CONVICTED IN PARADISE: KONIG GOES DOWN, GILGO KILLER CONFESSES, AND THE QUEEN OF KETAMINE GETS 15 YEARS

0:03 Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. Friday, April tenth, twenty twenty six. We've had this week circled on the calendar for a while. We knew the Koenig verdict was coming. We've been with that trial since day one. Back in March, we knew Heyerman's guilty plea was scheduled for Wednesday, and the Ketteming Queens sentencing landed the same day. Wednesday, April eighth, turned out to be one of the most consequential days in court this year. Let me give you the headlines before we dig in. Gerhard Koenig convicted not of second degree attempted murder, which is what prosecutors charged. The jury went with a lesser verdict, attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance. I'm going to spend some time on that distinction, because it matters, and the word manslaughter does not mean what most people think it means in this context. He's still convicted, he's still going to prison, but this isn't quite the verdict the prosecution wanted, and I think the families of both Ariel and the kids deserve some honest analysis of what happened. Rex Heyerman guilty eight times. Standing in a Suffolk County courtroom Wednesday morning, the man who spent three decades murdering women on Long Island finally said the word he'd been refusing to say since his arrest in July twenty twenty three. Guilty, guilty, guilty eight times, and for the first time, we know how each of them died. All eight women strangulation and

1:35 Jasvin Sanga, forty two years old, the North Hollywood drug dealer who marketed herself as the exclusive ketamine source for high profile Hollywood clients and supplied the drug that killed Matthew Perry, sentenced Wednesday to one hundred eighty months in federal prison. That's fifteen years she faced up to sixty five. I have thoughts, three stories. Let me walk you through this. We have been with this trial since it opened on March nineteenth. That's over three weeks of testimony, every major development. Ariel taking the stand on her birthday. Gerhart's own son testifying his father called him from a cliff side and said, I tried to kill her and she got away. The search history, the syringes, the DNA, We've walked through all of it with you. Day nine was Tuesday, April seventh, closing arguments, and then the jury went to work. Here's how the final day of testimony ended. Detective Thomas Numa from the Honolulu Police Department was recalled to the stand to address one last piece of digital forensics evidence, specifically the last access time stamps on files found on Gerhart Koenig's laptop. The defense had been suggesting those timestamps didn't necessarily mean a human open those files, that anti virus scans, system indexing background processes can all touch files without anyone physically sitting at a keyboard and clicking Inuma acknowledged that's true.

3:04 As a general matter, computers do auto access files, but on redirect. He explained that the pattern of access in this specific case, multiple files accessed on different days spread over months, was far more consistent with deliberate human activity than an automated background scan. You don't need a computer science degree to understand why a routine antivirus scan hits thousands of files and seconds. A person researching their next move opens one thing, reads it, comes back, a week later, opens another. The defense rested after that, no more witnesses then came the closings. The prosecution laid it out the way they've laid everything out in this trial, methodically building from the established facts. Gerhard Koenig intentionally tried to kill his wife, they said, using multiple methods in sequence, first the cliff, then the rock, than the syringes. He did not react impulsively to an affair. He just discovered. He had been aware of the relationship with Jeff Miller for months and had made a calculated decision to bring his wife to a remote cliff side on her birthday. His confession to his son wasn't grief or shock. It was acknowledgment of intent. His search history wasn't an accident. Nothing about this was spontaneous. The defense did what they've been doing since opening statements. They went after Ariel. They argued her testimony was inconsistent and unreliable. They pointed to the money she moved out of the joint account before seeking additional injury documentation. They leaned on the eyewitness identification issue,

4:37 Sarah Buksbaum initially picking the wrong person in a lineup. They insisted this was a mutual fight that escalated, not a premeditated murder attempt. And they asked the jury not to equate the severity of Ariel's injuries with intent on their client's part. The jury began deliberating that afternoon. They deliberated for more than eight hours before returning a verdict on day ten, Wednesday, April eighth, guilty not of second degree attempted murder of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance. Let me be honest with you about what this means, because the word manslaughter in this context is going to cause some confusion. In Hawaii. The charge of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance is what's called an affirmative defense reduction. It's not an acquittal, it's not a slap on the wrist. It means the jury believed that Gerhard Koenig committed the act, that he beat his wife, that he tried to kill her, but that at the moment he did it, he was in such extreme emotional distress over the affair that his culpability is reduced from intentional murder to manslaughter. The law recognizes that human beings in certain states of profound emotional rupture are not fully in control of themselves. The prosecution had charged him with second degree attempted murder, which requires proving intentional conduct. The jury, after eight hours, found that the state proved he did it, but also that he was operating under extreme emotional disturbance, which Hawaii law treats as

