Steven Schwally guilty of murder in Deer Park nail salon crash that killed 4

A Suffolk jury convicted a Dix Hills man of second-degree murder and all other charges for driving into a Deer Park nail salon while intoxicated in 2024, killing four people and injuring nine more.

Steven Schwally, 66, who is recovering from a recent heart attack, was not present as the jury read its verdict on the second day of deliberations.

“Guilty,” the jury foreperson said of the top charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison. The jury of six women and six men seated before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro in Riverhead convicted Schwally of additional felony charges, including manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, reckless endangerment and several misdemeanors.

Schwally has not attended the trial since suffering the heart attack at the jail May 21. He is next scheduled to appear in court for sentencing, which the judge set for Aug. 12.

Suffolk County Chief Assistant District Attorney Allen Bode said prosecutors will insist Schwally attend the hearing and are prepared to seek an adjournment if necessary.

"He needs to hear what these families have to say," Bode said, referring to victim impact statements, which would be given by the injured parties and family members of the deceased.

Defense attorney Christopher Cassar said his client has the right to not attend, though he said it's premature to say if he would seek such permission from the judge. Cassar said he had not yet spoken about the verdict with Schwally, who he said is being treated in an intensive care unit at a hospital.

The defense attorney said the heart attack was due to the stress of the trial, adding his client was offended by witness testimony that stated he was not remorseful following the crash.

Cassar said Schwally had been following news coverage of the trial while hospitalized. The veteran attorney from Huntington said this was the first time he heard a verdict read while a client was not in the courtroom.

Jurors decline to comment

The jurors sent three notes to Ambro while they deliberated for more than six hours beginning Wednesday. The first two were to reread the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges and for the definition of depraved indifference, as the jurors appeared split on two of the top charges associated with the crash that killed four people at Hawaii Nail & Spa on June 28, 2024.

All 12 jurors declined to speak with a Newsday reporter as they exited the courthouse Thursday.

Deliberations continued Thursday morning after a court reporter read back testimony from Brian Whitehead, a Suffolk police detective who interviewed Schwally after the fatal crash. The panel reached a verdict shortly before 1 p.m. 

 "We're very thankful for the jury's verdict today," Bode said. "They ratified the fact that this was not an accident, this was a crime."

Suffolk County prosecutors said Schwally had been drinking and driving around Deer Park for several hours before the crash that killed salon owner Jian Chai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens; salon employees Yan Xu, 41, and Mei Zi Zhang, 50, both of Flushing, Queens; and off-duty NYPD Officer Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park. A child was among the nine injured. 

Some of the friends and family members of Rennhack who sat through each day of the trial sobbed in the courtroom as the verdict was read,

"This trial was about choices, right or wrong," said NYPD PBA president Patrick Hendry, who joined Rennhack's family, including husband Carl, for the verdict. "Choices an individual makes can change the lives of so many people forever and this individual made every bad and reckless choice."

Hendry described Rennhack as a good-hearted officer who exhibited a talent for police work during her young career. She always had a smile on her face, the union president said.

"She was loved by her fellow cops from the 102nd Precinct, because she was incredibly kind," Hendry said.

Carl Rennhack told Newsday his family is grateful for the work of the Suffolk police and prosecutors did in securing a conviction.

"I was happy to see that there was justice for my wife and everyone else," said Rennhack, a detective with the NYPD. "More than likely he's going to spend the rest of his life behind bars."

Family members of the other victims of the crash were not present Thursday and could not be immediately reached for comment.

Plea rejections

Prosecutors Carl Borelli and Alexander Bopp said Schwally was driving 78 mph right before the crash and his blood alcohol content was 0.17%, more than double the legal limit. He had purchased two 375-milliliter bottles of a Long Island Iced Tea cocktail at a liquor store next to the salon hours before the crash, they said.

Schwally twice rejected Ambro’s plea offer of 22 years to life in prison.

On Monday, the judge dismissed a single assault charge related to a crash survivor who was not among the 41 witnesses called by prosecutors to testify in the three-week trial.

The prosecution rested on Monday, and Cassar chose not to call additional witnesses.

Cassar argued Schwally lost control of his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse and drove across a crowded parking lot and into the salon because he suffers from a leg disability and could not move his foot from the gas pedal. Schwally, he said in his closing argument on Tuesday, did not appear to stumble or slur his words in surveillance video recorded hours before the crash.

Cassar also said blood drawn from Schwally that purportedly showed his blood alcohol level well above the legal limit had been contaminated, perhaps by police.

Cassar said outside the courthouse Thursday that the court of appeals has indicated depraved-indifference murder should be charged in limited circumstances for fatal crashes involving alcohol and his client will seek to have the conviction on the top counts overturned.

"In this particular case, the video demonstrates that Schwally attempted to swerve to avoid other vehicles and lost control of the vehicle, so we're confident that, based on the murder counts, that the court of appeals will look at it and overturn it," Cassar said.

Bode said the facts of the case "speak for themselves."

'Chaos all over'

Prosecutors repeatedly displayed video of the aftermath of the crash that showed Schwally’s vehicle resting in the back of the salon with several victims trapped underneath. Thick dust choked the air as stunned customers and employees wailed in pain and fear. Broken glass and salon chairs carpeted the ground.

"There was chaos all over," Wen Jun "Joey" Cheng said through a Mandarin interpreter of the crash that claimed the life of her husband.

Salon patron Krystyna Rodriguez testified she initially thought a bomb had gone off.

Victoria Doto told the jury she had stopped at a red light on Grand Boulevard when she saw the SUV rocket across the street in front of her, go airborne after hitting a curb and a tree, and then plow into the salon at a high rate of speed.

"I looked at my sister and said, ‘Oh, [expletive], that car is going fast,’" Doto testified. "I heard a loud explosion."

Newsday's Michael O'Keeffe contributed to this story.