Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / DRUNK-DRIVER SMASHES INTO NAIL SALON KILLING 4, SPEAKS OUT

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DRUNK-DRIVER SMASHES INTO NAIL SALON KILLING 4, SPEAKS OUT · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace talk about self centered. The
0:09
Speaker 1: alleged drunk driver who kills four people at a nel
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Speaker 1: salon speaks out after the horrific crash, and what does
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Speaker 1: he say? I'm sick with guilt. I feel horrible. I
0:24
Speaker 1: want to speak to the families of my victims. I
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Speaker 1: want to donate any money I have to college funds
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Speaker 1: and funeral expenses. Oh hg lno. The man accused of
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Speaker 1: drunkenly plowing into a Long Island nel salon at seventy
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Speaker 1: eight mph, killing four, including an off duty nyp D cop.
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Speaker 1: She'd only been married one year. What does he say?
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Speaker 1: Quote it's over for me. What else does he say?
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Speaker 1: My goose is cooked? What else does he say? I
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Speaker 1: don't like to think about it. I bet he doesn't.
1:10
Speaker 1: What more do we know about a crash? A horrible crash,
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Speaker 1: deadly four times over, caused by former marine Stephen Schwally.
1:24
Speaker 1: Now he's trying to use being a marine in the
1:26
Speaker 1: past as a defense. I doubt the Marines are going
1:30
Speaker 1: to look very kindly on him shrouding himself in the
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Speaker 1: marine mystique as a defense for killing four people. All
1:42
Speaker 1: but back to him, what happened? You know, so often
1:46
Speaker 1: at trials I would have defense attorneys actually say to
1:49
Speaker 1: a jury, where's the video. They can't prove this happened.
1:53
Speaker 1: They can't prove that, let's just say this confession ever happened.
1:57
Speaker 1: They can't prove the cops didn't beat the guy into
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Speaker 1: a confession. But guess what. There is video? What you
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Speaker 1: what exactly happened?
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Speaker 2: Listen shocking video released of the moments leading up to
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Speaker 2: a devastating crash that claimed four lives at a nail
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Speaker 2: salon on Long Island. The horrific footage appears to show
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Speaker 2: the X Marine visibly disheveled buying liquor before getting behind
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Speaker 2: the wheel of his suv and allegedly turning his vehicle
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Speaker 2: into a deadly battering ram.
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Speaker 1: The alleged killer, as a matter of fact, as far
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Speaker 1: as I can tell, he's actually wobbling as he walks
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Speaker 1: into the liquor store, this before plowing through a glass window,
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Speaker 1: killing four injuring nine others. The crash is well, everybody
3:04
Speaker 1: running out onto the sidewalk to see what happened. Ps,
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Speaker 1: it's my understanding. To Lauren Conlin, joining US investigative reporter
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Speaker 1: and host of Primetime Crime on YouTube. It's my understanding.
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Speaker 1: It's estimated he was going seventy eight miles an hour
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Speaker 1: in a parking lot.
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Speaker 3: You're correct, Nancy, he was going seventy eight miles per
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Speaker 3: hour when he crashed clean through the Hawaii nail salon,
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Speaker 3: killing four people and injuring nine others, including a twelve
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Speaker 3: year old child.
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Speaker 1: Terrifying new footage showing a drunk ex marine narrowly missing
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Speaker 1: pedestrians on the sidewalk before plowing through a glass window,
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Speaker 1: killing four, including a lady cop a lady cop off duty.
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Speaker 1: Joining me An All Star panel to make sense of
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Speaker 1: what we know right now, but.
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Speaker 4: First listen inside Hawaiian nail and spa. Four people are dead,
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Speaker 4: nine others injured, some very seriously. One of those killed
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Speaker 4: is NYPD officer Amelia Renneck. The thirty year old was
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Speaker 4: assigned to the one hundred and second Precinct in Queens,
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Speaker 4: where her husband, Karl Rennick, is a detective. The renex
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Speaker 4: were a month away from celebrating their one year anniversary.
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Speaker 4: Amelia Rennick was getting her nails done for a friend's
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Speaker 4: upcoming wedding, again joining me.
4:26
Speaker 1: An All Star panel, but first again to Lauren Colin
4:28
Speaker 1: joining us if that's again the reporter, Lauren, what happened?
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Speaker 3: The ex unemployed marine hit that liquor store at eleven
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Speaker 3: AM and he bought two pints of Long Island iced tea.
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Speaker 3: And this was after he drank eighteen beers the night before.
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Speaker 3: This is what he told law enforcement after the fact.
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Speaker 3: So around four forty pm is when you see that
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Speaker 3: video footage of him speeding through that strip Mall parking lot,
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Speaker 3: which is a large parking lot, and he went seventy
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Speaker 3: eight miles per hour and went clean through through that
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Speaker 3: mail salon, actually dragging the four victims underneath his.
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Speaker 1: Cart, dragging them inside and nail salon and SYI. A
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Speaker 1: Long Island iced tea is known for high alcohol content,
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Speaker 1: made with vodka, tequila, gin rum, Triple Sick, and lemon
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Speaker 1: jeeves vodka, tequila, gin rum and triple Sick. Okay um.
