Couple Killed and Dismembered Their Roommates With Meat Cleavers and Scattered Their Remains Sentenced

Three people have been sentenced to prison for their roles in the 2024 killings and dismemberment of Malcolm “Craig” Brown, 53, and Donna Conneely, 59, in Amityville, New York.

Jeffrey Mackey, Steven Brown and Alexis Nieves each pleaded guilty to charges tied to the deaths, NBC 4 reports.

On Jan. 13, Mackey, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and received a 22-year prison sentence. Nieves, 35, was sentenced to 11 years on a misdemeanor conviction.

Steven Brown — a cousin of Malcolm Brown — pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to five years.

All three were formally charged in April 2024 along with a fourth defendant, Amanda Wallace, Steven Brown’s partner. Amanda and Steven previously pleaded guilty to concealment of a human corpse in September 2024, PIX11 reported. Wallace was later sentenced to 1½ to 3 years in prison, with parole eligibility, in November 2025, according to state prison records cited by The Journal News reports.

Authorities said all four defendants lived in the same Amityville home as the victims.

Prosecutors said the defendants received reduced sentences after claiming they were abused by the victims, under the New York Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act — a law Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney criticized.

“And 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, the New York Post reports.

Mackey’s attorney also cited alleged abuse in comments to NBC 4: “Jeffrey Mackey and his wife were physically, emotionally and financially abused by the victims. Those facts brought up and motivated these crimes.”

In court, Mackey expressed remorse during sentencing, PIX 11 reports: “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 added, “I’m sorry.”

Members of Malcolm Brown’s family criticized the sentences, particularly Steven Brown’s five-year term.

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

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

The convictions come nearly two years after the victims were killed, according to prosecutors. On Feb. 27, 2024, Mackey allegedly stabbed Malcolm Brown repeatedly in the neck and once in the torso, Tierney said in an April 2024 press release. Prosecutors said Conneely was stabbed in the neck as she tried to intervene, and was then strangled.

Authorities also alleged that Nieves struck Conneely in the head with a meat tenderizer and stabbed her, the New York Post reports. Prosecutors said Conneely suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck and back.

Two days later, on Feb. 29, 2024, a student discovered a severed left arm at Southards Pond Park in Babylon Village, New York. Investigators later recovered a second arm nearby, along with “a female head and torso, a female arm, and parts of female legs on the opposite side of the park.”

Additional human remains were found in West Babylon and at Bethpage State Park on March 5, 2024. The victims were later identified as Malcolm Brown and Conneely.

Investigators then traced the case back to the Amityville home, where police recovered a large folding knife, a large kitchen knife and two meat cleavers, Tierney said in April 2024. Authorities also said they found blood in multiple areas of the residence.

Prosecutors alleged the victims were dismembered in the home’s bathroom, and that the remains were left in multiple locations, including Southards Pond Park, Bethpage State Park and West Babylon.