December 2, 2008
Complete coverage: Limo crash
Limo crash, trial, sentencing, aftermath
A drunk driver kills two and is convicted of second-degree murder.
Parents of DWI victim call for tougher laws
The parents of a little girl who was killed in a high-profile drunken driving crash in 2005 spoke up Tuesday to support a proposed law that prosecutors say would bolster their chances of putting drunken drivers who seriously hurt and kill people behind bars.
Emotions high as wrong-way driver gets prison sentence
Almost 20 months after he drove drunk the wrong way on the Meadowbrook Parkway and killed two people, Martin Heidgen stood up and said he was sorry Wednesday, the day he was sentenced -- but the victims' families refused to hear it.
Court denies new trial in limo crash case
A jury forewoman's word that she and her peers relied on inadmissible evidence when they voted to convict Martin Heidgen of murder was not enough Tuesday to convince a Nassau judge to set aside Heidgen's verdict.
Judge to hold juror-misconduct hearing in limo crash case
The jurors who convicted Martin Heidgen of murder for driving drunk on the wrong side of the Meadowbrook Parkway will be called back to court next week to testify about their deliberations, a judge ruled Monday.
Overturned verdicts rare but not unheard-of
It's not easy to get a verdict thrown out over jury misconduct, and no one knows that better than Robert Gottlieb.
Limo crash jurors may be called back
An unusual effort to bring jurors in the Martin Heidgen drunken driving case back to court to discuss how they arrived at their guilty verdict moved forward Tuesday as prosecutors agreed that a hearing on the issue should be held.
Jury was tainted: lawyer
Martin Heidgen's murder conviction ought to be set aside because jurors broke the rules during their deliberations by discussing the case with their families, meeting secretly to confer and considering facts that were off limits, Heidgen's lawyer claims in a motion.
Legacy of the Heidgen case
For six weeks, drunken driving in America was typified by one case: the murder trial of Martin Heidgen.
THE LIMO VERDICT
Jury speaks: It's murder
In the last minute of Martin Heidgen's six-week trial, jurors crumbled under the emotional weight of the case, sobbing as their forewoman pronounced Heidgen guilty of murder.
THE LIMO VERDICT: THE SURVIVORS
For two families, relief
Walking out of the courtroom after Martin Heidgen's guilty verdict on murder charges, a look of serenity washed over Keith Rabinowitz's face.
THE LIMO VERDICT: THE APPEAL
Jury decision seen as vulnerable
Citing trial irregularities, a last-minute decision to isolate the jury, and murder charges that pushed the envelope for drunken driving cases, several prominent local defense attorneys said yesterday they believed Martin Heidgen's murder conviction had a strong chance of being reduced on appeal.
THE LIMO VERDICT: THE DNA
Mystery man in DNA swap convicted
In a bizarre epilogue to a trial packed with twists, the man who authorities say helped Martin Heidgen trip up a DNA test also was convicted yesterday, of second-degree robbery, a law enforcement source said.
THE LIMO VERDICT: THE MOTHER
Each day, his mom held on to faith
Margot Aponte sat with her head bowed as the jury announced that her son was guilty of murder.
LIMO CRASH TRIAL JUDGE SEQUESTERS JURY
No verdict, no going home
The frustration on the faces of the jurors was reflected in the faces of others in the courtroom, as Acting State Supreme Court Justice Alan Honorof read aloud the note saying the jury in Martin Heidgen's murder trial could not reach a verdict.
The move to sequester: Is judge coercing jury?
A judge's unusual decision to sequester the jury in the Martin Heidgen trial may push them - perhaps improperly - to a verdict, according to attorneys.
LIMO CRASH TRIAL
Defendant's disadvantage
Juries are often ready to give up too soon, judges believe.
LIMO CRASH TRIAL
Judge 'objective decision maker'
Acting State Supreme Court Justice Alan Honorof has presided over some of the highest profile cases that have come through the Nassau County courthouse this year - the Martin Heidgen murder trial and plea deals for several key players in the Roslyn school district's $11.2-million embezzlement scheme.
Crash trial a time of sadness, rage
It was the last day of the trial before the case went to the jury. Clutching her chest, Rita Rabinowitz looked up at the skylights in the hallway of the Nassau County courthouse, and with tears in her eyes let out a guttural wail. It was a cry of anger, frustration and loss that was a month in the making, ever since the trial of Martin Heidgen forced her to rein in her emotions.
