An addiction counselor who got drunk on the Fourth of July two years ago and plowed into a family park party in Manhattan, killing four, was given 24 years in prison Friday — and heard the heartbroken stories of his victims, including of a boy who cries out “I want Mommy” each night for his lost mother.
“How can I express how it feels to hold him close at bedtime and hear him whisper in the silence, ‘I want Mommy’?” Lilian Ruiz, the mother of victim Emily Ruiz, said in court about her 7-year-old grandson Kal-El in the aftermath of the July 4, 2024, nightmare.
Daniel Hyden was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday. Brigitte Stelzer
Ruiz was one of four killed when Daniel Hyden, a 44-year-old self-described substance counselor who boasted about his sobriety, drunkenly got behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 and plowed through a fence and into a party at a Lower East Side park.
The drunken crash claimed the lives of Lucile Pinkney, 59, her son Herman Pinkney, 38, Ana Morel, 43, and the 30-year-old Ruiz — who died five days after the wreck. Seven victims suffered other injuries, including four who had been seriously hurt making it difficulty to walk.
“I mourn never hearing her call me Mom again, but mostly I mourn for my daughter and my grandson and all they have been denied,” Lilian Ruiz added, before Hyden was handed his lengthy term by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge April Newbauer. He had been convicted on all counts related to the deaths at trial in November.
“You very likely knew that you could kill them and didn’t care,” the judge seethed to Hyden before issuing his sentence.
Eight victims read at the sentencing — including Starkema Lewis, a relative of the Pinkneys, who was left wondering why Hyden, who penned an autobiography called “The Sober Addict,” guzzled booze before killing the relatives.
“Daniel Hyden: a substance abuse counselor…,” Lewis said in their victim impact statement. “Someone who built a career telling others not to make the same choices he made that night.
Emily Ruiz, 31, with her son, Kai-El, 7. Ruiz’s family said her son stills asks for his deceased mother. Courtesy of Liliana Ruiz
The scene of the fatal Manhattan Fourth of July crash in 2024. William Farrington
“He knew what could happen. He knew the devastation caused by drunk driving, and yet despite multiple prior DUI incidents, he still chose to get behind the wheel.”
Family of fatal victim Morel, a disabled woman who apparently dreamed about the wreck, slammed the loss of their loved one — who they said was supposed to be in Connecticut celebrating the holiday with family before changing her plans at the last minute.
“We can’t see Fourth of July as a celebration,” Zolia Hernandez and Evelyn Morel wrote in a letter. “This day will forever haunt us. I wish I can have the power to bring my sister back.”
Victim Ana Morel was supposed to be celebrating the holiday in Connecticut before changing her plans at the last minute, her family said.
Hyden allegedly had a blood-alcohol content of up to .17 — more than twice the legal limit, prosecutors have said.
Prosecutors have said Hyden had been kicked off a party boat in Lower Manhattan for being too drunk before he decided to get in his truck.
He then plowed into the crowd at Corlears Hook Park going 52 mph, killing the four people and injuring another seven in the horror, authorities have said.
Prosecutors said Hyden had been barred from a party boat before the crash for being too drunk. Robert Miller
A victim’s family member reads a victim impact statement at Daniel Hyden’s sentencing. Brigitte Stelzer
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos scolded Hyden for his “reckless and destructive” decision to get behind the wheel while drunk — considering Hyden had previously been busted for boozed-up driving.
“He was always going to be drunk. It was always going to be 2,000 pounds of twisted steel burying human flesh and bone,” Bogdanos said.
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An emotionless Hyden apologized to the victims of his carnage while also pondering the 2021 death of his own sister, who died at the hands of a drunk driver in New Jersey.
He said he was supposed to deliver his own statement at his sister’s killer’s sentencing — until he found himself behind bars at Rikers for the same crime.
“What kind of human being would put other human beings through the same thing he went through?” said Hyden, who claimed he relapsed after his sister’s death.
Hyden was found guilty of four counts of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and seven counts of assault at the non-jury trial.