Rensselaer County prosecutors will not be able to use Justin Mann’s statement to police in his upcoming trial for the deaths of four Lansingburgh residents.

County Judge Debra Young’s ruling is a blow to prosecutors but the ruling makes it clear that prosecutors have other evidence they believe ties Mann, 25, and his co-defendant, James White, 39, to the deaths of Brandi Mells, 22; Shanta Myers, 36; Jeremiah Myers, 11; and Shanise Myers, 5.

The four were found tied up with their throats slashed in their basement apartment at 158 Second Ave. shortly before Christmas 2017.

As part of a larger decision on a series of defense motions, Young ruled on Feb. 15 that Mann’s statement is inadmissible in court. His attorney Joseph Ahearn argued at a hearing last summer that police ignored Mann’s statements that he was not going to talk to them.

Mann, who is learning disabled, repeatedly told State Police Investigator Jason DeLuca of the Troop G Major Crimes Unit, “I don’t talk” over a multi-hour interrogation at Schenectady police headquarters.

At the suppression hearing in July, DeLuca told Ahearn and Young that he took that to mean Mann would not snitch, not that he was invoking his right not to answer police questions without an attorney present.

It’s unclear exactly what Mann ended up telling police that would have potentially implicated him or White in the crimes. The statement has not been released to the public.

White and Mann are charged with nine counts of first-degree murder, four counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree robbery and two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

Ahearn said it was clear that anything Mann said during the interrogation should be thrown out.

“The State Police violated my client’s constitutional rights, resulting in the suppression of any statement made to the police,” he said.

The Rensselaer County District Attorney's office declined to comment on the decision.

In the ruling, Young said prosecutors didn’t oppose her preventing them from using Mann’s statement.

But prosecutors can ask Young to allow them to use the statement if Mann takes the stand in his own defense.

The decision to ban the statement was one of several in a ruling on a July hearing where defense attorneys for Mann and White challenged whether various pieces of evidence, including video and photos used to identify the pair, should be suppressed.

The ruling also provides new information about how police tied Mann and White to the slayings, what they seized from the Hamilton Street home where Mann lived with his parents and how officers decided to make the arrests.

The two men were arrested on Dec. 29, three days after the victims' bodies were discovered by the landlord.

According to information in the ruling, investigators showed photos of the suspects taken from CDTA video to Mann's landlords. Police believe Mann and White took CDTA buses and rode bicycles from Schenectady to Troy and back. The landlords identified one of the men as Mann.

The defense argued at the July hearing that the video was inconclusive and that detectives had done shoddy police work.

As investigators built a case, they asked a state parole officer to make a home visit and bring Mann outside to take a Breathalyzer test in order to arrest him without a conflict. Mann was on parole for a robbery conviction at the time.

At the home, the parole officer saw White on the couch playing a video game.

Mann was arrested outside the home, White was arrested inside.

White's attorney Steve Sharp declined to comment. White was previously represented by attorney Greg Cholakis.

Cholakis and Ahearn had challenged the validity of several search warrants, arguing that police misled the court when they gave the incorrect date for when they discovered a bicycle one of the men owned and the incorrect address of the driveway police said the two men used to access the basement apartment at 158 Second Ave.

The court dismissed both those objections as well as others the attorneys made in an attempt to get the arrests invalidated and evidence thrown out that had been gathered from warrants of the crime scene as well as defendants’ cell phones, social media and email accounts.

Earlier this week, Young set a trial date of April 29 for the pair.