‘LOST HIS MIND’

Killer Driver Who Tore Through Times Square Found Not Guilty Due to Mental Illness

A jury concluded that Richard Rojas was not responsible for the New York City crash that left one dead and 22 injured.

Richard Rojas, the 31-year-old who drove his car through Times Square in a May 2017 incident that killed one person and injured 22 others, was found not responsible because of his mental illness, a jury ruled Wednesday. The Navy veteran pleaded not guilty to his 24 charges, including murder, for killing 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman and mowing down pedestrians as he drove his Honda Accord over three blocks of sidewalks. Rojas, his attorney successfully argued, was diagnosed with schizophrenia by a defense psychiatrist and had “lost his mind” while driving the car. Rojas will be confined to a psychiatric facility, the details of which will be discussed at a hearing on Thursday. It took the jury a little over a day to deliberate following a two-month trial. Rojas’ lawyer, who argued that Rojas “lacked a substantial capacity to know what he was doing was wrong,” called the verdict “right and humane.”