As the New York County District Attorney’s Office nears an announcement of the trial date for alleged killer Martin Grace, police departments across the state are coordinating to provide evidence in other slayings, all reportedly linked to the Brooklyn resident.

Grace, recently nicknamed the “blind serial killer” by local media, faces charges for the brutal 2004 rape and murder of hip-hop artist Tayna Gold. On April 21 of that year, Grace allegedly confronted the singer and announced his intentions to kill her. The 21-year-old was found murdered the next day, in a fashion matching Grace’s description.

According to the city’s District Attorney’s office and media relations sources from five police departments -- including cities Albany, Conquest, Rochester and Syracuse -- Grace is under suspicion for at least 10 other murders that occurred during the past decade. Several of these investigators report that Grace shared similar “death details” with those victims, as prosecutors claim he did with Gold five years ago.

This statewide cooperation is a result of District Attorney William V. Taylor’s pursuit of corroborating evidence in the Tanya Gold murder case, sources said.

While officials did not reveal victims’ identities due to the “ongoing nature” of their investigations, many said Grace personally knew these victims, and relocated to other cities within days of their deaths.

According to police department sources, most of these deaths were initially determined to be accidental, or suicides. Others had simply remained unsolved.

“During our follow-up investigations, we discovered anecdotal evidence that Grace told (a female victim) she would hang herself. The next day, it happened,” said Jeffrey Spiro, a media relations officer for the NYPD. The incident occurred in 2006, he said. “Before her death, the victim had shared this information with her boyfriend and family. She had worked with Grace the week before, at Quarter-Note,” a local recording studio where Grace was employed at the time.

In addition to this “prediction,” Spiro stated the implement used in the victim’s once-apparent suicide could not have caused the deep cuts found on her neck. “We also have other evidence linking Grace to the scene,” he said.

Police media specialist Charlene Acker cited a similar 2006 death in Brooklyn, initially ruled as accidental. A resident, who worked with Grace for nearly a year, was warned by Grace to “be careful around his (workshop) rotary saw,” Acker said. Three days later, as the man worked alone at his home, his hand was severed by the tool. He died from the wound.

Based on police interviews of the victim’s wife, Grace soon became a suspect in that death, but “there wasn’t enough to charge him,” Acker said. “That was before [New York police] linked him in that bad business with the singer.”

Marian Cannon, Grace’s public defense attorney, called the statewide collaboration “a witch hunt,” and “another scare tactic in [District Attorney] Will Taylor’s unholy crusade to punish an innocent man.”

“Martin Grace did not commit these crimes,” she said. “Yes, he knew some of these individuals, and has not denied informing these people of those crassly-called ‘death details.’ But Grace has alibis for every incident. I’m appalled at the conspiracy Taylor is trying to build around this unwell man. Suffering from a mental illness does not mean he is a ‘blind serial killer.’”

Grace, who is currently under evaluation at Brinkvale Psychiatric Center, earned the peculiar nickname because he is legally blind. According to an anonymous source familiar with the case, the 56-year-old’s blindness is psychosomatic. This condition is often caused by emotional trauma.

The nickname is erroneous, as Grace’s condition did not occur until two years ago, the source said. This was several months after the final murder in which he is a suspect occurred. “Grace insists he didn’t personally kill these people,” the source said. “He is a ... complex man.”

The wife of the 2006 Brooklyn victim disagreed. The New York Journal-Ledger contacted her after deducing her identity from information provided by officials.

“If you saw what I saw that day,” she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, “and you knew [Grace] and heard what he told [my husband], you’d know. You’d know it in your heart. That man is a stone-cold killer.”