NEW YORK (AP) — 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 Lower East Side 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.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a statement that said he hoped the conviction “can bring at least some measure of comfort” to the victims’ friends and families.
Hyden, 46, of Monmouth, New Jersey, also was convicted of assault and aggravated vehicular homicide, Bragg’s office said.
Text and email messages seeking comment were sent to Hyden’s attorney.
Ana Morel, 43; Emily Ruiz, 30; Lucille Pinkney, 59; and a relative, Herman Pinkney, 38, were killed, and seven other people were injured in the crash in Corlears Hook Park.
Less than an hour earlier, Hyden was refused entry to a nearby party boat and clashed with security, according to testimony from police who responded to the boat scuffle. At that point, they walked Hyden 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 far too late, trapping four people beneath the truck. 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.