A mother recounted her harrowing experience on Monday, detailing how she saw her daughter’s life slip away after a tragic Fourth of July accident in Manhattan, where an alleged drunk driver left her daughter’s body crushed beneath his truck.
“I saw her, Emily,” Liliana Lewis said, referring to her daughter, 31-year-old Emily Lewis, one of four victims killed by Daniel Christopher Heiden.
“Her eyes were wide open,” Liliana recalled. “I looked at her and slapped her face, insisting, ‘Everything’s going to be okay. Emily, please don’t close your eyes.’
“I could see her lips starting to turn purple, her eyes trying to stay open but also wanting to close,” Lewis added. “But eventually, we just… closed down, for good.
“I thought to myself, ‘I just watched my daughter die.’
Remarkably, Liliana survived the chaos that night because she had stepped away to use the bathroom.
Prosecutors revealed that Emily’s young son, Kaiel, only seven years old, heartbreakingly brought a toy first aid kit to the hospital, hoping to “help the doctors” save his mother, who was declared brain-dead.
Liliana later made the gut-wrenching choice to take her daughter off life support.
“My daughter was brain-dead, so I had to decide,” she testified.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos asked, “What choice did you make?”
With sorrow, the mother replied, “To let go.”
Her poignant testimony marked the opening of the trial related to the incident, which also claimed the lives of 38-year-old Herman Pinckney, along with his aunts, 59-year-old Lucille Pinckney and 43-year-old Anna Morrell.
On that fateful July 4th, Heiden allegedly crashed his Ford F-150 into a crowd gathered at Collier’s Hook Park, where people were celebrating Independence Day, injuring seven others in the process.
Prosecutors noted that Heiden, 44, kept accelerating even after hitting eleven people, continuing until a body stopped his SUV.
Survivor Hector Moreno, a friend of the Pinckneys, recalled the scene, saying, “I remember feeling adrenaline rush. I was in the bleachers and saw the driver looking confused.
“He still had his foot on the gas,” Moreno continued. “I started hitting him as hard as I could until I just couldn’t anymore. The last thing I heard was, ‘Help me get Herman out from under the car!’
Following the chaos, Heiden, who had previously been denied entry to a local bar for being intoxicated, was confronted by an angry crowd and arrested. Authorities later found his blood alcohol level to be 0.17, over twice the legal limit.
Morel’s mother, Zoria Hernandez, was informed of her daughter’s tragic death several hours after the accident while she was away in upstate New York, as she testified in front of Supreme Court Justice April Newbauer.
Liliana Lewis, sister to Lucille Pinckney, described the harrowing experience of identifying her brother and nephew at the hospital.
“I saw my nephew covered in blood,” Lewis testified. “He was gone. Then I went to see my sister. She was gone too.”
Heiden’s attorney, Theodore Harlick, claimed in a public statement that his client had sustained a leg injury during a dispute at the club that evening, which may have impacted his ability to drive safely.
“He was limping,” Harlick said, noting that Heiden’s injury was to the right leg, the same leg he used to operate the vehicle. He also emphasized that mere moments before the collision, Heiden had pressed both the gas and brake pedals.
