Man Convicted in Flower Girl Murder Case

[Walter Cronkite]

Martin Heidgen hears that the jury has found him guilty of two counts of murder in the deaths of Stanley Rabinowitz and Katie Flynn.

A jury convicted a man on Tuesday of murder for driving drunk the wrong way on a highway, slamming head-on into a wedding limousine and killing the chauffeur and a 7-year-old flower girl.

Prosecutors said Martin Heidgen, 25, drove his pickup truck more than 2 miles on the Long Island highway before ramming head-on into the limousine in July 2005. They contended Heidgen never tried to stop and turned slightly toward the limousine in the seconds before the crash.

Heidgen, of Valley Stream, had at least 14 drinks before getting behind the wheel; his blood-alcohol level, 0.28, was more than three times the 0.08 legal limit in New York state, prosecutors said.

Flynn, 7, was decapitated in the collision, which occurred in July of last year on Long Island, N.Y. Five members of her family were injured.

Kate Flynn and limousine driver Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, were killed. Five other members of the Flynn family were injured.

A scream echoed through the courtroom as the murder conviction was read, with several of the jurors in tears as the slain girl's mother collapsed sobbing into her weeping husband's arms. The verdict followed a gut-wrenching, five-week trial that was filled with gruesome images and testimony.

Jennifer Flynn, who testified about holding her daughter's decapitated head immediately after the wreck, praised the jury for its decision.

"It was the right verdict," she said. "I'm happy for that."

Jurors, who deliberated for five days, saw a horrifying video from the limousine's surveillance camera that showed Heidgen's pickup truck barreling toward the car moments before the crash. It ended with the metal-on-metal crunch of the two vehicles colliding.

Juror Michael DeRita said deliberations became "pretty fierce," but ultimately jurors agreed unanimously on the murder charge.

"He voluntarily was intoxicated," DeRita said. "He got into the car, he turned the key, he drove, he turned around, he avoided stimuli to make him get out of the way. It wasn't an accident because he brought this on himself and he caused the death of two people."

In closing arguments, Heidgen's defense attorney called the murder charge "extreme" and suggested jurors return a guilty verdict on a lesser count of criminally negligent homicide, which carries a four-year prison term.

Defense attorney Stephen LaMagna complained that prosecutors held Heidgen to the "same standard as a cold-blooded murderer" but insisted, "this is a kid who drank too much and got lost on the way home."

The verdict followed a gut-wrenching, five-week trial filled with gruesome images and testimony.

Prosecutors will ask for the maximum of 25 years to life at the Nov. 20 sentencing for Heidgen, who stood stoically beside his two attorneys through the verdict. Jurors could have convicted him on the lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter, which carries up to 15 years in prison.

"Thank God," said Keith Rabinowitz, son of the dead limo driver. "It's about time. I'm glad that he was prosecuted and the truth came out."

Heidgen also was convicted of assault and driving while intoxicated.

Source: AP

[AndySMC]

About time

Media is flooded with warnings, liquor companies include warnings on the labels, bars offer to call a cab, laws stipulate the illegality of driving while under the influence and still the perpetrators continue to murder the innocent in their paths. This is murder, while even I could not make the leap to first degree murder, second degree fits the bill.

How many more families have to be ripped apart, how many more mothers have to hold their childs heads as the last image of their babies before people understand this for what it is. If you intentionally drink alcoholic beverages and then place the keys in the ignition of a motor vehicle, you turn that vehicle into a weapon. Just like any other weapon, whether you just mean to wield it around and show it off, or if you intend to take a life, if it goes off its still murder (or at the least attempted murder.)

"Second degree murder is such a killing without premeditation, as in the heat of passion or in a sudden quarrel or fight. Malice in second degree murder may be implied from a death due to the reckless lack of concern for the life others (such as firing a gun into a crowd, or bashing someone with any deadly weapon)." http://dictionary.law.com/default2.A...ed=1303&;bold=

You would not grab a loaded gun and go waving it around a mall just to see if you could make it from one end to the other without incident, and you should never get behind the wheel of a vehicle under the influence of any drug either. There is no excuse for this behavior. There is no way possible that this individual did not know that it was illegal and the risks involved. Five people will have to live with those images and the loss every day for the rest of their lives, a seven year old girl will never know her first love, and the driver that just would not call a cab lives and walks with the time to live out the rest of his life.

The statutes need to be tightened and the crime needs to be properly addressed for what it is. Maybe then this little girl and the drivers lives will have at least served to protect other innocent victims in the future. The leniency and slaps on the wrist need to stop.

Approximately every 31 minutes someone is killed by a drunk driver and every 2 minutes someone is injured, and in the majority of alcohol related accidents the drunk driver is not injured or barely injured.

"Traffic fatalities in alcohol-related crashes fell by 2.4 percent, from 17,105 in 2003 to 16,694 in 2004. Although this is definitely an improvement, it is still a lot of dead fellow citizens. To put this in perspective, it is equivalent to a fully loaded Boeing 747 crashing, and leaving no survivors, every nine days all year long – over 39 airplanes in total.

The 16,694 fatalities in alcohol-related crashes during 2004 represent an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 31 minutes." quoted from http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-dr...tatistics.html

This is a crime that has been getting juvenile worthy discipline, and I for one believe it is about time it got an adult sized upgrade.

[Flying High]

I think the man deserves to die just as horribly as that innocent child decapitated by his heinous act.

[Stallion]

My biggest problem with the verdict is the fact that the two hold-outs finally had to cave in to majority rule. They didn't feel the man was guilty of murder, plain and simple. I don't either, not when there are people out there who routinely and regularly commit murder and get slaps on the wrist. Why do we always make an example out of the people we can catch, people who never intended to kill anyone, but through sheer stupidity wind up doing so? This guy deserves punishment for being stupid enough to get behind the wheel of a car when he should have been sleeping it off, he is guilty of being stupid and reckless, but murder?

Before you condemn my decision, realize that I worked for a news organization at one time; we got verdicts and decisions faxed in from the District Attorney's office all the time. This one and that one getting off with much lighter sentences than this for willful malice - killing others due to bar fights, gang fights, youthful offense, etc. Here is a guy who never meant to get into trouble, never meant to kill anyone, and he gets a stronger sentence than most offenders. This verdict won't make drunk drivers think twice, how can it, they are too drunk to think straight to begin with.