Nail salon crash: Defendant Steven Schwally rejects new plea deal for Deer Park crash that killed 4

The alleged drunken driver who killed four people when he drove his vehicle through a Deer Park nail salon in June 2024 rejected for the second time a judge's plea offer of 22 years to life in prison on the eve of his second-degree murder trial Monday.

Steven Schwally, 66, of Dix Hills, faces up to 27⅓ years to life in prison if convicted by a jury.

"I'm not interested, sir," Schwally said when offered the lesser sentence by state Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro in Riverhead Monday.

Ambro said he ordered 120 potential jurors for Tuesday. Schwally waived his appearance for jury selection.

Opening arguments and the start of witness testimony will take place next Monday, May 11, the judge said. The trial is expected to continue into June.

Prosecutors have said Schwally had a blood alcohol content of 0.17% — more than twice the legal limit in New York State of 0.08% — and was driving 78 mph at the time of the crash on June 28, 2024, when his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse crossed the street from a neighboring parking lot and crashed into the Hawaii Nail & Spa on Grand Boulevard. Five hours before the crash, Schwally, who was living in a motel, bought two 375-milliliter bottles of Montebello Long Island Iced Tea Cocktail from a liquor store next to the nail salon, according to prosecutors. He allegedly 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.

Killed in the crash were Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park, an off-duty NYPD officer; the salon's co-owner, Jian Chai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens; and salon employees Yan Xu, 41, and Mei Zi Zhang, 50, both residents of Flushing, Queens. A child was among nine others that were injured.

Ambro ruled Monday that prosecutors will be allowed to play for the jury audio from an in-vehicle safety system Schwally used in the moments after the crash as well as body camera footage from the first officer to arrive on scene.

Defense attorney Christopher Cassar, of Huntington, had sought to suppress both pieces of evidence, arguing they lacked relevance and had the potential to prejudice his client. He said Schwally does not deny he was driving the vehicle or that people were killed and injured in the crash.

Assistant District Attorney Carl Borelli, who is trying the case with colleague Alexander Bopp, argued the body camera footage gives the best visual depiction of the crime scene and will help the jury better understand the conditions at the salon in the moments after the crash. He said the audio from both exhibits also includes admissions from Schwally and show him exhibiting a disregard for human life, a necessary element for prosecutors to prove depraved-indifference murder.

The judge, in his ruling from the bench, agreed the video and audio footage is "clearly material and relevant to exactly what happened that day" and determined its probative value outweighed any prejudice.

Schwally, on the call with OnStar, the in-vehicle subscription service he was using, can be heard saying "help me," a total of 12 times, the audio played in court Monday revealed. When the adviser on the other end of the call asks him about the other people who can be heard screaming in the background, Schwally does not answer. He never mentions anyone else on the call.

"I need to know what you hit," the adviser tells Schwally at one point in the eight-minute call.

"Help me," he responds once again.

In the body camera footage, Schwally can be heard asking for his driver's license back, which prosecutors intend to submit as more evidence he was aware of what was going on and was thinking only about himself in the harrowing aftermath of the crash.

Supporters of the crash victims left the courtroom when the body camera video was played. It showed bloodied customers of the salon pleading for help while first responders assess the scene and begin to count the number of injured and dead people.

"Four DOA," Suffolk Police Officer Michael Marzullo, the first on the scene, confirms on the video, using the abbreviation for dead on arrival.

Fourteen people were inside the salon at the time of the crash. The four victims were all found underneath the vehicle, which rested against the back wall of the salon, its rear end raised 2 to 3 feet above the ground, Marzullo testified at an earlier hearing.

Schwally entered the courtroom for Monday's hearing dressed in jail clothes and using the assistance of a walker. His attorney and a court officer helped him into his chair at the defense table. He mostly looked away from the television as the evidence played, occasionally peeking and shaking his head.

Ambro told Schwally when he first rejected his plea offer in November that he faces a minimum of 15 years to life behind bars and a maximum of 25 to life if convicted of any of the four second-degree depraved indifference murder charges and could face an additional 2⅓ to 7 years for reckless endangerment. Prosecutors would not offer anything less than the 25 years to life maximum sentence for murder, the judge noted again Monday. 

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.