{"id":301627,"date":"2026-06-09T19:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/301627\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:10:12","slug":"florida-developer-george-pino-breaks-down-during-trial-for-teens-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/301627\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida developer George Pino breaks down during trial for teen’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Florida real estate developer on trial for a boat crash<\/a> that killed a teenage girl broke down uncontrollably in court \u2014 forcing the judge to send the jury home and berate the defendant.<\/p>\n

George Pino, 54, was seen bursting into tears, shaking, and sobbing just over an hour into his murder trial for the death of 17-year-old Luciana \u201cLucy\u201d Fernandez on Monday, as\u00a0reported by Local 10 News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outburst during opening statements forced Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez to dismiss the jury for the day.<\/p>\n

Florida property mogul George Pino had to excuse himself from court after breaking down during his trial for a fatal boat crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Pino\u2019s going to need to be able to control himself,\u201d the judge said, agreeing with prosecutor Laura Adams, who branded the behavior \u201cinappropriate\u201d for the courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not proper at all for the jury to be witnessing the emotional behaviors,\u201d Tinkler Mendez added.<\/p>\n

Pino appeared to become emotional almost immediately during Adams\u2019 opening statement, before openly bursting into tears during defense attorney Howard Srebnick\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

He stepped out to compose himself, while Srebnick said he was concerned for his client\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s well,\u201d Srebnick said, as\u00a0reported by the Miami Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pino was checked out by Miami Fire Rescue crews on hand before the judge agreed to dismiss the jury for the day.<\/p>\n

The well-known real estate broker in Doral is facing second-degree manslaughter and vessel homicide charges<\/a> over his alleged involvement in a 2022 boating crash that killed Fernandez and left Katerina Puig, who was then 18, with permanent and debilitating injuries.<\/p>\n

Luciana \u201cLucy\u201d Fernandez, 17, died during the 2022 boat crash. Lucy Fernandez Foundation<\/p>\n

Pino and his wife, Cecilia, were hosting several teen girls for their daughter Carolina\u2019s 18th birthday on their 29-foot boat when they crashed in Biscayne Bay on Sept. 4, 2022.<\/p>\n

The father, who was piloting the vessel back to dock, hit a channel marker at around 50 miles per hour after turning around to check on the passengers, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said.<\/p>\n

The force of the crash tore a large hole in the side of the boat and threw all of the passengers into the water.<\/p>\n

Eleven people were injured and six were taken to the hospital, where Fernandez later died.<\/p>\n

Pino was not tested for sobriety, but when the boat was pulled from the crash site the following day, 61 empty alcohol bottles, including a champagne bottle, were found on it,\u00a0the Miami Herald reported<\/a>\u00a0in July 2025.<\/p>\n

He is accused of lying to the police about how the crash occurred and of failing to follow proper boating laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the aftermath of causing Lucy\u2019s death, this defendant avoided accountability by telling the police a fabrication of how this boating crash occurred, and he maintained that falsehood long after the day of this tragedy,\u201d Adams told the judge.<\/p>\n

The force of the crash ripped a huge hole in Pina\u2019s boat and injured 11 passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence in this case, ladies and gentlemen, will show you this was not a mere accident or a momentary lapse in judgment. The evidence will show that Lucy is dead because the defendant failed to do the most basic things that [the] rules of the water require,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Pino\u2019s attorney said his client\u2019s wife will testify that he was not drunk and that the incident was a tragic accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state admits this was not George\u2019s intention for this to happen. He did not intend to crash into a marker. He did not intend for anybody to be hurt,\u201d Srebnick told the judge.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis own daughter, his own wife, his own body was on that boat. Mrs. Pino will testify [that] George, her husband, was not impaired. She wouldn\u2019t have risked her own life,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Opening statements were due to resume Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida real estate developer on trial for a boat crash that killed a teenage girl broke down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9271,1107,10822,28,30,29,4940,4278],"class_list":["post-301627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-boat-crashes","tag-courts","tag-deaths","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-teens","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}