Steven Schwally, driver who allegedly drove drunk in fatal Deer Park salon crash, rejects plea deal

The alleged drunken driver who killed four people when he drove his vehicle through a Deer Park nail salon rejected a judge's offer Thursday to serve 22 years to life in prison and will instead stand trial on second-degree murder charges.

Steven Schwally, 65, of Dix Hills, who has been held without bail since the June 28, 2024 crash, faces the possibility of being sentenced to 27⅓ years to life in prison if convicted on the 38-count indictment at trial, Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro advised him at the start of a pretrial hearing in Riverhead.

"Do you want to do that?" Ambro asked Schwally after offering to reduce his likely sentence by more than five years in exchange for a guilty plea.

"No I don't," said Schwally, wearing a green Suffolk County Correctional Facility jumpsuit while seated in a wheelchair at the defense table.

Ambro said Schwally 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.

Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Carl Borelli, who is trying the case with colleague Alexander Bopp, said prosecutors would offer no less than the 25-to-life sentence for murder before Ambro stepped in with the better offer.

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.

Family and friends of the deceased sat several feet behind Schwally and defense attorney Christopher Cassar, of Huntington, as the plea offer was rejected.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Cassar called the offer a "life sentence."

"Twenty-two years? He's gonna die in prison," the attorney said of the offer.

Cassar said he does see "issues" in testimony during the hearing. He pointed to one officer, who will be cross-examined when the hearing continues next week, telling the court his body camera was off during a sobriety test conducted at Good Samaritan Hospital more than hour after the crash.

"They're taught not to do that," said Cassar, who also alleged police failed to draw enough blood for analysis and had to use blood obtained from the hospital under a warrant.  

 Thursday's hearing was requested by the defense to challenge the legality of the search of the motel room, probable cause for arrest and the admissibility of statements Schwally made to police.

At about 11 a.m. on June 28, 5½ hours before the crash, Schwally bought two 375-milliliter bottles of Montebello Long Island Iced Tea Cocktail and drove around the area, Bopp previously said.

Prosecutors have said Schwally, a retiree who had worked for a private security firm, then drove his Chevrolet Traverse around an adjacent shopping center parking lot filled with pedestrians and vehicles before circling around a Kohl’s and Stop & Shop, positioning the SUV southbound.

At 4:30 p.m. Schwally accelerated in the opposite lane of traffic in the parking lot, nearly striking customers and vehicles before the Traverse crossed over Grand Boulevard, prosecutors said. Vehicle data showed not only that Schwally was driving 78 mph as he crashed through the salon, but that his "accelerator pedal was 99% full," Bopp previously said.

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, Suffolk police Officer Michael Marzullo testified at Thursday's hearing.

The families of the victims walked out of the courtroom as prosecutors prepared to play Marzullo's body camera footage from the day of the crash.

The 37-minute video showed the injured child and a woman helping her were the first people seen as the officer entered near where the front door of badly damaged salon would ordinarily be.

"It appeared as if a bomb went off," Marzullo testified. "The whole front of the salon was ... missing and destroyed."

Fellow First Precinct Officer Michael Pascale told the court "it just looked like total devastation."

"It was a completely catastrophic and chaotic scene," testified First Precinct Investigations Unit Officer Dennis Sheahan.

An employee of the salon desperately pleaded with Marzullo to help the victims underneath the car as he radioed for assistance, the body camera footage showed. Screams and cries could be heard throughout the video.

Schwally's eyes lingered on the image of an injured woman seated on the blood-splattered tile floor as prosecutors paused the television to ask Marzullo about the footage.

A portion of the video showed Schwally questioning why Marzullo needed to hold onto his driver's license as he was carried away from the scene on a stretcher.

"Because you're the driver," the officer shouted back.

Asked how he was doing in several more body camera videos from the hospital, Schwally told officers "I've been better" and continued to ask about his license.

Officer Richard Neckles, who escorted Schwally in the ambulance to the hospital, said the driver gave two different accounts of why the crash occurred when asked by hospital staff. Schwally told one emergency room staffer he was trying to avoid striking a dog in the road and said to another that he had missed a turn. Sheahan said Schwally told a nurse he was injured in a fall.

Sheahan, the officer who conducted the initial sobriety test, was the only witness to testify to smelling alcohol on Schwally.

Bopp, on redirect of Marzullo, elicited testimony about why the smell of alcohol wasn't obvious at the scene.

"It was extremely dusty," Marzullo testified. "There was a strong odor of chemicals [from the nail products] ... It was a dirty scene."

Prosecutors have said Schwally told police he drank 18 beers on the day of the crash, though evidence in the investigation revealed he purchased and consumed the bottles of Montebello at the liquor store next to the salon, where he was a regular customer for 14 years. An additional empty bottle of the same beverage was found in a room at the Commack Motor Inn, where investigators have said Schwally was staying after his family home was sold. 

 Testimony in the hearing will continue Tuesday.