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Speaker 1: It's usually topped off with a refreshing hint of cola
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Speaker 1: and complimentary spirits deliciously intermingled. Of course I was reading
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Speaker 1: that part deliciously intermingled. Okay, you know what this guy did?
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Speaker 1: You say, two pints? Two pints of Long Island Iced tea.
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Speaker 1: I did say that two pints.
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Speaker 3: They're three hundred and seventy five milliliters, so that's two pints.
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Speaker 1: Joining me Erica in the MAD National Ambassador Mad Mothers
6:05
Speaker 1: Against Driving Erica, does it ever end? You know, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: that is a great question.
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Speaker 5: We are facing a public health and safety crisis on
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Speaker 5: our roadways today like never before. But before I continue
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Speaker 5: to address that on behalf of MAD, I want to
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Speaker 5: send our deepest condolences and support to the victims that
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Speaker 5: have been affected by this senseless, violent, one hundred percent
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Speaker 5: preventable crime. You know, there are so many parts of
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Speaker 5: this story that remind me of what happened to myself
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Speaker 5: when my parents were killed in October of twenty sixteen.
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Speaker 5: You know, there is a whole misconception that these drunk
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Speaker 5: driving crashes happen after a night of binging in a bar.
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Speaker 5: I could tell you that they're happening every thirty nine
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Speaker 5: seconds in this country.
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Speaker 1: That's astounding to me.
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Speaker 5: And my parents' killer drank a bottle of Jack Daniels
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Speaker 5: at home, got in her vehicle, drove to a bar,
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Speaker 5: had two Vodkas, two buybacks. When she stumbled out of
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Speaker 5: the bar and drove on a residential area going sixty
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Speaker 5: nine miles per hour, hit my parents dead on and
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Speaker 5: threw them sixty feet into a wooded area. Like this case,
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Speaker 5: there was also pedestrians on the street that had to
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Speaker 5: run out of the way or he would have hit
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Speaker 5: them as well.
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Speaker 1: She would have hit them as well.
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Speaker 5: And sadly, probably most sadly, this woman was on her
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Speaker 5: way to pick up her three, five and seven year
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Speaker 5: old children, And there is no doubt in my mind
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Speaker 5: that my parents were the ones that stopped them from dying.
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Speaker 5: She hit them, my parents before she got to her children,
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Speaker 5: or I am sure her children would be alive today.
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Speaker 1: You know Eric Kalynn, the mad national ambassador, very often
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Speaker 1: and I've seen this happen over and over and over.
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Speaker 1: Now this is anecdotal, in other words, an anecdote a story.
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Speaker 1: I don't have a statistic to back it up. Probably
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Speaker 1: be too hard to gather this type of statistic. A
8:20
Speaker 1: lot of people wouldn't want to admit to it. But
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Speaker 1: I watched many many ten years and before that three
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Speaker 1: years is a fed in a very very highly concentrated
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Speaker 1: area where we would have literally thousands of cases a
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Speaker 1: year each prosecutor. Vehicular homicides, which they're euphemistically called drunk
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Speaker 1: driving murders, is what I call them. But vehicular hobicides
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Speaker 1: are often plaid down. You don't get life behind bars
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Speaker 1: for a vehicular homicide that doesn't happen. Why because to me,
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Speaker 1: this is a drunk driving murder. People argue, well, they
9:01
Speaker 1: were drunk, but I didn't know what they were doing.
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Speaker 1: B s. You know, two pints of Long Island tea,
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Speaker 1: you know that, And make sure I don't even know
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Speaker 1: what I said, vodka jin triple sick. You know what
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Speaker 1: you're doing. You know when you get your car key out,
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Speaker 1: you know when you crank the car up, you know
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Speaker 1: when you put it in reverse and put it in
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Speaker 1: drive and go out on the road. You know that
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Speaker 1: each one, each one of those acts shows intent, intent
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Speaker 1: to drive drunk. Absolutely. Why don't we earbrush it?
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Speaker 5: You know, it's a great question because it is a
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Speaker 5: deliberate decision.
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Speaker 1: To get behind a wheel.
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Speaker 5: And you know, I remember my father teaching me how
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Speaker 5: to drive and saying to me, Erica, you're getting into
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Speaker 5: a four thousand pound weapon. This vehicle going into the
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Speaker 5: nail salon. It's horrifying.
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Speaker 1: It is.
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Speaker 5: It causes the most devastating consequences to everyone life that's
10:00
Speaker 5: affected by this, And you know, the one thing that
10:03
Speaker 5: you could never get over. You can never get over
10:05
Speaker 5: the fact that they all should still be here. This
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Speaker 5: is not a natural death and it's one hundred percent preventable.
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Speaker 5: That's why it's going to take all of us together
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Speaker 5: as a community to make sure that we are consciously
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Speaker 5: making an effort to put it into impaired driving.
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Speaker 1: I mean, Eric Kalynn, you're the mad national ambassador. When
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Speaker 1: you think about so many of the drunk driving murder
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Speaker 1: victims that you have studied, or you think about your parents,
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Speaker 1: they are no less dead because their killer was completely
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Speaker 1: drunk at the time they died. Just I feel that
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Speaker 1: drunk drivers that commit homicides are treated differently. They're plaid down.
