LI man charged with murder for 'senseless' 6-hour backyard torture of high school friend: DA

WARNING: This story contains graphic and disturbing content.

EAST QUOGUE, N.Y. (1010 WINS) – A Long Island man was indicted on a first-degree murder charge this week for torturing his longtime friend in his backyard for six hours before he died, prosecutors said.

Jeremy Allen, 43, of East Quogue, was arraigned Thursday for the murder of Christopher Hahn, 43, which Suffolk County D.A. Ray Tierney described as “vicious, brutal, and senseless.”

In addition to the first-degree murder charge, he faces charges of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded to jail.

Authorities have not said what may have motivated the grisly crime in East Quogue on the night of Friday, Sept. 27.

According to the D.A.'s office, Allen and Hahn—reportedly longtime friends who’d known each other since high school—spent the evening at a bar before they went to Allen’s home on Oakville Avenue in the Oakville Estates neighborhood.

Shortly after midnight, video from Allen’s exterior surveillance camera captured audio of Allen brutally beating Hahn for 18 minutes, prosecutors said.

A few minutes after that, the camera captured video of Allen dragging “the badly bruised and semi-conscious” Hahn onto his rear deck, where he was left “brutally injured and unable to stand,” according to the D.A.

Allen then repeatedly struck Hahn in the head and body with a baseball bat, and when he realized he was still alive, placed a plastic bag over his head and secured it with a loose knot, prosecutors said.

The video then allegedly shows Allen sitting in a lawn chair a few feet from Hahn, watching him struggle to breathe for eight minutes.

Allen eventually got a large knife from his kitchen and “slowly stabbed” Hahn in the neck 10 times as he stood over him and “watched as he took his last breaths, six hours after the alleged torture began,” prosecutors said.

In a brazen move the next morning, Allen allegedly contacted his handyman to clean his house. When the handyman arrived, he saw blood throughout the home and Hahn’s body covered with a blanket with his feet exposed on the back deck, prosecutors said.

Allen then allegedly told him he couldn’t leave given what he'd seen, but the handyman was able to persuade Allen to let him go. The handyman called police, who arrested Allen that day.

According to Newsday , Allen’s defense attorney Colin Astarita said his client had been treated for psychiatric issues and alcoholism in the past. He also reportedly described Allen and Hahn as longtime acquaintances who had only recently reconnected with plans of attending a 12-step meeting together. They ended up drinking together at the bar that night instead, he reportedly said.

Allen is due back in court on Nov. 14 and faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.