Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
A Selden man with a history of drunk driving convictions struck and killed a pedestrian on Boyle Road in Selden on the morning of November 5, 2025, then dragged her body off the roadway and fled the scene without calling for help — and did so without a valid driver’s license. Nearly seven months later, he has admitted his guilt in court.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Lan Huynh Truong, 45, of Selden, was behind the wheel of a 2016 Toyota Camry at approximately 11:21 a.m. that Wednesday morning, traveling northbound on Boyle Road. He swerved into the right-hand shoulder lane and struck Victoria Hutson, 37, also of Selden, who was walking along the road. The impact was violent enough to leave blood on the vehicle’s windshield, passenger-side door, and passenger-side window.
What happened next set this case apart from a tragic accident: rather than stopping to help, calling 911, or waiting for emergency responders, Truong got out of his vehicle, physically dragged Hutson’s body out of his path and onto the shoulder of the road, climbed back into his car, and drove away. Bystanders who witnessed the aftermath attempted to render aid to Hutson, but she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. No medical assistance from the driver who struck her ever came.
“After hitting Victoria Hutson with his car, this defendant dragged her body off of the roadway and left her to die without reporting the incident to police or rendering any form of aid,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement released by the DA’s Office. Tierney did not mince words about the severity of Truong’s actions, describing the defendant’s behavior as callous and demanding that state lawmakers act to close what he called a glaring gap in New York’s sentencing law.
Later that evening — the same day as the crash — members of the Suffolk County Police Department located the 2016 Toyota Camry parked behind Truong’s residence. Investigators observed visible blood on the windshield, the passenger-side door, and the passenger-side window. The vehicle was seized as evidence, and an analysis conducted by the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory subsequently confirmed that the blood found on the car belonged to Victoria Hutson. Truong was arrested the following morning, November 6, 2025.
On June 15, 2026, Truong appeared before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins and pleaded guilty to two charges: Leaving the Scene of an Incident Without Reporting Resulting in Death, a Class D felony, and Operating a Motor Vehicle Without a License, a Traffic Infraction. The DA’s Office announced the plea the following day. Truong is represented by defense attorney Christopher Gioe, Esq. He is due back in court for sentencing on August 12, 2026.
Location & Road Context
The crash occurred on Boyle Road in Selden, a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven in central Suffolk County. The northbound shoulder where Hutson was walking at the time she was struck is a stretch of local road that sees regular pedestrian activity in a densely residential part of the hamlet. Our Suffolk County accident database currently contains 439 recorded incidents across the county, reflecting the persistent danger that roadways in this region pose to all users — including those traveling on foot along road shoulders where dedicated pedestrian infrastructure may be limited or absent. Additional recent incidents in Suffolk County underscore how consistently active these roads are for crashes of varying severity.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
The investigation was led by Detective Richard Hennes of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Major Case Unit, and the case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David Geller of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. The guilty plea to the Class D felony charge of Leaving the Scene of an Incident Without Reporting Resulting in Death carries a maximum sentence under current New York State law of 2⅓ to 7 years in prison — the very sentence DA Tierney’s office is recommending for Truong at his August 12, 2026 sentencing.
This is not Truong’s first brush with the criminal justice system involving a motor vehicle. He was previously convicted of Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated, a Class E felony, in 2016, and Driving While Intoxicated, a Class A misdemeanor, in 2012. At the time of the November 5, 2025 crash that killed Victoria Hutson, Truong did not hold a valid driver’s license — a fact to which he also pleaded guilty as a Traffic Infraction alongside the felony count.
Broader Impact
DA Tierney’s remarks at the time of the guilty plea announcement carry significant weight for New York’s ongoing legislative debate over vehicular crime sentencing. Tierney stated plainly that the maximum sentence of 2⅓ to 7 years for leaving the scene of a fatal crash is “grossly inadequate for the conduct and callousness that this defendant displayed,” and issued a direct call to action: “New York lawmakers need to fix this injustice and increase the potential sentence for leaving the scene, a crime that has life and death consequences.” For families of victims like Victoria Hutson, the gap between the human cost of a fatal hit-and-run and the legal consequences currently on the books remains a critical, unresolved disparity in state law.