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Speaker 1: And so it's just the lady that you're talking about
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Speaker 1: that killed your parents. She sounds like a young mom,
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Speaker 1: and it's really a wolf in sheep's clothing, because you
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Speaker 1: see this soccer mom walking in with her children coming
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Speaker 1: into court and it's hard to believe she killed two people.
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Speaker 5: And for that, Nancy, she got four to twelve years
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Speaker 5: sentencing for killing two people and was out in three.
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Speaker 5: And my problem with that is they come back out
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Speaker 5: of jail and they recommit the same crimes over and
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Speaker 5: over and over again, so we get into a vicious cycle.
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Speaker 5: I just want to comment on this case if I
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Speaker 5: can too, because you know, very rarely, and I think
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Speaker 5: you mentioned this to Nancy, very rarely do we see
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Speaker 5: a murder charge adhere, and the grand jury's decision to
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Speaker 5: indict on murder charges sends an extremely powerful message that
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Speaker 5: drunk driving is a violent crime and it's not going
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Speaker 5: to be tolerated anymore. Two out of three people are
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Speaker 5: effected by drunk driving in their lifetimes. We have the
12:03
Speaker 5: tools to stop this, and we must stop it, because
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Speaker 5: every day I get notices about more and more victims,
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Speaker 5: and I know their struggle is going to be life
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Speaker 5: long for the families and those that love these people
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Speaker 5: that have that pass through this horrific crime, and even
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Speaker 5: if they didn't pass, they have horrific life altering injuries
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Speaker 5: that last a lifetime. So this is a crisis on
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Speaker 5: our roadways right now, and it's going to take all
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Speaker 5: of us to stop it.
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Speaker 1: In the last days, horrifying new video emerging of the
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Speaker 1: moments leading up to this devastating crash. Now look at this.
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Speaker 1: You see the alleged purp, Stephen Schwally, visibly disheveled, buying
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Speaker 1: more alcohol at a local liquor store before he goes
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Speaker 1: on a deadly rampage. Lauren Colin, is my understanding that
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Speaker 1: this was his second trip in one day to the
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Speaker 1: liquor store.
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Speaker 3: Correct, this was his second trip in one day. You
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Speaker 3: can see at the timestamp it's eleven o'clock at that time, and.
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Speaker 1: He returns crime stories with Nancy Grace. Me me, me, me, me, me, me,
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Speaker 1: me me and me. Yes, that's all Schwally is thinking about.
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Speaker 1: Now he's sobered up in sitting behind bars, and what
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Speaker 1: does he say? It's over for me. My goose is cooked.
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Speaker 1: All he does is talk about himself. This guy reportedly
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Speaker 1: guzzles several bottles of Montebello Long Island iced tea and
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Speaker 1: more before he hits the gas and plows through a
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Speaker 1: nail salon. Now he's talking about his goose is cooked.
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Speaker 1: It's hard for me to take in when I think
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Speaker 1: about the families devastated by him driving drunk, not just
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Speaker 1: drunk over double the legal limit. He's even wobbling. He
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Speaker 1: can't even stand up straight when he goes for his
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Speaker 1: second visit to the liquor store in one day.
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Speaker 4: What exactly happened Listen making his regular liquor store purchase
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Speaker 4: of two bottles of forty two proof Long Island Tea,
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Speaker 4: Steven Schwally spends the next five hours drinking his Long
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Speaker 4: Island Tea and driving around Suffoc County in his twenty
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Speaker 4: twenty Chevy Traverse. At four thirty two pm, Shwally arrives
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Speaker 4: back where he started at Sands liquor store. Only this
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Speaker 4: time he comes barreling through an intersection, running a red
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Speaker 4: light at a high rate of speed, going airborne, speeding
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Speaker 4: through the parking lot, navigating an empty parking spot, hitting
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Speaker 4: a curb, and slamming into the front window of Hawaii
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Speaker 4: Nail and Spa next door to sand Slicker's Good Gravy.
15:02
Speaker 1: That was our friend. Dave Mac at crimeonline dot Com,
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Speaker 1: Hold on just a moment. I've got to dissect each sentence,
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Speaker 1: because each sentence is very It's highly probitive. In other words,
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Speaker 1: it proves something at trial. H Joining me is ben
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Speaker 1: powers high profile criminal defense attorney, and you can find
15:23
Speaker 1: them online at legalpowers dot com, but first to Joseph Trembley,
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Speaker 1: principal engineer accident of reconstructionist at VERA Tech Consulting Engineering
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Speaker 1: Veritecheng dot com Vera Tech. Joseph Trembley, thank you for
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Speaker 1: being with us. Joe, can we analyze what I just heard? Okay?
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Speaker 1: Making his regular liquor store purchase of two bottles of
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Speaker 1: forty two proof Long Island iced tea. Had to look
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Speaker 1: that up. You know I'm gonna each oler. Joe Shwally
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Speaker 1: spends the next five hours drinking the Long Island tea
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Speaker 1: and driving around, riving around Suffolk County. Why it is
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Speaker 1: Chevy Traverse. Four point thirty two pm, he arrives back
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Speaker 1: where he started at the liquor store, this time barreling
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Speaker 1: through an intersection, running a red light at we think
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Speaker 1: seventy eight mph, going airborne, speeding through the parking lot,
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Speaker 1: navigating an empty parking spot, hitting the curb that should
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Speaker 1: have slowed him down if I stopped him, but no.
