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Posted: Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:37AM
Sentencing Today in Long Island Wedding Crash
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MINEOLA, NY (AP) -- One by one they sat in the witness stand Wednesday to tell Martin Heidgen what they had lost: A loving father and husband. A beloved daughter and granddaughter.
In a courtroom fraught with emotion, the relatives of a limousine driver and a 7-year-old flower girl killed by drunken driver Heidgen testified about the impact of the July 2005 deaths on their lives. Little Katie Flynn's grandfather punctuated his comments by denigrating Heidgen as a four-letter expletive.
Eight relatives were scheduled to take the stand - four from the Flynns and four from the family of Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, the limo driver. All urged the maximum sentence of 25 years to life on Heidgen's two murder convictions, a rare verdict in a drunken driving case.
``He deserved a chance to live until a ripe old age,'' said Joyce Rabinowitz, the driver's ex-wife. ``With Stan gone, there is a void in my sons' lives.''
Sons Nolan and Keith testified as well, with the latter recalling how his father would often act as a designated driver.
``My father was the guy who would give someone who was drinking too much a ride home for free,'' said Keith Rabinowitz.
The sentencing was expected later Wednesday.
Prosecutors, who showed jurors a video of the crash several times during the trial, contend Heidgen never tried to stop and turned slightly toward the limousine moments before impact. Arguing he was in ``self-destruct mode,'' they convinced a jury that Heidgen's actions constituted a ``depraved indifference to human life.''
Defense attorney Stephen LaMagna doesn't deny that his client should be held responsible, just not for murder.
``This is a kid who drank too much and got lost on the way home,'' the attorney pleaded with jurors during his closing argument. He said he is confident the verdict will be overturned by an appeals court.
During the trial, LaMagna questioned the accuracy of blood tests that revealed his client had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.28 percent, three and half times the legal limit in New York. After the verdict, he claimed jurors discussed the case with their relatives, conferred secretly outside the jury room and weighed facts they should not have considered, including an erroneous report that Heidgen had a previous DWI conviction.
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Alan Honorof ruled after a day-long hearing earlier this month that he was ``unconvinced'' that any juror misconduct took place.
Honorof took the unusual step of sequestering the jury after its fourth day of deliberations when they reported they were unable to decide between a murder or a manslaughter conviction. Although LaMagna consented to the sequestration, several legal observers said he may be able to successfully argue the jurors were pressured into returning a murder conviction, which came back the following day.
Jury forewoman Loy Malcolm later said she regretted voting for a murder conviction and said she did so only after tiring of the tense bickering inside the jury room.
On the opening day of the trial last September, Katie Flynn's parents and grandparents testified about the night of the crash, sometimes tearfully recalling how they were all reveling in the afterglow of a glorious family wedding in Bayville when their lives suddenly changed.
``It was quiet, and then the car exploded,'' recalled Jennifer Flynn, who found her decapitated daughter moments later. She then remembered telling her father, ``Kate's dead.''
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