A man who killed four people as he plowed his minivan into a Long Island nail salon — including an NYPD officer getting her nails done for a friend’s wedding — was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday, Suffolk County officials said.
A Suffolk County judge handed down the sentence to Deer Park resident Steven Schwally, 66, just two months after a jury found him guilty of four counts of depraved-indifference murder for the deadly crash on June 28, 2024.
Besides killing four, including Police Officer Emilia Rennhack, Schwally injured nine others as he rammed his minivan into the salon at 78 mph after binge drinking Long Island Iced Teas, prosecutors said.
“Steven Schwally drank until his blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit. He chose to get behind the wheel of an SUV, run four stop signs and speed through a red light, crashing his two-ton vehicle into a room full of people,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “Four families are now living with the deadly consequences, including the family of an off-duty New York City police officer.”
Rennhack, 30, was getting her nails done for an upcoming wedding, relatives said. She joined the NYPD in 2018 and married Det. Carl Rennhack less than a year before the crash. The couple lived in Deer Park, not far from where she died.
Speaking at the sentencing in Riverhead, Long Island, Wednesday, Det. Rennhack said Schwally destroyed their dream of “retiring somewhere warm with enough room to have horses and a porch to sit on,” Newsday reported.
“On June 28, 2024, those plans all ended because of you,” Rennhack said, reading off a victim impact statement. “Our family and so many other families in our Deer Park community were turned upside down because of you.”
Following the crash, Det. Rennhack’s mother told the Daily News that she hoped Schwally “rots in hell.”
“He took four people’s lives away,” Holly Rennhack said at the time. “He’s destroyed four families, and there are many people injured. He’s just ruined so many lives.”
Addressing the court through a letter read by his attorney Christopher Cassar, Schwally accepted responsibility for his actions, but went on to complain about his own suffering as he asked Judge Richard Ambro for the minimum sentence.
Ambro wasn’t moved by Schwally’s words and sentenced him to the maximum penalty possible.
“You’ve displayed nothing short of a complete and utter disregard for human life,” the judge told him, according to Newsday. “It’s abundantly clear that you were and still are, in fact, depravedly indifferent to whether people lived or died or were severely injured by your actions that day.”
Prosecutors said that about five hours before he slammed into the Hawaii Nail & Spa located on Grand Blvd. in Deer Park about 4:30 p.m., Schwally entered a liquor store located in the same strip mall where he purchased two 12-oz bottles of Montebello Long Island Iced Tea Cocktail.
And just moments before the crash, he was seen driving his Chevrolet Traverse SUV recklessly through the parking lot of a nearby Kohl’s, swerving around two cars and driving against traffic as he sped through four stop signs, narrowly missing multiple pedestrians, prosecutors said.
While swerving around a car stopped at the end of the parking lot, Schwally plowed through a red light at such a high speed that his SUV went airborne before careening across Grand Blvd. and slamming into the nail salon, according to officials.
The SUV struck multiple people inside the salon, dragging the four fatal victims across the business until slamming into a rear wall.
Of the 14 people inside the business at the time, all but 1 were killed or injured, prosecutors said.
Also killed were Jian Chai Chen, 37, nail salon owner Yan Xu, 41, and worker Meizi Zhang, 50. Outside of Rennhack, who lived in Deer Park, all of the other fatal crash victims were Queens residents.
After he was removed from his SUV, Schwally was rushed to a local hospital for treatment. There, his blood was drawn and detectives learned he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 — more than twice the legal limit of 0.08, officials said.
Inside his car, investigators found the bottles of Montebello Long Island Iced Tea Cocktail he had just purchased. Two were empty. A full one was found on the front passenger floorboard.
Another empty bottle was found in the bathroom trash in his hotel room at the Commack Motor Inn, prosecutors said.