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Speaker 1: He slams through the front window of Hawaii Nail and Spa,
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Speaker 1: right next door to the liquor store. Stance liquor store.
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Speaker 1: Didn't they notice he had already come in once and
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Speaker 1: he was wobbling when he walked in. Okay, that's a
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Speaker 1: whole nother question for Ben Powers to Joe Trembley analyze
16:48
Speaker 1: what forensic evidence exists to support the scenario I just
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Speaker 1: laid out.
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Speaker 6: Thanks for pointing that out. We have a couple of
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Speaker 6: pieces of evidence here that were probably very important to
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Speaker 6: the responding officers in this case. The first is all
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Speaker 6: of the footage that we have of this driver driving
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Speaker 6: through this parking lot prior to crossing the road and
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Speaker 6: then entering into the nail seal on where the accident
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Speaker 6: actually occurred. The second piece of information that was probably
17:23
Speaker 6: even more important for their investigation was the information that
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Speaker 6: was taken from the vehicle's black box. Now, that information
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Speaker 6: typically includes speed of the vehicle prior to impact. Believe
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Speaker 6: it or not, it can record usually around five seconds
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Speaker 6: of impact related speed data prior to impact. And then
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Speaker 6: also what's also very important here is any sort of
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Speaker 6: driver input. So a lot of times that black box
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Speaker 6: data can include whether or not the driver was applying
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Speaker 6: the accelerator pedal and whether or not the driver was
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Speaker 6: steering in any sort of way. And I believe what
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Speaker 6: was taken from that data was that there was an
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Speaker 6: accelerator pedal application all the way up to impact. There
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Speaker 6: was no actual attempt for any sort of breaking maneuver
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Speaker 6: prior to entering the nail salon. And one other thing
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Speaker 6: I wanted to point out here that's really kind of
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Speaker 6: suspect as to this driver's inputs was the fact that
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Speaker 6: he was steering as he was driving through this parking
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Speaker 6: lot before impact, and that suggests to me that he
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Speaker 6: was actually cognizant and aware of his surroundings.
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Speaker 1: I've got to dissect what you're saying. You're saying he
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Speaker 1: is steering as he's driving. You know what, that's actually
18:54
Speaker 1: really important. Holds your thoughts show to Binpowers joining me Veteran,
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Speaker 1: a lawyer at legalpowers dot com. Been Many argue that
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Speaker 1: voluntary consumption of drugs or alcohol somehow lessons your degree
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Speaker 1: of culpability. Know under our law, voluntary use of drugs
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Speaker 1: or alcohol, it's not a defense. Now, some may argue
19:28
Speaker 1: he didn't know what he was doing. He knew enough.
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Speaker 1: As Joe Trembley from Veritech, who has reconstructed countless crashes
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Speaker 1: and other accidents, this isn't an accident. This is a crash.
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Speaker 1: He says the defendant knew enough, was cognizant enough to steer,
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Speaker 1: he knew his way back to the liquor store, that's
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Speaker 1: where he's going. That would suggest he was not commentosed,
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Speaker 1: He wasn't passed out behind the wheel, which adds to
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Speaker 1: my argument of intent.
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Speaker 7: So with regard to this case specifically, it's a little
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Speaker 7: unique in the sense of you do have a second
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Speaker 7: degree murder charge included with the vehicular homicide charges and
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Speaker 7: the other assorted assault charges for the pedestrians that he dodged,
20:19
Speaker 7: for the other individuals that were in the spa that
20:22
Speaker 7: were not killed, and so it is different, but it
20:25
Speaker 7: is you know, with the way that he's navigating the road,
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Speaker 7: he's swerving around cars, he's barely missing cars, he's dodging pedestrians,
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Speaker 7: is across the crosswalk, and then he does, unfortunately, thread
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Speaker 7: the needle and goes right into the only empty parking
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Speaker 7: spot at the SPA parking lot, which is what causes
20:44
Speaker 7: him to go into the building. I think that's what
20:46
Speaker 7: makes this a second degree murder case, or why the
20:50
Speaker 7: prosecutor went with that charge. I don't think it's because
20:53
Speaker 7: it's a dui. I think the dui aspect of the
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Speaker 7: case is really just the final nail in his coffin,
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Speaker 7: because drunk or not, with the type of driving he
21:03
Speaker 7: was exhibiting and the speeds he was going, that is
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Speaker 7: arguably a second degree murder case.
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Speaker 1: You use the phraseology he could thread the needle. What
21:14
Speaker 1: did you mean by that?
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Speaker 7: Well, I mean is the type of control that took
21:17
Speaker 7: to go into the only empty parking spot, Because if
21:19
Speaker 7: he doesn't hit that empty parking spot, he either hits
21:22
Speaker 7: the white van to his left, or he hits the
21:24
Speaker 7: red looks like a Corolla to his right, he hits.
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Speaker 1: Either of those vehicles.