6:11 a mitigating factor. Sentencing is scheduled for August thirteenth. Here's what I'll say about this outcome, and I'm gonna be direct about it. I understand the jury's reasoning. I don't think any of us who watched this trial closely would say Gerhart Koenig is a man who was operating normally in the weeks before March twenty fourth, Christmas Eve, at four in the morning, reading Reddit threads about infidelity, searching for hiking trails with cliff drops, a recording device from Walmart, a Dropbox folder labeled divorce, a bag with syringes on a birthday hike, the call to his son from a mountain trail. This is a man in crisis. That much is true. But here's where I part ways with the outcome.

6:53 Being in crisis is not the same as being out of control. Months of planning does not look like extreme emotional disturbance. Acting in the moment, It looks like a man who decided what he was going to do, prepared for it, and executed it. Extreme emotional disturbance as a legal concept was designed for a different scenario than the one we watched unfold in this courtroom. It was not designed for men who pack medical grade syringes before birthday hikes. Ariel Koenig told a jury that while her husband had her on the ground with a rock in his hand, he said to her, Nobody's coming to save you. Nobody says that in the grip of uncontrollable grief. You say that when you know what you're doing and you want the other person to know it too. But the jury heard the evidence, they heard eight hours of it, and they made a finding under the law as it exists, not as I might wish it to exist. Gerhardt Koenig is a convicted felon. He is going to prison. Ariel Koenig survived, her children still have their mother, and on August thirteenth, a judge will decide how long he's locked away.

8:04 Remember Ril Koenig. On Tuesday, March thirty, first we told you this was coming. Reports were out of Suffolk County that Rex Hoyerman, sixty two years old, Manhattan architect, husband, father, the man charged with murdering seven women on Long Island, was about to change his plea. His trial had been scheduled for September. He'd been fighting these charges since his arrest in July twenty twenty three, and then last Thursday, word came April eighth was the date. Wednesday morning, it happened, Hoyerman walked into Suffolk County court and entered guilty please to seven counts of murder. And then he went further than anyone expected. He admitted to an eighth killing. He had not yet been charged with the court room, I'm reportedly gasped before I walk through the victims one by one, because we are going to say their names. Let me give you the picture of the man in that courtroom.

9:12 By all accounts, he stood there in a matter of fact way. When the charge sheet was read aloud, he said guilty. When asked how he killed each victim, he said one word strangulation eight times. No remorse visible, no hesitation, just a man completing a transaction. Under the plea agreement, Hoyerman waived all rights to appeal, he will face no additional charges for these eight murders. He returns to court on June seventeenth for sentencing, where he faces up to seven life sentences. His attorney, Michael Brown, said after the hearing that the evidence against his client was overwhelming that the state quote did a great job. He said he believes Hoyerman will make a statement at sentencing. His ex wife Asa Eleup and their daughter Victoria, attended the hearing.

10:04 Usa read a statement outside the courthouse describing the pain her husband caused to his victims' families as immeasurable. Their attorney noted that Asa and Victoria had been out of town every single time the murders took place, a detail that has been confirmed by investigators. Hoyerman, it is now believed, would wait for his family to leave on vacation and then act. Let me walk you through the eight women who were murdered. Sandra Costilla twenty eight years old. She was a Trinidad and Tobago native living in Queens. She vanished in nineteen ninety three, making her the earliest known victim. Her body was found days later in a wooded area in north Sea with sharp force injuries to her face and body. For years, her murder was not connected to Heyerman.

