Ellie Kemp
A drunk driver who killed a seven-year-old flower girl and a limo driver returning from a family wedding has been released from prison after serving his minimum sentence.
Katie Flynn was decapitated in the fatal Long Island, New York wreck on July 2 2005. Hired chauffeur Stanley Rabinowitz also died.
Martin Heidgen had crashed head-on into the limo after driving his pickup truck in the wrong direction for three miles on the Meadowbrook Parkway in Freeport.
His blood-alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit when he crashed, according to authorities.
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Flynn's little sister Grace, 5, their parents, Neil and Jennifer Flynn, and Jennifer’s parents, Denise and Chris Tangney, a retired Nassau County cop, were also in the limo.
They were returning from Flynn's aunt's wedding in Bayville.
Heidgen, who was 24 at the time, was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for second-degree murder. But he walked out of prison last Wednesday, age 43, after being granted parole.
He served the minimum sentence of 19 years.
In a statement to Newsday, Flynn's parents said the parole board’s decision to release their young daughter’s killer has had a 'profound impact' on the family.
Jennifer Flynn said: “We asked that the public may know our sadness and feel our pain. Katie was murdered as a 7-year-old girl; where her murderer lives, imprisoned or paroled, makes no difference in our lives.
“We realize that our news cycle is over, but it is our hope that your readers think of us and that we influence their choices.”
Rabinowitz's widow, Joyce Rabinowitz-Schuster, said in an email to The New York Post: “This liberalism is a bullet into the back of the families who suffer the loss of their loved ones.
“There is no accountability in New York State anymore. Murder should be 25 years minimum. Crime is rising in NYS because of these dismissive attitudes and it must stop."
“My family and the Flynns and Tangney families [Katie’s maternal grandparents] realize this crime every day and the hundreds of other friends and family members of the victims involved in this murder.
“Shame on the parole board who released a murderer.”
In a statement, Heidgen's attorney, Stephen LaMagna, said: "Both Marty and his family are grateful to the parole board for recognizing that it is appropriate for Marty to be released on parole and allow him to re-enter society and become a productive and constructive member of our community.
"He is and remains forever remorseful for all of the pain he has caused so many and continues to pray for them and their families."
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly also released a statement, saying: "I strongly opposed Martin Heidgen’s release after serving only the minimum sentence for his crime and am disappointed in the Parole Board’s decision.
"Statements made by Heidgen after his arrest and during his prosecution speak to a lack of sincerity and remorse for the devastation that followed his drunken and depraved head-on crash in 2005 that killed Stanley Rabinowitz and seven-year-old Katie Flynn."