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Speaker 7: None of this happens, but he's able to, at seventy
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Speaker 7: eight miles an hour, go into the only empty parking
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Speaker 7: spot at the parking lot. So clearly, if I was
21:40
Speaker 7: the prosecutor, I would be arguing that he was in
21:42
Speaker 7: control because that's going to help make it a second
21:46
Speaker 7: degree murder case for the prosecutor. Now, if I'm on
21:48
Speaker 7: the defense side, I'm leaning on the fact that this
21:51
Speaker 7: is a very unfortunate dui that had tragic consequences, because
21:55
Speaker 7: vehicular homicide, if it's a DUI, is substantially consequences and
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Speaker 7: risks for mister Shwally and the consequences of a second
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Speaker 7: degree murder conviction. I don't know enough about mister Shwally,
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Speaker 7: his body mechanics, the way he carries himself. I do
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Speaker 7: see the argument with him making the statement they had
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Speaker 7: eighteen beers that day that could lean towards He's already
22:18
Speaker 7: impaired when we see him in this video. Or he
22:21
Speaker 7: could just be an old marine veteran and that's just
22:24
Speaker 7: kind of how he shuffles around in life.
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Speaker 1: I haven't even gotten to tell you about who the
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Speaker 1: four murdered victims are. The owner of the salon, he's
22:34
Speaker 1: a father, a husband, and his wife has horrible injuries.
22:41
Speaker 1: She is going to have multiple surgeries to look forward to.
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Speaker 1: The off duty lady cop, and the others just trying
22:50
Speaker 1: to make a living at the nail salon when this
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Speaker 1: guy Swally literally comes plowing through the nail salon window,
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Speaker 1: killing four. Let me go to Erica Lynn joining us
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Speaker 1: mad national Ambassador Erica. These people, several of them running
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Speaker 1: out clutching their bags, multiple bags of liquor. They don't
23:17
Speaker 1: go help, They run to their car. I just wondered,
23:22
Speaker 1: why did they not want to speak to cops and
23:25
Speaker 1: if so, why, I honestly think they were in shock.
23:28
Speaker 5: I mean, you have to understand that these crashes happened
23:30
Speaker 5: so quickly and so intensely that anybody surrounding them is
23:35
Speaker 5: going to be in a state of shock to see
23:39
Speaker 5: a seventy you know a vehicle go into a nail
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Speaker 5: salon at such a high speed.
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 5: And the other thing is they may not have thought
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Speaker 5: it was uh, you know. I don't want to use
23:50
Speaker 5: the word unintentional, because we have defined that this is
23:53
Speaker 5: intentional because you got behind a wheel. But they may
23:56
Speaker 5: have thought it was some kind of act of terrorism
23:59
Speaker 5: or something like that. Yeah, I mean, there are many
24:01
Speaker 5: reasons why people react the way they do when they're
24:04
Speaker 5: in shop.
24:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, and you.
24:06
Speaker 5: Know, and I believe that's the case with these innocent bystanders.
24:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, you could be right. My line
24:14
Speaker 1: producer insists that it's because they all have alcohol in
24:18
Speaker 1: their breast and they don't want cops to find out.
24:20
Speaker 1: I tend to believe you are correct. The one guy
24:25
Speaker 1: was not clutching liquor. The other people were, and they
24:29
Speaker 1: made a run for it. They wanted to get away
24:30
Speaker 1: from that scene as fast as they could listen to this.
24:32
Speaker 4: The twenty twenty Chevrolet re Verse, being driven by Stephen Schwally,
24:36
Speaker 4: crashes through the front window of Hawaii Nail and Spot
24:38
Speaker 4: at about seventy eight miles per hour. Four people are
24:41
Speaker 4: dragged under the vehicle, while nine others are thrown in
24:44
Speaker 4: what is described as a violent explosion that somebody's flying everywhere.
24:48
Speaker 4: The suv has finally stopped when it crashes into the
24:51
Speaker 4: back of the store.
24:52
Speaker 1: Two. Joseph Trimbley, Principal engineer exer reconstructionist at Verite. How
24:57
Speaker 1: do I know? How can I prove he was going
25:00
Speaker 1: seventy eight miles an hour? And you'd have thought that
25:05
Speaker 1: bumping over that curve would have slowed him down, but
25:07
Speaker 1: it didn't.
25:08
Speaker 6: You know, that's a great point. The speed is something
25:14
Speaker 6: that they probably got from the black box data of
25:17
Speaker 6: the vehicle. Again, there's a couple of data points that
25:23
Speaker 6: they can go off of there. And first off, we
25:26
Speaker 6: have what appears to be a high rate of speed
25:29
Speaker 6: as he crosses the road, so much so that he
25:33
Speaker 6: actually goes airborne and clears the curb on the opposite
25:37
Speaker 6: side of the road. But the speed itself really there's
25:42
Speaker 6: no way to do an accurate reconstruction based on the
25:47
Speaker 6: building damage. Unfortunately, there's just too much, too much glass
25:53
Speaker 6: and bricks and doors and other objects that really don't
25:59
Speaker 6: slow down on the vehicle much at all. And so
26:02
Speaker 6: for that reason, they're probably going off of that black
26:05
Speaker 6: box data.
26:05
Speaker 1: And there's certainly no skin marks. That's something you often
26:09
Speaker 1: look for to determine what really happened. Not a single
26:13
Speaker 1: skid mark as far as I know.