Limo case goes to jury
A Nassau jury began deliberations yesterday in the murder case against Martin Heidgen, as family members of the two people killed in a crash last year on the Meadowbrook Parkway began a nervous vigil outside the courtroom.
But is it murder?
Martin Heidgen was the only person in the courtroom yesterday who didn't look at the video of his own headlights speeding up the Meadowbrook Parkway toward the front end of a limousine.
Expert barred from testifying
It was State Police Sgt. Scott Crawford's job to figure out how the crash that killed Katie Flynn and Stanley Rabinowitz happened.
LIMO CRASH VIDEO MOMENTS BEFORE DYING
Their final seconds on tape
The glare of oncoming headlights and the explosion of crashing metal were the last things limo driver Stanley Rabinowitz saw and heard before he died, prosecutors said. They were also the last things a Nassau jury saw and heard before prosecutors rested their case in Martin Heidgen's murder trial yesterday.
Joye Brown: Driver's widow describes a love story
Rita Rabinowitz took her daughter's hand, holding tight as the DVD began to play before a crowded, hushed courtroom. And there, as she sat watching, she saw her husband's death just as he saw it that night -- through his eyes, from the front of the limousine in which he died.
Jurors hear blood-alcohol content testimony
More than a week of legal wrangling over murder suspect Martin Heidgen's blood ended yesterday when a Nassau judge finally allowed a toxicologist to tell jurors Heidgen had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into a limousine in July 2005, killing two people.
DNA testimony allowed
A Nassau judge yesterday allowed testimony about a DNA test that links Martin Heidgen to a blood sample that prosecutors say shows he had as many as 14 drinks in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into a limousine, killing two people.
Witnesses tell of speeding pickup
Stephen Weber was pulling onto the northbound lanes of the Meadowbrook Parkway when he noticed something strange: A pickup truck on the other side of the median going the same direction he was, he told jurors yesterday in Nassau County Court.
State Police to probe blood mishandling
The New York State Police internal affairs bureau is investigating the mishandling of blood evidence in Martin Heidgen's second-degree murder trial after the sample was thrown out of the trial yesterday, a spokesman for the agency said.
'Self-destruct mode'
Strapped to a hospital bed 10 hours after his pickup truck slammed into a limousine on the Meadowbrook Parkway in July 2005, Martin Heidgen told a police officer that he was distraught and hopeless when he got in his vehicle, the officer testified yesterday.
Dad shows sympathy in court
Joseph Dell'anno has always felt that the drunken driver who was convicted of killing his daughter got a lighter sentence than he should have because State Police mishandled blood evidence in the case.
Evidence bungled?
The blood sample that prosecutors say shows that Martin Heidgen had as many as 14 drinks in his system on the night he drove the wrong way on the Meadowbrook Parkway appears to have been mishandled, according to court testimony yesterday.
Stunned by the sight
Michael Tangney didn't know it was his family inside the ruined limousine when he came upon the horrific accident scene on the Meadowbrook Parkway, he told a Nassau jury yesterday. He realized what had happened only when he looked inside and saw his brother suspended from the bent metal, his splintered legs wrapped around what had once been the limo's bar.
The night that Katie was killed
Jennifer and Neil Flynn told a Nassau jury yesterday in wrenching detail how a relaxing limousine ride home after one of the happiest days of their lives last summer ended in an instant when a pickup truck driving the wrong way on the Meadowbrook Parkway smashed head-on into them, wrecking their lives as thoroughly as it did the limo.
Trial in fatal limo crash set to begin
Twelve Nassau County jurors will begin hearing testimony today in one of the highest-profile drunken driving trials ever on Long Island.
Fatal limo crash trial begins this week
It was a crash so horrific that then-Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon called it murder.
Lawyer wants alcohol test out
An attorney for the man prosecutors say killed two people after speeding drunk the wrong way up the Meadowbrook Parkway last July fought to suppress crucial evidence yesterday, as the father of the little girl killed in the crash raged against him for doing so.
Driver accused of having death wish
Martin Heidgen was trying to kill himself as he drunkenly sped up the Meadowbrook Parkway against traffic July 2, making no effort to avoid oncoming cars, a Nassau prosecutor said Friday.
Farewell to 'Smiling Kate'
In a picture Katie Flynn drew of Long Beach, bright yellow sand meets a blue, crayon-streaked ocean. Both the sun and a fish are smiling.
