatal knife wound to her neck.
According to a press release from Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney in April 2024, “Brown sustained stab wounds to the neck and torso, while Conneely was repeatedly stabbed in the neck and back.” The perpetrators then allegedly dismembered the bodies in the home’s bathroom before scattering the remains.
The prosecutor noted that the couple’s body parts were dispersed across several locations within the county.
On February 29, 2024, a “dismembered male arm” was discovered in the brush at Southards Pond Park in Babylon, a town located about 40 miles east of Queens, New York City.
Police then recovered another male arm nearby, as well as a female head and torso, a female arm, and parts of female legs in the same park, prosecutors said. More body parts were found in Bethpage State Park and a “wooded area” in West Babylon over the next two months.
Investigators eventually arrived at a house on Railroad Avenue in nearby Amityville. There, police recovered “several cutting instruments including a large folding knife, a large kitchen knife, and two meat cleavers,” the DA’s office announced at the time.
Ultimately, the defendants entered their pleas under an agreement that saw a large amount of leniency extended by way of the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act of 2019. While details are scarce, Mackey and Nieves claimed Brown and Conneely abused them physically, emotionally and financially, which led to the violent ambush.
“I will never understand why this happened and the way it happened,” the judge said, according to a courtroom report by Newsday. Collins added the crime was: “Unique, bizarre and unfathomable.”
Indicted along with Mackey and Nieves were Brown’s cousin, Steven Brown, and his girlfriend, Amanda Wallace. They were charged for their roles in helping dispose of the victims’ remains.
Wallace pleaded guilty in September to one count each of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence, concealment of a corpse and second-degree robbery. She was sentenced to 1 1/2 to three years in prison; Steven Brown pleaded guilty to the same charges plus one count of conspiracy and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The killings occurred roughly one week after a robbery at a Valero gas station carried out by Mackey, Steven Brown, and Wallace during which the assailants brandished a meat cleaver and one of the knives used in the murder, authorities said. As it turned out, the victims had also taken part in other such robberies with Mackey and Nieves, according to an anonymous law enforcement source cited by Newsday.
In court on Tuesday, family members of the victims had little patience for any of the mitigating factors.
“I hope your experience in prison is painful,” Brown’s brother said, addressing Mackey, according to a courtroom report by The Journal News. “Pain like you’ve never felt before.”
Brown’s sister had similar words for the defendants.
“This is devastating and I pray that God has no mercy on your souls and may you all rot in hell,” she reportedly said.
Steven Brown was also sentenced on Tuesday. Collins had particular disdain for the cousin of the victim, reportedly saying: “I don’t know you sir, but you must be one awful human being.”