26:15
Speaker 8: What about that, Joe, if you didn't have this, this
26:19
Speaker 8: surveillance camera footage, what you could say, what you could
26:23
Speaker 8: suggest right there is that because we have no skid marks,
26:26
Speaker 8: we have no breaking and he's just entering this building
26:30
Speaker 8: at at whatever speed he was going with no break
26:34
Speaker 8: inputs at all.
26:35
Speaker 6: That means he's making no attempt to stop. He's not
26:38
Speaker 6: really steering away from the building in any way. He is,
26:43
Speaker 6: as we said, he's threading the needle between two other vehicles,
26:48
Speaker 6: which again that shows that he probably was cognizant and
26:51
Speaker 6: able to steer even though he's not breaking.
26:55
Speaker 2: This is not the first time Stephen Schwally has been
26:57
Speaker 2: charged with driving well intoxicated. In twenty thirty, team Shwally
27:00
Speaker 2: slammed into a mailbox and Dix Hills and drove off.
27:03
Speaker 2: Police later found him passed out a sleep behind the
27:06
Speaker 2: wheel of his car. Charged with DUI and leaving the
27:08
Speaker 2: scene of an accident. Shwally pleaded guilty and was sentenced
27:11
Speaker 2: to three years probation. Shwally's brother, Edwards, says Shwally has
27:16
Speaker 2: more than one prior DUI, claiming to have driven his
27:19
Speaker 2: brother to probation while he refused to take a breathalyzer.
27:23
Speaker 2: In twenty ten or eleven.
27:25
Speaker 1: National Ambassador for a Mother's Dad's Drunk Driving mad is
27:29
Speaker 1: joining us Erica Lynn Erica. Isn't that just so typical
27:35
Speaker 1: of vehicular homicide, as I say, drunk driving murders. If
27:40
Speaker 1: you have someone that has committed a vehicular homicide and
27:43
Speaker 1: you check carefully, you will find out that they have
27:46
Speaker 1: had multiple DUIs in this one, including leaving the scene.
27:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's very, very true, Nancy. There is a very
27:55
Speaker 5: much a lack of.
27:58
Speaker 1: A lack of.
27:59
Speaker 5: Commitment to their acts, which is horrifying. That's number one.
28:03
Speaker 5: But the amount of times that they drive drunk before
28:09
Speaker 5: they get caught is average of eighty times.
28:13
Speaker 1: Just think of that.
28:13
Speaker 5: Statistic eighty times before somebody is caught.
28:17
Speaker 1: I've got to let that sink in.
28:18
Speaker 5: It takes an average of eighty times a person drives
28:22
Speaker 5: drunk before they get caught with a DWI, eighty.
28:26
Speaker 1: Times before they're finally caught with a DUI. Much less
28:30
Speaker 1: of vehicular homicide guys as promised special guests joining us
28:34
Speaker 1: doctor Kendall Crown's cheap medical examiner Terran County. That's fort worth,
28:39
Speaker 1: never lack of business, esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School
28:43
Speaker 1: of Medicine at TCU Dodgor Kendall Crowns. We haven't even
28:47
Speaker 1: gotten to talk about the victims. Listen.
28:50
Speaker 4: Forty one year old Yangzou and fifty year old Mazie
28:53
Speaker 4: Jang both worked at Hawaiian Nalen Spa and both were
28:56
Speaker 4: killed in the crash. Yanzoo's family is seeking for help
28:59
Speaker 4: in a fundraiser on go fund me to raise money
29:01
Speaker 4: for the care of her elderly father and her twelve
29:03
Speaker 4: year old son who has polio. Relatives are reminding people
29:07
Speaker 4: that with the salon destroyed and their loved ones killed
29:09
Speaker 4: or injured, these families will be struggling for some time
29:12
Speaker 4: to come.
29:13
Speaker 1: Dear Lord, in heaven, one parent dad, the other injured.
29:18
Speaker 1: The child has polio and more.
29:20
Speaker 4: Kenny Chen, the manager of Hawaii Nail and Spies, among
29:23
Speaker 4: the four killed when the suv crashes through the salon
29:26
Speaker 4: in nearly eighty miles an hour. Chen's wife is also
29:29
Speaker 4: at the salon at the time. She's critically injured. She's
29:32
Speaker 4: already had one surgery with more to come. Doctor say
29:35
Speaker 4: her recovery will take at least two years. The Chen's
29:37
Speaker 4: have two children, ages ten and five, and with their
29:40
Speaker 4: father dead and their mother facing multiple surgery and years
29:42
Speaker 4: of recovery, go fund me is set up by a
29:45
Speaker 4: nephew who says, with the salon their only source of income,
29:48
Speaker 4: Kenny Chen dead, his wife critically injured, they don't know
29:51
Speaker 4: where to turn for help.
29:52
Speaker 1: To doctor Kendall Crowns, I'm so relieved that you are
29:57
Speaker 1: so calm, methodical and impartial dejective when you perform these autopsies,
30:03
Speaker 1: because when I think about the dad, did the mom
30:07
Speaker 1: facing all these surgeries, and they had this little boy
30:10
Speaker 1: to raise. The other person has a child, had a
30:14
Speaker 1: child with polio for Pete's sake, and now that parent
30:18
Speaker 1: is gone. Doctor Kendle crowns. You heard that the bodies
30:22
Speaker 1: actually flew through the air. Describe what happened to the
30:28
Speaker 1: human body when this guy plowed into that nail salon.
