Drunk Driver Hears Passage From His Own Book at Trial

A driver who crashed his pickup truck into a July Fourth barbecue and killed four people was convicted Monday of murder in the 2024 wreck in a New York City park. A Manhattan judge delivered the verdict in Daniel Hyden's trial, where victims' relatives, survivors and witnesses described how a holiday gathering of friends and relatives suddenly became a horrific scene when the truck jumped a curb, tore through a chain-link fence, and barreled into the group, the AP reports. Ana Morel, 43; Emily Ruiz, 30; Lucille Pinkney, 59; and a nephew, Herman Pinkney, 38, were killed in the crash in Corlears Hook Park on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Hyden, a self-described substance abuse counselor, could face 25 years to life when he is sentenced next month, reports the New York Times.

"These individuals tragically died because of Mr. Hyden's irresponsible, callous, criminal actions," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters after the verdict. Seven other crash victims suffered injuries that still afflict many of them, he said. Hyden, 46, of Monmouth, New Jersey, was also convicted of assault and aggravated vehicular homicide, Bragg's office said.

• Less than an hour before the wreck, Hyden was refused entry to a nearby party boat and clashed with security, according to testimony from police who responded to the boat scuffle. The officers testified that they didn't witness anything warranting an arrest at that point, so they walked him to a park bench and departed. He subsequently got behind the wheel of a Ford F-150.
• Prosecutors argued that Hyden—who wrote a 2020 book about coping with addiction—was drunk, was speeding and didn't hit the brakes until half a second before he hit the crowd, trapping four people beneath the truck. "Even after he hit 11 people, he was still revving the engine," Bragg said, per the Times. "The car only stops because it was on top of human beings."
• Prosecutors said he then tried to put the vehicle in reverse, but witnesses grabbed the keys to stop him. Hyden's lawyer suggested that the man had a foot injury that complicated his driving.
• During the two-week nonjury trial, prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos read a passage from Hyden's book to show that he knew the risks of drinking and driving. Hyden wrote that he "was a real danger to others and myself when I was on the road intoxicated."