Murder suspect Michael McHenry, of Long Beach, pretended to look for help as his girlfriend was dying, a Suffolk prosecutor says

A Long Island murder suspect pretended to search for help as his girlfriend was dying inside her vehicle in an effort to "disguise his identity as the killer," a Suffolk prosecutor said at his arraignment Wednesday.

Michael McHenry, 40, of Long Beach, pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment charging him with second-degree murder in the May 16 killing of Juliann Bachmann, 30, of Bellport, a mother of three children. He was ordered to be held at the Suffolk County jail without bail by state Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski.

Assistant District Attorney Eric Aboulafia said McHenry’s story to police about what happened the morning Bachmann was killed has been contradicted by video evidence and statements from several eyewitnesses, including a high-ranking Suffolk County police official who spotted the couple on his way home from work.

Aboulafia said McHenry was driving Bachmann’s 2013 Hyundai Sonata erratically on Victory Avenue in Yaphank at 7:20 a.m. when he began to follow closely behind the unmarked police vehicle of Capt. Michael Messina, of the District Commanders Section of the Suffolk County Police Department. Messina, still in uniform following his shift, spotted blood on the headrest of the vehicle and what appeared to be an unconscious woman in the back seat. The captain tracked the vehicle to the Speedway gas station on Horseblock Road, where McHenry said he was trying to get help for his injured girlfriend, Aboulafia said.

"The statements [McHenry] made were not only inconsistent with each other, but conflicted with witness interviews and video surveillance footage ... all of which exposed his lies and his desperation," Aboulafia told the court.

The prosecutor also said McHenry told police Bachmann was driving him back from the Patchogue train station earlier that morning, seemingly unaware that trains had stopped running at midnight due to a labor strike.

After obtaining a search warrant for Bachmann’s vehicle, investigators found a blood-stained knife inside, the prosecutor said.

Autopsy results show Bachmann suffered stab wounds to both the left side of her neck and chest, Aboulafia said. The neck wound, which the prosecutor said ultimately caused her death, was more than three inches deep.

Investigators also heard from two additional witnesses who are alleged to have seen McHenry and Bachmann fighting in the vehicle after leaving a Shirley motel where they dropped off one of her friends, prosecutors said.

"Ms. Bachmann yelled multiple times, ‘He’s going to kill me,’"  Aboulafia said one witness told police.

A different witness also said they saw Bachmann pleading for help as they watched McHenry pull her out of the vehicle in the parking lot of an automotive shop. Aboulafia said that witness’ account was corroborated by store surveillance footage that picked up audio of him shouting expletives at her.

“[The footage] also revealed through a multitude of camera angles the sheer brutality that this defendant inflicted upon Ms. Bachmann," Aboulafia said. "The surveillance showed her being pulled out of the driver's seat by [McHenry] … as she was clutching the left side of her neck."

Defense attorney David Arpino, of Hauppauge, who was appointed by the court to represent McHenry along with co-counsel Katherine Fernandez, of Uniondale, said he needed to review the discovery turned over by prosecutors before commenting on his client’s case.

"My client has the presumption of innocence," Arpino said.

Prosecutors said McHenry has an extensive criminal history and is currently on parole for an attempted assault conviction in Nassau County that also involved a stabbing.

McHenry is due back in court July 17.

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.