Seventeen Friends, a Limo Crash and an FBI Informant: The Case That Rocked Upstate New York
Nauman Hussain reacting as the verdict was read in his trial at Schoharie County Court in Schoharie, N.Y., earlier in May. Photo: Jim Franco/The Albany Times Union/Associated Press By Jimmy Vielkind May 31, 2023 8:30 am ET SCHOHARIE, N.Y.—The man who rented out the limousine involved in one of the state’s deadliest recent vehicle crashes faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced Wednesday, capping a yearslong legal battle that has captivated upstate New York. Nauman Hussain, 33 years old, was convicted this month of 20 counts of manslaughter for his role in the October 2018 crash that killed 20 people on a country road southwest of Albany. The victims include 17 friends who chartered the limousine for a birthday party, the driver and two people who were stru
Nauman Hussain reacting as the verdict was read in his trial at Schoharie County Court in Schoharie, N.Y., earlier in May.
Photo: Jim Franco/The Albany Times Union/Associated Press
SCHOHARIE, N.Y.—The man who rented out the limousine involved in one of the state’s deadliest recent vehicle crashes faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced Wednesday, capping a yearslong legal battle that has captivated upstate New York.
Nauman Hussain, 33 years old, was convicted this month of 20 counts of manslaughter for his role in the October 2018 crash that killed 20 people on a country road southwest of Albany. The victims include 17 friends who chartered the limousine for a birthday party, the driver and two people who were struck in the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Store + Café.
The incident wrought a swath of grief in and around this community and rounds of finger-pointing among Hussain, state agencies and federal authorities. It has also attracted the interest of a top member of Congress who is pushing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to release details about its ties to the defendant’s father, Shahed Hussain, who was a confidential informant for the FBI in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Debris at the site of the fatal limousine crash that killed 20 people, in Schoharie, N.Y., in 2018.
Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press
The saga had so many twists and turns that Wednesday’s sentencing almost didn’t happen. Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery, overwhelmed by a complicated case against a well-funded defendant, reached a plea deal with Nauman Hussain in September 2021 that would have allowed him to avoid prison time.
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Subscribe NowA new judge said in August that he wouldn’t honor the plea agreement and threatened Hussain with jail time. After an unsuccessful lawsuit to force the second judge to abide by the initial deal, the trial started in May and lasted several weeks. Jurors convicted Hussain on their second day of deliberations. He was taken to the Schoharie County Jail where he was being held before sentencing.
“It has been a long, winding road,” said Kevin Cushing, whose son Patrick Cushing was one of the victims. “This accident never needed to happen, and unfortunately it did because of the choices he made.”
Hussain’s lawyer, Lee Kindlon, has said he plans to appeal the verdict and expressed sympathy for the victims and their families. During the trial, Kindlon said Hussain was misled by a repair shop that said it performed brake work that never occurred. Cushing and other families are suing the repair shop, which has denied it was at fault.
Chad Seigel, standing, and Lee Kindlon, attorneys for Nauman Hussain, in court in August as a judge rejected a plea agreement.
Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press
Mallery didn’t return a call seeking comment ahead of the sentencing.
Hussain was working as the manager of Prestige Limousine when he rented the stretch SUV to a group of friends who wanted to travel to a brewery near Cooperstown, N.Y., to celebrate the 30th birthday of Amy Steenburg
The brakes failed as the large vehicle went down a hill in Schoharie County, the National Transportation Safety Board found, and it was traveling more than 100 miles an hour when it crashed into a ravine next to the Apple Barrel store.
But it was Shahed Hussain who purchased the vehicle and operated it without the proper registration, starting in 2016, according to a report from the state inspector general. New York’s departments of transportation and motor vehicles missed several opportunities to get the limo off the road, the report found.
Around the same time, Shahed Hussain was working as an FBI informant—a fact that Kindlon said might have contributed to missteps by state officials who had multiple chances to get the limo off the road before the fatal crash. Kindlon unsuccessfully pushed to subpoena FBI Director Christopher Wray as part of the trial.
U.S. Rep.
Wray said during his 2022 testimony that he had to “tread carefully” because the FBI doesn’t confirm the identity of informants. A bureau spokeswoman said: “The FBI did not take any action which allowed Prestige Limousine to operate, nor did we take any action to interfere with the prosecution of the case.”
FBI officials held a briefing with family members about the case on Tuesday, Stefanik said. Cushing attended an earlier briefing but said he wasn’t satisfied with the information he received.
“We’ll probably never get the full story,” he said.
The FBI declined to comment.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind at [email protected]
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