By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-30 00:24:32 | Updated at 2024-09-30 03:38:34
3 hours ago
A Long Island handyman made a horrifying discovery after he was called to a Hamptons home to clean up a mess after a night of heavy drinking.
The worker arrived at the East Quogue residence of 43-year-old Jeremy Allen on Saturday morning and found a beaten and bloodied body under a tarp on the back patio, Newsday reports.
The homeowner then cryptically told the handyman, 'Now you can't leave. Now you have to help clean up the house,' Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Elena Tomaro said Sunday.
The unnamed handyman responded by claiming he needed more supplies to properly complete the job - but instead called Southampton Town Police, who arrived at the scene shortly before 10am.
Cops declared Christopher Hahn, 43, dead at the scene. Allen was arrested for the man's murder about an hour after the body was found.
Jeremy Allen, 43, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly beating his friend to death
Prosecutors say Allen called a handyman to help clean up his East Quogue house, when the handyman found Christopher Hahn's beaten and bloodied body under a tarp on the back patio
Authorities said Allen and Hahn were drinking at a bar together on Friday night, after first planning to attend a meeting for people struggling with addiction, Newsday reports.
At some point over the course of the night, Allen and Hahn got into a heated dispute - which ended with Allen beating the victim for several hours beginning at midnight, prosecutors say.
He then allegedly dragged Hahn's 'defenseless and helpless body' onto the patio, where Allen continued to beat the victim with a baseball bat.
The suspect later returned with a 'large knife,' and fatally stabbed his friend 'in the head and neck' in full view of the home's surveillance camera, before calling the handyman.
Tomaro described the footage on Sunday as 'brutal and heinous to watch.'
But defense attorney Colin Astarita said he believes his client may have a defense claim.
'He was in his own home,' he argued, saying he believes Allen and Hahn were just longtime acquaintances who had recently gotten back in touch.
He also said Hahn came to his client's house Friday night despite being told to stay away, and claimed that Hahn 'injected himself into' Allen's life.
Allen is accused of beating his friend for several hours inside the home, before stabbing Hahn in the head and neck
The suspect has previously been charged and convicted for drunk driving several times since 2007, and was most recently arrested from criminal purchase of a weapon in May - when he attempted to buy a shotgun, but was unable to do so due to his prior criminal convictions.
'That [effort] was thwarted by the employees of Dick's Sporting Goods,' Tomaro said.
Additionally, Allen has a pending rape case in Southampton involving a child under the age of 15, and is still on probation for a 2022 conviction for drunken driving in Ulster County.
Prosecutors are now expected to present the homicide case against him to a grand jury on Wednesday, and Allen is due back in court on Friday - though his attorneys say his appearance will likely be waived pending the grand jury indictment.