30:31
Speaker 9: So, with a vehicle going in at that high rate
30:34
Speaker 9: of speed, when they hit the individuals, the speed will
30:39
Speaker 9: transfer into the bodies and then they will continue flying.
30:43
Speaker 9: After that, after the car stops. What you'll see internally
30:46
Speaker 9: is you'll see a lot of fractured bones. The organs
30:50
Speaker 9: will actually explode or be lacerated by the force of
30:53
Speaker 9: the car if it hits them at the right angle.
30:56
Speaker 9: You'll see limbs torn off and even decapitations as well. So,
31:01
Speaker 9: usually high rates the speed from vehicles hitting the body,
31:04
Speaker 9: there's a tremendous amount of damage done to the body
31:07
Speaker 9: that even the body can be severed in half.
31:11
Speaker 1: You know, as I'm listening to you describe what has
31:15
Speaker 1: happened to the bodies, there is a stark dichotomy a
31:20
Speaker 1: comparison to this. Listen, we just had the bar day
31:26
Speaker 1: separation party, you know, not long both were both singing
31:32
Speaker 1: and dreaming together with for a video and then with
31:35
Speaker 1: such a happy family. No, that is the brother of
31:43
Speaker 1: kimy Chin Stephen speaking host some of our friends and
31:48
Speaker 1: on Twitter at w I N N we just had
31:51
Speaker 1: a birthday celebration party. We were both singing and dreaming together.
31:56
Speaker 1: We record a video and have such a happy family.
32:00
Speaker 1: Now it's all gone. It's all gone, and the brother
32:08
Speaker 1: breaks down weeping, weeping, and there's so much more to
32:16
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns, How do you keep your head on
32:20
Speaker 1: straight when you hear the victims' families grow, men crying
32:26
Speaker 1: over what has happened? And the last thing I want
32:30
Speaker 1: to hear is anyone defending this guy claiming, well he's
32:32
Speaker 1: the next marine. Well, I doubt the Marines are proud
32:35
Speaker 1: of this moment, so don't use them to shroud what
32:39
Speaker 1: you have done, Doctor Kendall Crowns. Could how long could
32:45
Speaker 1: these victims have lived after being plowed down by this
32:49
Speaker 1: guy to experience the fear and the pain of what happened.
32:53
Speaker 9: It's if they have crushing entries of the head or
32:57
Speaker 9: their you know, spinal core gets severed, they may die
33:01
Speaker 9: quite rapidly or on pun impact. If they have an
33:05
Speaker 9: injury that doesn't necessarily involve their head, they could survive
33:09
Speaker 9: for a matter of minutes or even longer. If they
33:12
Speaker 9: are crushed underneath the vehicle and are just kind of
33:15
Speaker 9: pinned in place with not their chest or like their
33:18
Speaker 9: pelvic region. They could be living underneath that vehicle for
33:22
Speaker 9: several minutes until they either bleed out or die from
33:25
Speaker 9: asphyxiation being crushed.
33:34
Speaker 1: Crime stores with Nancy Grace quote, my goose is cooked.
33:43
Speaker 1: That's Schwally whining behind bars, whining about the circumstances of
33:50
Speaker 1: his life while he took stole the lives of four
33:56
Speaker 1: other people, including a husbands, mothers, and a newlywed cop
34:04
Speaker 1: off duty having her nails done. It's all about him
34:08
Speaker 1: and his life. Quote. It's over for me. Stephen Schwale
34:12
Speaker 1: pleads not guilty after he's indicted on four counts of
34:17
Speaker 1: second degree murder and other charges, although he then tells
34:21
Speaker 1: the New York Post he was quote guilty during an
34:24
Speaker 1: interview there at the Riverhead Correctional Facility. He's being held
34:28
Speaker 1: on one million dollar bill. Don't let him out. He
34:32
Speaker 1: will go straight to a bar or a liquor store
34:35
Speaker 1: and possibly kill somebody else. Oh my stars, I'm looking
34:39
Speaker 1: at some of the victims. They are so beautiful. There
34:44
Speaker 1: is the lady cop who lost her life. That's Amelia
34:49
Speaker 1: Rennick about to celebrate her one year anniversary married to
34:54
Speaker 1: NYPD Detective Carl Rennick. Then you hid Yanghai Chin that
35:02
Speaker 1: was a salon co owner. Then you had Jenny Shoe,
35:08
Speaker 1: an employee forty one, you had Mazie Jong, another employee
35:15
Speaker 1: just trying to make a living. One leaves behind a
35:18
Speaker 1: child with polio. One leaves behind two minor children to
35:23
Speaker 1: be raised without a parent. I just you know, Ben Powers,
35:28
Speaker 1: how do you somehow lessen that when you're arguing a
35:32
Speaker 1: case like this to a jury, so.