10:51 Another man, John Bittref, was investigated as a suspect. It was only recently, through advanced DNA testing that that a hair on her body was identified as belonging to Heyerman. She has been waiting thirty three years for someone to say his name in connection with hers. Sandra Costilla say her name. Valerie Mack twenty four years old. A mother. She was known for years only as Fire Island Jane Doe. She was last seen alive in Manhattan in February nineteen ninety six, while working as an escort. That April, her dismembered legs were found wrapped in plastic on Fire Island's Blue Point Beach. Her skull was found fifteen years later in twenty eleven off Ocean Parkway. It took forensic genealogy until twenty twenty to identify her. Her family learned she had been murdered twenty four years after she disappeared. Valerie Mack say her name. Jessica Taylor, twenty years old from pooh Keepsie. She was last seen in July two thousand and three at the Port Authority bus terminal in New York City, a short walk from Hoyerman's office in Midtown Manhattan.

12:02 Her partial remains were found in two locations, Manorville in two thousand and Ocean Parkway in twenty eleven. Investigators noted that her tattoo had been deliberately disfigured, consistent with the planning document found on Heyerman's computer, which included instructions on removing identifying marks from bodies. She was twenty years old. Jessica Taylor Say. Her name Maureen Brainerd Barnes, twenty five years old. She disappeared in July two thousand and seven when she went to meet a client and never came back. Hoyerman bound her body with three leather belts. One of those belts contained DNA from his wife, ASA, likely transferred through household contact. She was the first of what would become known as the Gilgo four. Maureen Brainerd Barnes Say her name Melissa Barthelemy, twenty four years old. She disappeared in two thousand and nine. As her family searched for her, Hoyerman used her phone to call them, taunting calls mocking her family, bragging about what he had done. The cruelty of that act is almost incomprehensible. He murdered her and then called her sister, Melissa Barthelemy. Say her name. Megan Waterman, twenty two years old. She was last seen alive in June twenty ten, leaving a holiday and express in Halpoge to meet a client. Her remains were found that December near Gilgo Beach. She was twenty two years old. Megan Waterman Say her name. Amber Costello twenty seven years old.

13:35 She left her home in September twenty ten to meet a client. Her roommate told police the client was quote ogre like and driving a distinctive green Chevrolet Avalanche, the exact vehicle Hoyerman drove at the time. Three months later, his graveyard was discovered. Amber Costello Say her name. Karen Vergata, thirty four years old. She is the eighth victim, the one Hoyerman admitted to Wednesday without having been charged. Her family learned she had been murdered years after she disappeared when she was eventually identified. She has been waiting longer than most for this moment. Karen Vergata Say her name.

14:19 Eight women, all of them killed by strangulation. According to the man himself, all of them working in the sex industry in the New York area, all of them targeted because and let's be completely clear about this, Hoyerman believed nobody would look for them. That is documented, that is in his own planning materials. He selected them because he thought they were invisible. They were not invisible. They were Maureene, Melissa, Megan, Amber, Sandra, Valerie, Jessica and Karen. They had people who loved them, They had families who waited decades for answers. They were not invisible. He just thought they were. There is one more thing worth saying about this plea. The agreement only covers these eight women. Hoyerman has claimed he has no other victims.

15:09 Investigators are not closing the door. Other remains have been linked to the general Gilgo Beach investigation. The deal does not prevent prosecution for any future victims who are identified. What should not be overlooked is the thirteen year gap between when the bodies were first found in twenty ten and when an arrest was finally made in twenty twenty three. A significant part of that delay has been attributed to disgraced former Suffolk County police Commissioner James Burke, who actively hampered the investigation. Burke has since been convicted of unrelated federal offenses, but he is part of the reason these families waited as long as they did. Rex Hoyerman goes back to court June seventeenth. He will likely spend the rest of his life in a cell. It is not enough, It is never enough. But the eight women he murdered have now heard him say that word guilty. Back in December, we spent time on the sentencing of doctor Salvador Placentia, the physician who called Matthew Perry a moron in text messages while selling him ketamine at inflated prices. Plazentia got thirty months. We talked about what that meant, what it didn't mean, and what was still coming. Wednesday, the next chapter came. Jasvin Sangha, forty two years old, known in law enforcement circles and now in public as the Ketamine Queen,

16:39 was sentenced in federal court to one hundred eighty months in prison. That's fifteen years. Sanga was not a doctor. She was not someone with a medical license who convinced herself she was helping. She was a drug dealer. She operated out of her North Hollywood residence, ran what prosecutors described as a high volume drug trafficking business and mar makeet it herself explicitly as an exclusive supplier for high profile Hollywood clientele. She cultivated that identity. It was her brand access to the famous and desperate. She had pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and crucially, one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. That last count is the one that carries the weight, because on the day Matthew Perry died, Jasvinsanga's product was in his body.

