Witness recounts deadly crash into Deer Park nail salon at murder trial of Steven Schwally in Riverhead

A New Hyde Park woman described how plans to go shopping with her sister at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park turned into a day of horror at the trial of an alleged drunken driver who crashed into a nail salon in June 2024, killing four people and injuring nine more.

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

"I looked at my sister and said, ‘Oh, [expletive], that car is going fast’" Doto testified on Tuesday in Riverhead at the trial of Steven Schwally, 66. "I heard a loud explosion."

Doto testified that she parked her car and ran to the salon. The wounded and dead, she said, were everywhere. So was broken glass and pieces of brick and concrete. Cries for help filled the air, along with the smell of acrylic nail polish. The 2020 Chevrolet Traverse driven into the shop by Schwally was in the rear of the store, its rear lights cutting through the dust and chaos, she said.

"Everything in the nail salon was shattered," Doto said.

Schwally, charged with four counts of second-degree murder and other charges, has pleaded not guilty. He has twice rejected Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro’s plea offer of 22 years to life in prison and faces up to 27 ½ years to life if convicted by the jury. HIs trial in Riverhead is expected to continue into June.

Off-duty NYPD officer Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park, was one of the people killed in the crash, and Ambro's courtroom was filled with law-enforcement personnel, including many wearing NYPD and Suffolk police uniforms, for opening statements delivered by Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Alexander Bopp and defense attorney Christopher Cassar.

Also killed in the crash was co-owner Jian Chai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens — also known as "Kenny" — and salon employees Yan Xu, 41, and Mei Zi Zhang, 50, both of Flushing, Queens. Nine people, including a child, were injured.

Later on Tuesday, Wei "Vivian" Dhong, of Fresh Meadow, a nail technician who was working at Hawaii Nail & Spa on the day of the crash, described how she saw her boss, Chen, dying in the wreckage of the salon.

His wife, Wen Jun "Joey" Cheng, badly injured in the crash, was bleeding from her head.

"She said she couldn’t see me," Dhong said through a Mandarin interpreter. "She said she couldn’t breathe."

Cheng was hospitalized for weeks and unable to walk without support even after she left the hospital, Dhong said.

Dhong said the building shook after Schwally’s Traverse rammed it. Broken glass and bottles of nail polish were scattered around the shop, and pieces of bricks and cinder blocks littered the floor.

"The entire building was shaking," she said.

Prosecutors said Schwally was intoxicated at the time of the collision, and that his blood alcohol content was 0.17% — more than twice the legal limit in New York State of 0.08% — hours after the horrific crash.

Bopp told the jury during his opening statement on Monday that Schwally left his room at the Commack Motor Inn on the morning of the crash and bought two 375-milliliter bottles of Montebello Long Island Iced Tea Cocktail from a liquor store next to the nail salon.

First responders placed body bags containing the remains of people killed in the crash in front of the very same liquor store, Doto testified.

Schwally drove around the area where the crash later occurred after buying the alcohol from the store, where financial records show he was a daily customer, prosecutors have said.

Cassar said Schwally, who needed a walker to enter and exit the courtroom, had a disability that prevented him from removing his foot from the gas pedal at the time of the crash. The attorney disputed allegations Schwally was drunk, noting he was not swaying or tripping in surveillance video recorded earlier in the day,

Cassar also said the blood sample prosecutors claim is evidence Schwally was drunk was tainted by rubbing alcohol used by a healthcare professional at Good Samaritan University Hospital, where the defendant was taken after the crash.

Testimony in the trial will resume on Wednesday.