‘I Will Never Be That Little Girl Again’: LI Nail Salon Crash Survivors Speak

RIVERHEAD, NY — Annabelle Saccente was 12 when Steven Schwally drove drunk into Hawaii Nail & Spa in Deer Park, and among several survivors and victims’ relatives who delivered emotional impact statements on Wednesday before Schwally was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

“I will never be that little girl again,” Annabelle said. “I will never have the same freedom and sense of safety I had before June 28.”

Schwally, 66, was sentenced by Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro after being convicted in June of four counts of second-degree murder and several related charges. The crash killed four people and injured nine others inside the Deer Park salon.

The crash killed NYPD officer Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park; Jian Chai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens; Yan Xu, 41, of Flushing, Queens; and Meizi Zhang, 50, of Flushing, Queens.

Rennhack was a patron and an off-duty NYPD officer. Chen was the owner of the business, while Xu and Zhang were employees, prosecutors said.

Toni Saccente, Annabelle’s mother, told the court she had gone to the salon with her daughter and mother-in-law for what should have been an ordinary family outing.

“Within a matter of seconds, everything changed,” she said.

Saccente described the SUV crashing through the salon and the chaos that followed. She said the aftermath felt “as if an explosion had happened in this building.”

Then she could not find her daughter.

“I didn’t know where she was,” Saccente said. “I didn’t know if she was dead or alive.”

Saccente found Annabelle unconscious behind a pedicure chair. She said their lives have been consumed by pain, appointments and trauma. Saccente said she and her daughter both continue to live with physical pain and emotional wounds, including anxiety and PTSD.

“Trauma doesn’t stay in the past; it follows you into your future,” Saccente said.

She said glass struck her face and body, leaving scars she still sees in the mirror.

“Every time I look in the mirror, I’m reminded of what happened,” she said.

Annabelle said she endured two surgeries to repair her foot, was told there was a chance she might never walk again and missed more than 200 days of school. She said she continues to struggle with PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety and pain in her foot.

Speeding cars, nail salons and open parking lots now frighten her, she said.

“A part of me will always be that terrified 12-year-old girl lying there, fearing that she might never walk again, never see again, never live a normal life again,” Annabelle said.

In one year alone, Saccente said, she and Annabelle attended more than 165 medical appointments.

“The crash lasted only seconds, and we have lived with the consequences every single day since then,” Saccente said.

A statement was also read in court on behalf of Wen Jun Cheng, who was injured in the crash and whose husband, Jian Chai Chen, was killed.

Cheng said the crash took her husband and nearly took her own life. She suffered devastating injuries, including severe internal trauma and the loss of her spleen, according to the statement.

“To deeper wound, however, is the loss of my husband,” Cheng said in the statement.

She said Chen was a loving husband, devoted father and the foundation of their family. Since then, she said, she has had to raise their children, care for her family, recover from her injuries and rebuild a life that will never be the same.

“No verdict can bring my husband back,” Cheng said. “No amount of money can restore my children’s father or erase what happened.”

But she said the law could still recognize responsibility, accountability and the value of human life.

“My husband no longer has a voice,” Cheng said. “Today I speak for him.”

Carl Rennhack, Emilia Rennhack’s husband, also addressed the court.

He described his wife as “perfect in every way” and said he did not know what love truly was until he met her. He remembered her as a daughter, sister, friend and wife with a big smile and loud laugh.

“She was the person who brought everyone together,” Rennhack said.

He spoke about the future they had planned: the home they had just closed on, a backyard for barbecues, children they hoped to have and retirement somewhere warm.

He asked Ambro to sentence Schwally to prison for life.

“Knowing he will die behind bars is the only comfort our family can have,” Rennhack said.

Before sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Alex Bopp asked Ambro to impose the maximum sentence. He told the court Schwally turned his SUV into “an instrument of mass destruction.”

“In a matter of seconds, four innocent people were killed and nine others were injured,” Bopp said.

Bopp said a “beautiful summer Friday afternoon became one of the most violent and deadly drunk-driving nightmares in Suffolk County history.”

He said the trial evidence showed Schwally’s blood alcohol content was 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit, and that he was traveling as fast as 78 mph before crashing into the salon.

There were 14 people inside the business at the time; five employees and nine customers, prosecutors said.

Bopp said witnesses described the aftermath as if a bomb had gone off, an explosion had occurred, or “Armageddon.”

“This was not an accident,” Bopp said. “This was murder.”

Christopher Cassar, Schwally’s attorney, read a statement on Schwally’s behalf before sentencing. In it, Schwally said he took responsibility for causing the deaths and injuries, but maintained that he did not intentionally kill anyone.

“I’m responsible for causing the deaths of those who lost their lives, for causing great physical and emotional pain to the surviving victims and all their families,” the statement said.

Schwally also turned towards the victims' families to personally apologize.

“I would just like to say wholeheartedly how terribly sorry I am for my actions on that day,” Schwally said. “I never in my wildest dreams could have ever imagined something like that, that I could do something like that, and I’m so sorry.”

The judge had presided over the five-week trial, listened to 44 witnesses and reviewed 420 exhibits. Ambro sentenced Schwally to 25 years to life on each of the four murder counts, with the sentences running concurrently as required by law. He also imposed concurrent sentences on additional charges, including assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated and reckless driving.

Ambro said the sentence would come with his recommendation to the parole board that Schwally never be released from prison.

“Your many victims here today deserve nothing less,” Ambro said.