17:32 On the day he was found in his hot tub and Pacific Palisades, he had been injected with at least three shots of ketamine. Sanga supplied that ketamine in the months before his death. Perry paid roughly fifty five thousand dollars in cash for drugs. At one point, prosecutor said he paid two thousand dollars for a vial of ketamine that costs the doctor who sourced it twelve dollars. He was not a sophisticated buyer, making informed choices. He was an addict in the grip of his disease, and the around him saw profit in that. After Perry died, Sanga conspired with others to distance herself from him, changing settings on a communication app to automatically delete her messages. She knew what she had done, she started covering her tracks.

18:14 She faced up to sixty five years. Her attorneys asked for leniency, citing her guilty plea and what they called her acceptance of responsibility. The judge sentenced her to fifteen I want to say something about the other defendants still outstanding in this case, because I think it's easy to lose track. Five people were charged in connection with Perry's death. Placentia thirty months, Mark Chavez, three years of probation and eight months of home detention. Eric Fleming and Kenneth Iwamasa both pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in August twenty twenty four and are still awaiting their sentencing dates. Both of them remain outstanding. Fifteen years for Sanga is the heaviest sentence in this case so far. Is it enough?

18:59 I genuinely don't know how to calculate enough when the answer is that a man is dead. Matthew Perry was fifty four years old. He had been public about his addiction for years. He had written a memoir about it. He had survived things most people don't survive, and he knew it, and he kept going. He was chandler bing for a generation of people, and then he turned out to be a real human being who was even more interesting and more complicated and more honest than the character that made him famous. He deserved better than the people who circled him in the last months of his life, the people who looked at his disease and saw a business opportunity. He deserved doctors who actually acted like doctors, and dealers who were in a different profession entirely. Jasvin Sanga will be in federal prison until she's in her late fifties. Matthew Perry's mother, Suzanne told the courtroom when Placentia was sentenced, there is nothing moronic about that man.

19:59 She was right. Rest in peace, Matthew. That is daily crime injustice. For Friday, April tenth, twenty twenty six, Gerhardt Koenig guilty of attempted manslaughter in Honolulu. The anesthesiologist who planned a birthday hike to a cliff side with syringes in his bag. Will face a judge on August thirteenth. It is not the verdict the prosecution wanted. Haariyel Konig is alive to see it. Rex Hoyermann guilty on eight counts. The Gilgo Beach serial killer finally said the word he had been refusing to say since July twenty twenty three. Eight women, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainerd Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Karen Viergatta. He said strangulation.

20:51 June seventeenth is sentencing day. Jasvine Sanga fifteen years in federal prison for supplying the ketamine that killed Matthew Perry, Eric Fleming and Kenneth Iwamasa still await their sentencing dates. The case is not fully closed. We are back Monday, Do Better. Daily Crime and Justice is produced by Klaroga Shark Media. This program is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or verified legal fact. Information is sourced from court records, internet sources, news outlets, tabloids, and AI assisted research. We acknowledge that not all sources are created equal, and that some information may be incomplete, contested, or subject to change as cases develop. We make every reasonable effort to verify facts before broadcast. Where uncertainty exists, we flag it. Garrett Fischer is a broadcast host. He is not a lawyer, a detective, or your therapist, though he has opinions. The cases discussed in this program involve real people, victim, defendants, families, and witnesses whose lives have been affected in ways no broadcast can fully capture. We name victims because they deserve to be named. We cover defendants because accountability requires witnesses. We do not convict in advance of verdicts, and we do not pretend that verdicts are always justice. Do better