UPDATE: Prosecutor Describes a 'Bloodbath,' as East Quogue Man Is Accused of Beating, Stabbing Victim Over Six Hours Early Saturday Morning

UPDATE: 1 p.m. Sunday

A prosecutor described “an incredibly brutal and heinous crime” and a crime scene that was a “bloodbath” as an East Quogue man was arraigned on Sunday morning and held without bail, accused of beating and stabbing a Hampton Bays man to death at the suspect’s home over several hours early Saturday morning.

Jeremy Allen, 43, bearded and clad in a Tyvek suit, was visibly quaking — his attorney, Colin Astarita of Southampton, blamed it on a “host of medical issues,” including alcoholism and cirrhosis — and was tearful as Elena Tomaro, principal assistant district attorney for the Suffolk County D.A.’s Homicide Bureau, described a brutal beating that she said was at least partially captured on a Ring video camera. On his client’s behalf, Astarita entered a not guilty plea. Family members of Allen were in court for his arraignment.

Town Justice Adam Grossman ordered Allen to be held while a grand jury decides whether to indict him on a charge of second-degree murder. Allen has a criminal history dating back to the first of multiple DWI arrests in 2007 and is currently on probation in another case — and has several other charges pending against him, including a rape case involving a victim under 15 years of age, Tomaro said.

Tomaro and Astarita separately offered details that provide an outline of what happened on Saturday, September 28, at Allen’s house in East Quogue.

Astarita said the victim, 43-year-old Christopher Hahn of Hampton Bays, was “an old acquaintance” of Allen whom “he hadn’t seen in years,” when he began texting Allen to reconnect over several days. Astarita said Allen was reluctant and discouraged the idea: “He said the guy was trouble.”

According to the attorney, Hahn’s mother dropped him off at Allen’s East Quogue home on Saturday, and the two planned to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting together. But when they went to the church and found it was the wrong location, they decided instead to go drinking at a local bar instead. They continued drinking throughout the day and into the evening.

Astarita acknowledged that at some point the two, while intoxicated, had “an altercation that grew more violent,” though he did not know the nature of the disagreement.

Tomaro described a violent attack that continued over six hours from midnight to 6 a.m. Saturday, at least partially in view of a Ring video doorbell camera. The video, she said, shows Allen “dragging a defenseless, helpless victim to the back patio of his house, after having beaten him already inside of this location,” and beat him “multiple times” with a baseball bat. Tomaro described the video as “brutal and heinous to watch.”

Allen then went back inside the house, came back and beat him some more, went back into the house a second time, came out with a “large knife” and stabbed Hahn in the head and neck, killing him.

According to the prosecutor, Allen then texted a handyman he employs to “come to his house … to clean up the scene.” The handyman, unaware of what had happened, “arrived at the house in East Quogue to a bloodbath.” On the back patio, he saw the defendant’s dog tugging at a tarp, uncovering the victim’s feet.

Tomaro said Allen then told the handyman: “Now you can’t leave. Now you have to help me clean up. You cannot leave the house.”

The handyman told Allen he needed to get bleach out of his car — then sped away and called police to the scene.

Police earlier had said they arrived at 9:52 a.m. to discover Hahn’s body. Asterita said Allen was taken into custody at the house without incident.

Astarita said little in court, but afterward he suggested that Hahn had “injected himself into my client’s life” and suggested that there is a case to be made for a self-defense claim. He also noted that both were “highly intoxicated.”

Police and prosecutors suggested that Hahn lived with Allen at the East Quogue house, but Astarita said the victim had only been at the house for a few hours.

Tomaro outlined Allen’s criminal history, which included several DWI convictions, one of which he was on probation for at the time of Saturday’s allegation. She said there also is a case pending in Riverhead court involving a charge of criminal purchase of a weapon: In May, she said, he tried to buy a shotgun from Dick’s Sporting Goods, despite an order of protection and pending criminal charges making that illegal. The store would not sell him the weapon.

Another pending case in Southampton Town Court involves charges of rape in the second degree and rape in the third degree, as well as a criminal sex act and acting in a manner injurious to a child, all felonies, involving an underage victim, the prosecutor told the court.

Pending a grand jury investigation, Allen is due back in court on October 4.

UPDATE: 7:06 a.m. Sunday

Suffolk County Police arrested Jeremy Allen, 43, of East Quogue and charged him with second-degree murder in the death of Christopher Hahn, 43, of Hampton Bays. Allen was also charged with tampering with physical evidence.

Southampton Town Police responded to 9 Oakville Avenue after a man called 911 to report a man was found dead in the rear yard of the residence at 9:52 a.m. Hahn, 43, was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death will be determined by an autopsy to be conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office.

Following an investigation by Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives, Allen, the sole occupant of 9 Oakville Avenue, was arrested last night at 10:40 p.m. Hahn was a friend of Allen and was a guest at his house at the time of the murder. Allen was held overnight at the Southampton Town Police Department headquarters and is scheduled to be arraigned at Southampton Town Court on Sunday morning, September 29.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392.

UPDATE: 5:05 p.m.

Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the death of a person whose body was found in a home at the corner of Oakville Avenue and Staller Drive on Saturday morning. Suffolk County Laboratory vehicles were at the scene all day, along with Southampton Town Police and Quogue Village Police.

ORIGINAL STORY

Southampton Town Police are investigating what they have termed “a suspicious death” in the area of Oakville Estates in East Quogue on Saturday morning, September 28.

Town Police patrol units responded to the scene at 9:52 a.m., and there will be an ongoing police presence in the area during the investigation, according to police.

No details were immediately available, but police said that “it appears to be an isolated incident, and there is no immediate danger to the public at this time.”

Suffolk County Police are involved in the investigation, as it involves a death.