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COPS: HORROR MOMENT DRUNK-DRIVER SMASHES INTO NAIL SALON KILLING 4 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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