Jurors in Miami needed less than two hours Monday to clear a South Florida real estate broker in a deadly holiday boat crash that killed his daughter’s 17-year-old friend. George Pino, 55, was found not guilty of manslaughter and vessel homicide in the 2022 Labor Day weekend crash that killed Lucy Fernandez and injured all 13 others aboard his 29-foot boat, including his wife, daughter, and 10 more of his daughter’s friends, ABC News reports. Teen passenger Katy Puig, now 21, suffered “catastrophic” injuries and still needs round-the-clock medical care, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors argued Pino drove nearly 50 mph on the wrong side of a channel, failed to keep watch, had been drinking, and later lied to investigators by blaming a passing boat’s wake. Prosecutor Laura Adam said Pino made “mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake” ahead of the crash. The defense said Pino had two beers but wasn’t impaired, called the collision a tragic mistake, and pointed to his concussion and “traumatic brain injury” as clouding his memory of events. Pino, who did not testify, wept and embraced his family after the verdict was read.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said her office disagreed with but accepted the verdict. Prosecutors “believed that the totality of George Pino’s actions on the waters of Biscayne Bay were reckless and constituted a crime as defined by Florida’s criminal statutes,” she said, per CBS Miami.
“Sadly, this verdict brings no comfort to the Fernandez and Puig families, who must forever live with the tragedy of what happened,” she said. “In a case like this, there are no winners or losers. Mr. Pino must live with what he did, while the Fernandez and Puig families will grapple with the consequences of his actions.”