People v. Heidgen

• Decision Date: 13 September 2011
• Citation: 930 N.Y.S.2d 199,87 A.D.3d 1016,2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 06494
• Parties: The PEOPLE, etc., respondent,v.Martin HEIDGEN, appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

87 A.D.3d 1016
930 N.Y.S.2d 199
2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 06494

The PEOPLE, etc., respondent,
v.
Martin HEIDGEN, appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Sept. 13, 2011.

[930 N.Y.S.2d 201]

Jillian S. Harrington, New York, N.Y., for appellant.Kathleen M. Rice, District Attorney, Mineola, N.Y. (Tammy J. Smiley, Judith R. Sternberg, Jacqueline Rosenblum, and Michael Soffer of counsel), for respondent.Cornell Bouse, Garden City, N.Y. (Richard J. Barbuto and Stefani Goldin of counsel), for amicus curiae Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association.Anthony Girese, Bronx, N.Y. (Colleen Phillips and Joseph McCormack of counsel), for amicus curiae District Attorneys Association of State of New York.PETER B. SKELOS, J.P., THOMAS A. DICKERSON, LEONARD B. AUSTIN, and JEFFREY A. COHEN, JJ.

[87 A.D.3d 1016] Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Honorof, J.), rendered February 28, 2007, convicting him of murder in the second degree (two counts), assault in the first degree (three counts), and operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol (two counts), upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

On July 1, 2005, after spending several hours in a bar in Manhattan, at which he consumed at least six beers, the defendant attended a friend's party in Merrick in Nassau County. He arrived at the party, which consisted of a small gathering of his friends, between 11 P.M. and midnight. The house where the party was being held was approximately a five-minute drive from the Meadowbrook State Parkway.

At the party, the defendant was seen consuming several alcoholic drinks. Two of the defendant's friends who were at the party described the defendant as intoxicated or “buzzed.” However, neither one observed the defendant stumbling or staggering while he was dancing, nor was he observed to be slurring his words.

[87 A.D.3d 1017] The defendant remained at the party for 1 1/2 to 2 hours before leaving in his pickup truck. Despite having previously received offers to sleep over or utilize a designated driver rather than drive after drinking, the defendant chose to get into his pickup truck and drive while intoxicated.

Shortly before 2:00 A.M. on July 2, 2005, Elizabeth Serwin was driving southbound in the center southbound lane of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, more than one mile south of the exit for Merrick Road, when she saw headlights of an oncoming vehicle also in the same center lane in the distance a “few football fields away.” She testified that she immediately veered into the right lane and eventually to the shoulder of the road to her right. She honked her horn three times as an oncoming pickup truck, which was later determined to

[930 N.Y.S.2d 202]

have been operated by the defendant (hereinafter the pickup truck), passed her. As she looked over her shoulder watching the pickup truck travel northbound in the southbound lanes, she observed two other vehicles pulled over on the shoulder of the road. During the time that Serwin saw the pickup truck, it did not swerve or reduce its speed, which she approximated to be 70 to 75 miles per hour as it passed her.

Joseph Caruso, also driving south on the Meadowbrook State Parkway, testified that he first saw the pickup truck approximately one mile north of the location where Serwin veered out of the path of the pickup truck. Caruso saw the headlights of the pickup truck about a quarter of a mile away, directly in his path of travel. Caruso attempted to move to the left southbound lane, but the pickup truck tracked him and also moved towards the left southbound lane, causing Caruso to steer back to the center lane to avoid a collision with the northbound pickup truck. As the pickup truck was almost upon Caruso's vehicle, Caruso moved into the right southbound lane, just as the pickup truck passed his vehicle. Once the pickup truck passed, Caruso observed the tail lights of the pickup truck in his rear view mirror, and noted that the brake lights never illuminated during the time he had them in view.

Caruso also noticed that the pickup truck did not veer away or slow down as it headed towards him. He estimated that the pickup truck was traveling at a rate of speed between 70 and 80 miles per hour.

Matthew Sussingham testified that, as he was driving southbound in the right southbound lane of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, just south of the exit ramp for westbound Sunrise Highway, he saw the pickup truck traveling northbound in the center southbound lane near the Sunrise Highway [87 A.D.3d 1018] overpass and coming over a crest over Sunrise Highway approximately 15 to 30 yards away, traveling at “highway speed” in the wrong direction towards him. Sussingham continued to watch the pickup truck pass by the exits for Sunrise Highway in his rearview mirror, and never saw it move from the center lane, weave, or slow its rate of travel.

