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 Jeremy Allen, 43, on Saturday morning and found a beaten and bloody body under a tarp in the backyard, News day reports.
The owner then cryptically told the maintenance staff, “You can’t leave now.” “Now you have to help clean the house,” Suffolk County Deputy Prosecutor Elena Tomaro said Sunday.
The anonymous handyman responded by stating that he needed more supplies to properly complete the job, but instead called Southampton City Police, who arrived on the scene shortly before 10 a.m.
Police pronounced 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 Saturday for allegedly beating his friend to death
Prosecutors say Allen called a handyman to help him clean his East Quogue home when the handyman found Christopher Hahn’s beaten and bloody body under a tarp in the backyard.
Authorities said Allen and Hahn were drinking together at a bar Friday night after planning to attend a meeting for people struggling with addiction, Newsday reports.
At some point during the course of the night, Allen and Hahn got into a heated dispute, which ended with Allen punching the victim for several hours starting at midnight, prosecutors say.
He then allegedly dragged Hahn’s “helpless, helpless body” to the yard, 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 view of the home’s surveillance camera, before calling maintenance staff.
Tomaro described Sunday’s images as “brutal and atrocious to see.”
But defense attorney Colin Astarita said he believes his client may have a defense claim.
“He was in his own house,” he argued, saying he believes Allen and Hahn were simply lifelong acquaintances who had recently gotten back in touch.
He also said Hahn went to his client’s home Friday night despite being told to stay away, and claimed 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 of drunk driving multiple times since 2007, most recently arrested for criminal purchase of a gun in May, when he attempted to purchase a shotgun but was unable to do so due to his previous criminal convictions. . .
“That (effort) was thwarted by Dick’s Sporting Goods employees,” 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 driving while intoxicated in Ulster County.
Prosecutors are now expected to present the murder case against him to a grand jury on Wednesday, and Allen is due back in court on Friday, although his attorneys say his appearance will likely be waived pending the grand jury indictment. .