Pino surrenders, is booked on felony vessel homicide charge in crash that killed girl
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Wrecked Justice
The Miami Herald spent more than two years dissecting the 2022 boat crash that killed 17-year-old Luciana ‘Lucy’ Fernandez and critically injured Katerina ‘Katy’ Puig. Herald reporters meticulously reviewed agency reports, spoke to witnesses never contacted by investigators and delved into public records to shine a light on what went wrong in Biscayne Bay, leading to George Pino being charged with misdemeanors, and ultimately, a felony.
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Doral real estate developer George Pino surrendered in open court Thursday and was booked into jail on a felony vessel homicide charge, more than two years after he crashed his boat into a concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay, killing a teenage girl and severely injuring her Lourdes classmate.
Pino, 54, who lives in Kendall, appeared in court Thursday morning in a dark blue suit. With a stiff expression and arms by his side, he stood silently beside his attorney Howard Srebnick, who patted him on the back. About 75 of Pino’s relatives and friends were in the courtroom when Pino was whisked away by corrections officials after the 15-minute hearing.
He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at 12:50 p.m., according to jail records. He has pleaded not guilty.
Laura Adams, a prosecutor with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, said there will be no bond set for Pino, who has been out of jail without bond since August 2023, when he was charged with three careless boating misdemeanors in the crash. Adams said Pino wasn’t a danger to the community or a flight risk.
READ MORE: Pino to turn himself in after felony boat crash charge, but he won’t have to post bond
Srebnick thanked Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Maria Tinkler Mendez for her “sensitivity” to expedite the surrender process but requested the judge issue an order outlining Pino’s status “in case there’s confusion at [the jail.]” Tinkler Mendez denied his request.
“This is the booking process, the same for any other inmate,” Adams said. “…Corrections does this every day.”
Family’s first public comments
After Pino turned himself in, his family — with a crowd of supporters standing behind them — broke their silence in their first public comment since he was charged with the vessel homicide felony three weeks ago.
The statement, read in English by Pino’s niece Sofia Castellanos and in Spanish by his oldest daughter Carolina Pino, detailed how the day of the crash began as a “wonderful gathering full of laughter and happiness.”
“That day, our family, along with the Fernandez family and 30 close friends, gathered in boats on Elliott Key to celebrate our youngest daughter’s 18th birthday,” Castellanos read from the statement.
The Pinos said they hadn’t made a public comment in the two years since the crash out of respect for the loved ones of Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, the 17-year-old Our Lady of Lourdes Academy student who died the next day, and Katerina “Katy” Puig, a star soccer player at Lourdes who is now permanently disabled.
READ MORE: New witness leads to felony homicide charge 2 years after boat crash killed Lourdes girl
“For reasons we still cannot fully comprehend, on our way back we accidentally hit a channel marker, which resulted in the tragic loss of Lucy Fernandez and debilitating injuries to Katy Puig,” Castellanos said. “Two amazing girls who we adore and with whom we have shared many memories.”
The Pinos, Castellanos said, have committed their life savings and taken on substantial debt to help the families.
“From that moment, we have been wracked with despair and grief and living a nightmare we could never have imagined,” she said. “Worse than this is knowing that our anguish does not compare to the pain and suffering experienced by the impacted families. Something we have would not have wished on anyone, let alone our closest friends and family.”
Pino initially told investigators another vessel threw a large wake and caused him to lose control of his boat. He has maintained that version of events since the crash even though no witness, no photographs nor GPS data from his boat corroborated that.
Joel Denaro, attorney for the Fernandez family, declined to comment after the Thursday hearing. A representative for the Puig family also declined to comment.
‘No crime committed’
Outside the courtroom, Srebnick told reporters that he hopes that in the next few months, he can push the state attorney’s office to “understand that this was just an accident.”
“There was no crime committed here,” Srebnick said.
Around 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4, 2022, over the Labor Day weekend, Pino was driving his 29-foot Robalo center console boat back to the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, where he is a member, when he slammed into the fixed channel marker in the bay. He was returning from Elliott Key with his wife, their daughter Cecilia and her 11 teenage girlfriends, who were celebrating Cecilia’s 18th birthday.
READ MORE: Pino pleads not guilty to vessel homicide charge in boat crash that kills Lourdes girl
All of the 14 passengers were ejected from the boat, which capsized after hitting the channel marker. Lucy Fernandez died the next day in the hospital while Katy Puig and another teen, Isabella Rodriguez, were injured in the head.
While Rodriguez has since made a full recovery, Puig, now 19, faces a lifetime of care after her traumatic brain injury.
After a nearly year-long investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state cops that investigate boating accidents, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in August 2023 charged Pino with the three misdemeanor counts of careless boating, which carry a maximum sentence of 60 days in county jail and a $500 fine.
The misdemeanor charges outraged the Fernandez and Puig families, who were assured by both agencies that they would conduct a thorough investigation before concluding their probe.
However, as a series of Miami Herald articles detailed, key eyewitnesses on the scene were never followed up with by state investigators.
Pino’s claim that another boat caused the collision wasn’t corroborated by anyone on his boat, any of the other boaters who were helping in the rescue that day, the photographs taken by investigators or GPS data from Pino’s boat.
The FWC’s final report on the crash notes this, prompting the families of the girls to conclude Pino not only lied to investigators, but he maintained the alleged lie as he fought the careless boating charges in court.
61 empty bottles and cans of alcohol on boat
Critics of the investigation also note that FWC investigators quickly ruled out alcohol despite FWC officer-worn body camera footage showing Pino saying he drank “two beers” that day. The next day, FWC investigators pulled the boat from the water and found 61 empty booze bottles and cans stashed in a cooler or tossed around the boat.
In a now-settled civil lawsuit, the Puigs accused Pino and his wife Cecilia of supplying the teenage girls alcohol throughout the day. A court judgment was issued against Cecilia Pino for $16 million. All parties — the Puigs, the Pinos, Hudson Excess Insurance Company and Citizens Property Insurance Corp. — are in litigation. A judge sealed George Pino’s settlement, which was separate from his wife’s.
Katerina Puig’s toxicology report from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami states that when medical staff tested her blood alcohol level at 10:33 p.m. that night — four hours after the crash — it was measured at .141 milligrams per deciliter — almost twice the .08 legal limit for driving. She was 17, under the state’s legal drinking age of 21.
After two Herald articles detailed what three boaters witnessed immediately after the crash — one of whom performed CPR on the victims — a Miami-Dade firefighter who was at the scene approached prosecutors saying Pino appeared intoxicated when he was pulled from the water. State investigators never took statements from the three eyewitnesses who spoke at length to the Herald.
The new witness and a reevaluation of the existing evidence prompted Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office to reverse course and file the more serious felony vessel homicide charge against Pino three weeks ago. If convicted, Pino would face up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
READ MORE: New witness leads to felony homicide charge 2 years after boat crash killed Lourdes girl
Pino’s next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 8.
This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Pino surrenders, is booked on felony vessel homicide charge in crash that killed girl."
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