As the pickup truck continued its northbound path in the lanes for southbound traffic on the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Steven Weber, who was operating a motorcycle, saw the pickup truck traveling the wrong way in the southbound lanes, as Weber watched from the entrance ramp for westbound traffic on Sunrise Highway seeking to enter the northbound lanes of the Meadowbrook State Parkway. Weber immediately moved into the left northbound lane of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, pulling up to the median strip parallel to the pickup truck, which was in the lane immediately adjacent to the opposite side of the median strip. Weber then kept pace with the pickup truck at a steady speed of 70 miles per hour until he lost sight of it, just south of the Babylon Turnpike overpass, due to the obstruction caused by bushes in the median strip. It was at this time that Weber heard a crash.

Weber never observed the pickup truck swerve or slow down, or the brake lights illuminate. He also did not see the pickup truck attempt to pull over or stop. Weber observed the defendant operating the pickup truck and looking straight ahead during the entire time that Weber was watching the defendant. During that time, Weber saw the lights of another vehicle, traveling in the southbound lanes of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, exit the parkway.

At the same time that the defendant was driving the wrong way in the southbound lanes of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, a limousine was proceeding south in the

[930 N.Y.S.2d 203]

left southbound lane of the Meadowbrook State Parkway. The limousine encountered the pickup truck headed directly towards it just north of the Babylon Turnpike overpass. The limousine, driven by Stanley Rabinowitz, was carrying a family, consisting of Jennifer Flynn and Neil Flynn, their two daughters, seven-year-old Katie Flynn and five-year-old Grace Flynn, and Jennifer's parents, Christopher Tangney and Denise Tangney, back home from the wedding of the Tangneys' youngest daughter.

Upon observing the pickup truck as it was heading directly towards the limousine, Rabinowitz attempted to veer into the center southbound lane so as to avoid it. However, there was another southbound vehicle traveling in the center lane alongside the limousine preventing Rabinowitz from completing [87 A.D.3d 1019] the maneuver. Christopher Tangney, who was seated in the rear of the limousine facing forward, thereby allowing him to see the road through the windshield, recounted that the pickup truck “moved over ... towards us. And then Mr. Rabinowitz tried to move again. And then the truck ... seemed to follow us.” The jury was able to observe a video of the path that the pickup truck took immediately before it collided with the limousine, tracking the limousine's movement as described by Christopher Tangney in his testimony, since the limousine was equipped with a camera which recorded the movement of the pickup truck during the seconds immediately preceding the collision.

The pickup truck collided head-on with the limousine, apparently having tracked the limousine's movement, crushing and killing Rabinowitz, decapitating Katie Flynn, and causing severe, and, in some instances, life-threatening, injuries to the remaining passengers in the limousine.

Steed Davidson, the driver of the vehicle which had been traveling southbound in the center southbound lane of the Meadowbrook State Parkway adjacent to the limousine at the time of the collision, testified that the pickup truck was “coming quickly” towards his vehicle and the limousine, and did not slow down before the crash. He also testified that the pickup truck did not attempt to exit the parkway or go towards the shoulder of the roadway.

Melissa Graffeo, one of the first people on the scene of the collision after it occurred, called the 911 emergency number at 2:01 A.M. The police officers responding to the scene of the collision observed that the defendant was sitting upright with his eyes open.

The defendant was placed under arrest at the scene, and was later informed of his arrest by Investigator Eric Baez of the New York State Police. Upon being so advised, the defendant told the police that from the time he had moved to New York from Arkansas the previous October, “everything was going wrong” and “nothing he did was ever enough.” The defendant recounted to the police that he had argued with his ex-girlfriend over the phone, had financial problems, had recently lost his grandmother with whom he had been close, and was very upset, depressed, and in a “self-destructive mode.”

The jury convicted the defendant of two counts of murder in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.25[2] ), three counts of assault in the first degree (Penal Law § 120.10[3] ), and two counts of operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192). The defendant was sentenced to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of 18 years to life on his [87 A.D.3d 1020] convictions of each count of murder in the second degree, a...