{"id":350535,"date":"2026-07-23T23:18:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350535\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T23:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:18:44","slug":"tugboat-captain-pleads-guilty-to-horrific-miami-crash-that-killed-3-girls-on-sailing-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350535\/","title":{"rendered":"Tugboat captain pleads guilty to horrific Miami crash that killed 3 girls on sailing camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tugboat captain who plowed into a sailboat, killing three young girls who were on a summer camp, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter \u2014 as it emerged he was surfing the web on his phone rather than looking where he was going.<\/p>\n

Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, broke into tears in a Miami federal courtroom on Tuesday as he accepted responsibility for using his cell phone while operating the boat with an obstructed view and without a proper lookout during the deadly incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe feels awful about the unimaginable pain and loss suffered by the three families who lost their three very young daughters,\u201d Insua\u2019s attorney Walter A. Reynoso told NBC Miami<\/a> after the hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, pleaded guilty to seaman\u2019s manslaughter on Tuesday. NBC 6 South Florida<\/p>\n

The Miami tugboat involved in a crash that left three children dead. NBC 6 South Florida<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts remain with each of the families as they continue to endure this profound tragedy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Insua, who left the courtroom holding his wife\u2019s hand, declined to comment. He faced up to 10 years in federal prison but could get just a year and a day thanks to a plea deal.<\/p>\n

Insua was operating the tugboat pushing a barge of debris through Biscayne Bay near Hibiscus Island on July 28, 2025 when it struck a stalled sailboat carrying a Miami Yacht Club camp counselor and five girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old counselor and two girls were dragged under the barge, but were able to escape, officials said.<\/p>\n

The tugboat pushed a barge into the sailboat on July 28, 2025 in Biscayne Bay. NBC 6 South Florida<\/p>\n

The other three \u2014 Mila Yankelevich, 7, Arielle Buchman, 10 and Erin Ko, 13 \u2014 became trapped in the wreckage and drowned.<\/p>\n

Insua\u2019s view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and nobody had been assigned as lookout. Insua was also using his phone around the time of the crash, prosecutors said, with data from it showing he was using the internet at the time.<\/p>\n

Mila Yankelevich, 7 Erin Victoria Ko, 13 and Ari Buchman, 10 were killed in the crash. NBC 6 South Florida<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the obstructed visibility, and lack of a lookout, Insua did not see the stalled sailboat before the barge struck it,\u201d the United States Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA forensic review of Insua\u2019s cellphone revealed internet activity during transit, including at or near the time of the collision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insua\u2019s trial was scheduled to begin next week, but Reynoso said his client did not want the victims\u2019 families to relive the horrific crash, which was caught on surveillance camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to one count of seaman\u2019s manslaughter.<\/p>\n

Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge. NBC 6 South Florida<\/p>\n

He is scheduled to be sentenced in October and he could face a maximum of ten years behind bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plea bargain, however, recommends\u00a0he serve only one year plus one day in prison with six months of home confinement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tugboat captain who plowed into a sailboat, killing three young girls who were on a summer camp,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9271,1107,28,123,125,124,55701,4278],"class_list":["post-350535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-boat-crashes","tag-courts","tag-florida","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-plea-deals","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350535","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=350535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}