Heidgen drove drunk the wrong way on the Meadowbrook State Parkway on the way home from a wedding in July 2005 before crashing head-on into a limousine, killing driver Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, and flower girl Katie Flynn, 7. Heidgen has always said he was too drunk to know what he was doing at the time.
Heidgen, as well as the defendants in two other similar cases, recently appealed their convictions to the state's highest court.
On Thursday, the New York State court of appeals ruled that each of the defendants were aware of what they were doing.
"We find that the evidence in each of these unusually egregious cases was legally sufficient to support the convictions," said Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
The Nassau County District attorney's office led the fight against the defendants' appeals presenting arguments to the state's highest court.
"Hopefully this ruling will give other prosecutors the legal confidence to push for murder convictions for the worst of the worst drunk drivers," District Attorney Kathleen Rice told Eyewitness News.
Hopefully this ruling will give other prosecutors the legal confidence to push for murder convictions for the worst of the worst drunk drivers.
