One by one, they spoke of what murderous drunk driver Martin Heidgen stole from them – 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 Heidgen killed as they returned from what was a joyous wedding on Long Island in July, 2005.
“I should not be dismissed as a grieving mother,” said Jennifer Flynn, whose daughter, Katie, was killed. “Because he drove 70 miles an hour and mowed us down with a head on crash, I was left to pick up my most beautiful, loving, first born, 7-year-old daughter’s head off the floor of a limousine.”
She told of how she told the first police officer on the scene “that my life was over.”
“There was nothing exaggerated or dramatized in that statement,” she said.”Living without Kate is more difficult than I can or care to convey, but the manner in which she was stolen leaves me breathless. One man chose to end her life. He stole her life. He ended ours.”
Her husband Neill, said that if it wasn’t for his other children he would have committed suicide.
In all, eight relatives took the stand – four from the Flynns and four from the family of 59-year-old limo driver Stanley Rabinowitz. All demanded that Heidgen receive the maximum sentence of 25 years to life for the two murders he was convicted of – a rare verdict in a drunken driving case. Pronouncement of the sentence is expected later today.
“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.
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.