Jeremy Allen, of East Quogue, sentenced to life without parole in torture killing of Christopher Hahn

A Suffolk judge told a convicted East Quogue killer that he committed the most "brutal, torturous and sadistic murder" he’d seen in nearly 50 years practicing law before he sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jeremy Allen, 44, is the first defendant in the county to be handed down a full life sentence in nearly a decade, prosecutors said.

"If New York State had the death penalty, this would be the prime case to be considered for that sentence," State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei told a sobbing Allen.

Allen was convicted by a jury last month on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence for the Sept. 17, 2024 torture killing of 43-year-old Christopher Hahn, of Hampton Bays.

Evidence at trial included gruesome home surveillance footage showing Allen repeatedly striking Hahn with a baseball bat, covering his head with a garbage bag and cutting his throat with a knife before he gasped to his final breath. The attack continued over more than six hours, evidence showed.

"Die," Allen could be heard saying in the video recorded from his back deck. "It’s not so hard. Just die."

Prosecutors froze and zoomed in on the video to show what they alleged was Allen smiling as he sat next to Hahn’s body in his final minutes.

Establishing that Allen prolonged Hahn’s death and took pleasure in the killing was crucial to securing a first-degree murder conviction. Defense attorney Colin Astarita, of Hampton Bays, conceded his client committed the killing in his opening statement, but asked the jury to consider a lesser second-degree murder charge that would have made Allen parole eligible after 25 years.

Assistant District Attorney Elena Tomaro told Mazzei Hahn was not killed in a "fit of rage," and that Allen, who she said had not expressed remorse, deserved no mercy from the judge.

"It was cold, calculated, deliberate and vicious," Tomaro said of the killing, adding that the video showed Allen clearly enjoying the torture.

Suffolk homicide detectives and Southampton Town Police found Allen and Hahn had planned to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting together in Manorville the evening before the killing, but ended up at a farm brewery instead, according to the evidence presented at trial. Afterward they took an Uber back to Allen’s home on Oakville Avenue.

The two were longtime friends since attending nearby high schools but had been estranged before the killings, according to testimony. Hahn had accused Allen of owing him $1,000 for a prior boat deal, but they seemed to patch things up before agreeing to meet up, text messages shared with the jury showed.

Tomaro told the judge the video of the killing will last forever with anyone who has seen it.

"It’s hard to believe it until you see it with your own eyes," the prosecutor said. "And then it’s impossible to forget."

Hahn’s brother, Derek, sat through the playing of the video at trial and said Allen deserved the "utmost punishment."

"Even that is not justice," he said of life without parole.

Dominique Hahn, the victim’s mother, said there is no such thing as closure when a loved one is taken away in such a "cruel" manner.

"I hope you rot in hell, you piece of [expletive]," she told Allen to applause from supporters in the gallery.

Dominique Hahn described her son as a funny and good person who enjoyed fishing, dancing and traveling. The ocean was among his favorite places, she said. When he had difficulties in life, he fought through it.

"He always got back on his feet no matter how difficult his journey was," the mother told the court. "I miss him so much."

Friend Blake Cornell said in a letter read by Tomaro that the "darkness" that looms over Hahn’s killing should not "outshine his spirit."

"He lit up every room he entered," Cornell wrote of his "warm, genuine" friend.

Astarita declined to address the court and seek a lighter sentence, saying he would rely on the presentencing report submitted to the court.

Allen, wearing lightwashed jeans hanging below his waist and a blue dress shirt under a navy blue blazer, stared at the floor throughout the proceeding, never looking back at the grieving family seated behind him. When it was his turn to address the court, he asked for a five-minute recess, testing the patience of the judge.

After Mazzei ordered him returned to the courtroom from his holding area, Allen told the Hahn family he was sorry, a sentiment that was met with disbelief.

"I can’t figure out what I did," Allen said, bawling as he spoke of sitting through the video at trial. "I’m bipolar and it’s just eating at me every day."

Mazzei said he, too, was struggling to process how such a "horrible, sadistic" killing could have taken place. The judge said the fact that it was captured on camera perhaps added to the weight of it.

"I just don’t get it," Mazzei said.

The last life-without-parole sentence in Suffolk County came in November 2016 after Stoker Olukoton Williams was convicted of the 2013 murder of Shalece Cunningham at the Macarthur Inn in Bohemia. He is incarcerated at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate Wallkill. The most recent state prison records show 303 inmates were serving full life sentences in 2024.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.