35:35
Speaker 7: It doesn't devalue their lives that have been lost to
35:38
Speaker 7: argue what is legally appropriate. And so if I'm on
35:42
Speaker 7: the defense side, I'm pointing to the BAC and pointing
35:45
Speaker 7: to the fact that he's driving the car like it's
35:48
Speaker 7: a boat, just leaning left, leaning right, just can meandering
35:51
Speaker 7: down the road, and pointing to the fact that he
35:54
Speaker 7: never applied to break he was going to high raise speed,
35:58
Speaker 7: and he gave very had responses after the fact, like
36:02
Speaker 7: give me my license back, I've done nothing wrong, you know,
36:07
Speaker 7: point to all those various facts to say this is
36:09
Speaker 7: a dui. It's a tragic dui, but it's a dui. Nonetheless,
36:13
Speaker 7: that had tragic consequences. This is not second degree murder.
36:17
Speaker 7: And so my fixation when I'm making those types of
36:20
Speaker 7: arguments is on the law and what is appropriate under
36:24
Speaker 7: the law, because the vehicular homicide still holds him accountable
36:28
Speaker 7: for his actions of taking these lives, and that's the
36:32
Speaker 7: more appropriate charge if I'm on the defense arguing that. Now, obviously,
36:36
Speaker 7: if on the prosecutor side, I'm arguing a second degree
36:38
Speaker 7: because of all the reasons I'll point out.
36:40
Speaker 10: Earlier, Schwally purchased two three hundred and seventy five milliliter
36:45
Speaker 10: Long Island iced tea bottles the morning of the crash.
36:49
Speaker 10: The bottles found empty by investigators after the crash.
36:55
Speaker 1: Even now, I don't know we're getting the whole truth.
36:58
Speaker 1: He had a BAC blood alcohol content of point one seven,
37:02
Speaker 1: the legal limit. I don't even think there should be
37:06
Speaker 1: a llegal limit. Why should you drive after you'd been
37:08
Speaker 1: drinking at all? But the legal limit is point zero.
37:11
Speaker 1: Eight point one seven would be over double the legal limit.
37:17
Speaker 1: And apparently they didn't notice him wobbling in and apparently
37:22
Speaker 1: this was his second trip. He had already had those
37:24
Speaker 1: eighteen beers. What about a Dodgor Kendall Crowns. My question
37:28
Speaker 1: is if by the time he was tested he was
37:31
Speaker 1: point one seven, I'm sure time had passed, would the
37:36
Speaker 1: blood alcohol level have dissipated.
37:38
Speaker 9: So every hour you don't drink, your blood alcohol level
37:43
Speaker 9: will go down point oh two. So, but if you
37:46
Speaker 9: continue to drink, your blood alcohol level will not go
37:49
Speaker 9: down and will continue to go up. So each bottle
37:52
Speaker 9: of beer, glass of wine, or shot of whiskey will
37:56
Speaker 9: raise your blood alcohol level point oh two.
37:59
Speaker 1: Question Lauren Colin joining us a co host of Prime
38:02
Speaker 1: Time Crime on YouTube. Lauren, was he Schwally the driver
38:08
Speaker 1: injured at all?
38:10
Speaker 3: No?
38:10
Speaker 1: He was barely injured. And isn't that how it always happens.
38:13
Speaker 3: The driver is always okay and he kills everybody.
38:17
Speaker 1: In his path.
38:18
Speaker 3: So no, he was completely fine. You can see the
38:21
Speaker 3: scratches on his face. I mean he went into amazing
38:23
Speaker 3: yeah intoport with a wheelchair. Maybe that was for effect,
38:26
Speaker 3: but no, he was fine.
38:28
Speaker 1: You know. To Joseph Chimbley, engineer act reconstructionist at Viatech, Joe,
38:34
Speaker 1: how many times have you handled a vehicular homicide reconstructing
38:37
Speaker 1: and all the victims die and the drunk driver lives.
38:41
Speaker 6: It's incredible. It seems like it happens every time. There
38:45
Speaker 6: could be a severe impact, maybe even a head on
38:48
Speaker 6: collision between two vehicles, and for some reason, the drunk
38:55
Speaker 6: driver is able to escape with minimal injuries.
39:00
Speaker 1: Incredible, Joe, I've seen it over and over. I have
39:04
Speaker 1: no explanation. They didn't teach me that law school. So
39:07
Speaker 1: to Erica Lynn, who is a victim of drunk driving.
39:12
Speaker 1: Both of her parents died in the hands of a
39:14
Speaker 1: drunk driver. Like a soccer mom, Erica, as someone who
39:18
Speaker 1: has been through this, what is your message today?
39:22
Speaker 5: My message is that, first of all, I'm devastated for
39:26
Speaker 5: these families. I really am, because I know their journey
39:29
Speaker 5: ahead and they don't even know what's coming down. They're
39:31
Speaker 5: going to have a criminal child, likely a civil trial
39:34
Speaker 5: against the bar that served him. And you're right that
39:40
Speaker 5: they are not injured. They never get injured, and there's
39:44
Speaker 5: a reason for it, I believe, and I believe they're
39:47
Speaker 5: so loose from the amount of alcohol in their bodies
39:50
Speaker 5: that they're not bracing their bodies for impact, and that's
39:53
Speaker 5: why they do survive.
39:54
Speaker 1: I heard that theory many times before. My goose is cooked.
39:59
Speaker 1: You're right. This is it for me. You're right, but
40:05
Speaker 1: could you stop thinking about yourself and think about somebody else.
40:11
Speaker 1: Nancy Gray signing off, goodbye friend,