NEW YORK — Most people use minivans for carting groceries, taking kids to soccer practice or traveling on family vacations. But Joseph Gray, the ex-Brooklyn cop on trial for manslaughter, made his minivan into a booze-cruiser the night he killed four with the 1996 Ford Winstar last August, prosecutors allege.

Not only did Gray use it to shuttle between the parking lot of the 72nd Precinct — where he drank with fellow officers — and a nearby strip club, he also may have tossed back a couple of beers on the way, evidence introduced Wednesday suggests.

Two beer cans (above) were found in the van driven by ex-NYPD cop Joseph Gray.

The two empty cans of Budweiser beer that internal affairs officer Michael McMahon found in Gray's car — one behind the driver's seat, one in front — could have been drained at any time. But for prosecutors the cans are more evidence that Gray, whose blood-alcohol level was more than one and a half times the legal limit four hours after the accident, was in a reckless state at the time of the collision.

The party ended for Gray at about 9 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2001, prosecutors say, when he plowed his minivan into Maria Herrera, 23, her son, Andy Herrera, 4, and her sister, Dilcia Pena, 16. A son delivered to Herrera in the hospital after the collision also died.

Prosecutors say Gray, 41, was speeding and ran a red light, leading to the crash. Gray's lawyer, Harold Levy, says the collision was unavoidable and that Herrera and her family dashed out onto Third Avenue in front of Gray's car.

Gray wasn't the only person to ride in the minivan the day of the collision. Enroute to a strip club called the Wild Wild West, deemed off-limits by precinct commanders because it is located within the same neighborhood, Gray gave a ride to Sgt. Dennis Healey, whose marriage the next week was the reason for the daylong drinking binge.

Officers from the 72nd Precinct took their party to a nearby strip club.

At the strip club, Healey testified Wednesday, Gray spent his time talking to a woman "for a while."

Supreme Court Judge Anne Feldman ruled that neither the name of the strip club, nor the nature of its entertainment would be allowed into court, leading to vague in-court references such as Healey's account of the goings on in the one-time "home of the $10 lap dance."

Healey also said he never noticed Gray was intoxicated and would not have hitched a ride with the officer if he had.

Gray dropped Healey off at his truck in the parking lot where they began the day of drinking at about 3:30 p.m. The officers talked for another hour. It wasn't until 9 that evening that Gray met Herrera and her family in the fatal collision, leaving a gap in time which may be explained if Gray takes the stand next Tuesday as expected.

The collision literally knocked the victims out of their shoes, scattering footwear around the scene that internal affairs Sgt. Richard Lamb says he recovered.

Holding a bag with the recovered footwear, Lamb picked through the pair of sandals, pair of children's sneakers, a Nike sneaker and the pair of socks that he collected.

Lamb also reinforced the testimony of Rosa Cintron, who told the court Monday that she saw the victims crossing the street in the southern crosswalk spanning Third Avenue.

Where the victims were hit and where their footwear landed are important parts of the trial, as accident reconstruction experts on both sides will likely use that information to determine how fast Gray was going at the time of the collision.

The tug-of-war to control the jury's opinion over where the "point of impact" was continued Wednesday as both sides used Officer Daniel Gisken, who was in charge of investigating the collision scene, to advance their theories.

Gisken made detailed measurements of the scene, charting everything from the resting position of Gray's minivan to the distance each shoe flew from the north crosswalk.

Gina Colon, a hospital nurse, demonstrates a hospital blood testing kit, as she testifies about how she gave the test to Officer Joseph Gray.

Under the prosecution's theory, the victims were thrown a distance of 128 feet, Gisken testified.

Underscoring the victims' proximity to their destination that evening—Herrera's mother's house—Maureen McCormick, who is assisting Assistant District Attorney Joseph Petrosino, asked the officer how far the victims were from the apartment across Third avenue.

After Gisken gave a figure of 225 feet, McCormick asked rhetorically, "And they were thrown 130 feet?"

Defense attorney Levy has a different theory of the crash. The lawyer contends that the family darted from under the elevated expressway and between a series of construction cones into the path of Gray's car. By Levy's theory, the victims were thrown 87 feet or less.

During the lengthy technical testimony, jurors fidgeted and one even crossed her arms and glared at Levy as he pressed Gisken about his measurements.

Assistant District Attorney Petrosino said he plans to call witnesses involved in Gray's blood analysis on Thursday and his accident reconstruction specialist on Friday.