A Florida real estate developer has been hit with a felony homicide charge stemming from a 2022 boat crash that killed a 17-year-old girl and left another disabled.
Miami-Dade prosecutors now believe George Pino, 53, committed ‘vessel homicide,’ a crime that could land him prison for up to 15 years if he’s convicted.
On September 4, 2022, Pino was driving a 29-foot Robalo boat with 13 others on board, including his daughter Cecilia Lianne Pino, who was celebrating her birthday.
The majority of the passengers were Cecilia’s teenage friends.
Pino eventually struck a channel marker in the Upper Keys near Boca Chita Key, causing the boat to flip upside down and throw everyone overboard, according to prosecutors and officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Almost everyone was injured, but 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez died and Katerina Puig, who was 18 at the time, was left with debilitating and permanent injuries that will preclude her from living an independent life.
George Pino, 53, has been charged with vessel homicide in connection with the boat crash on September 4, 2022
The vessel capsized, and all 14 people onboard ended up in the water
Pino was initially charged with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating, which he has pleaded not guilty to.
The homicide charge he now faces comes after Kathya and Rodolfo Puig, the parents of Katerina Puig, filed a lawsuit against Pino and his wife Cecilia.
The Puigs sued them for negligence, claiming Pino was drinking before the crash and had provided the teens on board with alcohol.
Cecilia, 49, was ordered in May by Circuit Court Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens to pay the Puig’s $16 million with .934 percent interest.
An FWC incident report said authorities found 61 empty alcohol bottles and cans, one empty champagne bottle and a half-empty liquor bottle on the boat, NBC 6 reported.
Despite this, no one admitted to consuming the alcohol and Pino refused to take a breathalyzer test because he didn’t have an attorney present.
Lucy Fernandez, left, died in the crash, while Katerina Puig survived but was left with severe, lifelong disabilities
Katerina (pictured in wheelchair), now 19, will likely never have the possibility of living independently
A final FWC report released around a year after the crash concluded that Pino showed no signs of impairment, but that he ‘did operate his vessel in a careless manner by violating four navigational rules.’
For instance, he was piloting the boat at 45-47 miles per hour, which was a factor in the crash according to the FWC.
An attorney representing the Fernandez family told NBC 6 that prosecutors took another look at the case when a Miami-Dade firefighter who responded to the crash came forward.
The firefighter told prosecutors alcohol was a factor in the crash, contradicting the FWC report, according to the Fernandez lawyer.
The Fernandez family thanked Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement Thursday, praising her and her team for their ‘perseverance and dedication.’
Pino was driving this 29-foot Robalo boat. The right side of the vessel was torn open in the crash
Howard Srebnick, the lawyer for the Pinos, said the new charge took him by surprise.
‘I am dismayed by the State’s surprise-decision to file this new charge more than two years later,’ Srebnick said in a statement.
‘Officers on the scene of the crash determined that Pino was not intoxicated; Pino did not exceed any posted speed limit, Pino had the required number of Coast Guard-approved life preservers on board the vessel, and despite sustaining a head injury himself (requiring fifteen stitches), Pino made heroic efforts to rescue the injured passengers, including diving under the capsized boat. This was an accident, not a crime, much less a felony,’ the statement continued.
The Puig family also reacted to the new charge against Pino.
‘The Puig family is grateful for the State’s continued efforts in prosecuting Mr. Pino for his reckless operation of his vessel while transporting 12 teenage girls and resulting in the death of Lucy Fernandez,’ according to their statement.
