By Mike Schnitzel
Jennifer Flynn, Katie¹s mother, testified that she cradled her daughter's severed head after a pickup truck driven in the wrong direction by Heidgen, 25, plowed head-on into their limousine. The limo was headed southbound on the Meadowbrook Parkway, driven by Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, who was also killed in the crash. "I put my hand under her neck and I stated to the car that Kate was dead," Flynn said, her voice steady. "It was more as a statement than as a scream.²
In his opening statement, prosecutor Robert Hayden said that what Heidgen did on July 2, 2005, amounts to murder. "He ignored the horns [of passing cars], he ignored the headlights," Hayden said. "He never swerved, he never wavered. He just kept coming."
Hayden said that at the time of the crash, Heidgen's blood alcohol level was about three times the legal limit of .08 percent, and that he later told an officer he had been in "self-destruct mode."
Freeport Police Officer Timothy Nolan, one of the first responders to the accident scene, testified on Tuesday that he saw Jennifer Flynn leaning against a guard rail on the median, holding her daughter's head. Another Freeport police officer who responded to the scene, Christopher Pandolfo, described the scene as "unbelievable chaos."
According to Pandolfo, bodies were strewn all over the limo, with victims moaning and unable to escape from the magled vehicle. Pandolfo said that a cutting tool had to be used to extricate the victims. Nolan added that Denise Tangney, Katie Flynn¹s grandmother, "had a bone visibly sticking out of her leg and was in obvious pain." He said that her husband, Chris Tangney, was lying toward the rear of the vehicle and moaning in pain, with what looked like serious leg injuries.
Denise Tangney, 57, testified on Monday that she knew the family's limo was about to be hit. "I said to myself, 'Oh my God, we're going to get hit,'" she said. "I didn't have time to say, 'Hold on.'"
The first person to arrive at the scene was Michael Tangney, a Long Beach police lieutenant and Katie Flynn's great-uncle. Tangney's wife, Darlene, was driving her husband and four children home from a wedding reception the family had attended at the Crescent Beach Yacht Club in Bayville when they came upon the crash scene.
Tangney testified that when he approached the front of the limo, unaware at first that members of his family were inside, he saw the front portion of the interior "crushed against the driver's stomach." Tangney reached in and felt for Rabinowitz¹s pulse, but the driver had none. Then, when Tangney looked in the rear of the limo, he said, he saw a pile of bodies. "At the top of the pile was my nephew Neil, moaning, 'Katie, Katie,'" Tangney said. He then saw his niece, Jennifer Flynn, sitting on the side of the road, holding Katie's remains.
Dr. Michael DeMartino, deputy chief medical examiner at the Nassau County Medical Examiner's Office, said that Katie Flynn's injuries were consistent with those of a child who was wearing a lap belt and lying on the back seat. When questioned by defense attorney Stephen LaMagna whether Katie was wearing a lap belt, DeMartino said he would have expected more injuries if she were not, and that her wearing a seat belt would be consistent with her decapitation while the rest of her body failed to sustain any significant injuries.
All of the responding police officers who testified said that they smelled alcohol on Heidgen's breath at the scene of the accident. New York State Trooper Daniel O'Hare, who said that he noticed a "strong smell of alcohol beverages" and Heidgen's "bloodshot and glassy eyes," testified that his responsibility was to accompany Heidgen to Nassau University Medical Center so that blood could be drawn for analysis.
LaMagna said that while his client may have made mistakes, he did not commit murder. He said that Heidgen, who had moved to Valley Stream about eight months before the accident, was lost that night, and slowed down when he realized he was going the wrong way on the parkway. LaMagna said that Heidgen's friends would testify that he was in a cheerful mood that night when he got behind the wheel, and was not behaving self-destructively.
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516)569-4000 ext. 265.
