The crazed driver who plowed his car through Times Square earlier this summer, killing a young tourist and injuring 18 others pleaded not guilty to murder charges Thursday as one victim’s mother wept in the gallery.
“I’m entering a plea of not guilty on behalf of my client,” defense lawyer Enrico DeMarco said of defendant Richard Rojas in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Elaine Williams, the mother of Jessica Williams, 19, who broke her pelvis and leg in the collision, wiped tears from her eyes as she sat 15 feet from the man who maimed her daughter.
The Dunellen, NJ, teen missed prom and her high school graduation while in the hospital undergoing numerous surgeries.
Rojas, 26, faces two counts of second-degree murder for the death of 18-year-old tourist Alyssa Elsman, 18 counts of attempted murder and 38 counts of assault for the May 18 carnage.
“The site of this rampage is one of the busiest in New York City: more than 300,000 pedestrians visit Times Square every day,” said District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. in a statement.
“This defendant put the lives of each person who had the misfortune to cross his path in danger.”
The Bronx maniac was captured on video speeding the wrong way up Seventh Avenue, hopping the sidewalk and intentionally steering his car into fleeing pedestrians for more than three blocks.
The gruesome assault came to an end when his maroon Honda Accord smashed into a metal stanchion just before noon, and he jumped from the car shouting, “I wanted to kill them!” court papers state.
The out-of-work Navy veteran allegedly admitted to cops he had smoked PCP-laced marijuana earlier that day, according to the criminal complaint.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview with the Post, he insisted he couldn’t remember the murderous rampage.
“I just want to apologize to all the victims’ families,” he previously said from Rikers Island. “I can’t believe it.”
Assistant District Attorneys Joan Illuzzi and Harrison Schweiloch are prosecuting the case.