The operator of the boat that capsized near Liberty Island late Saturday night is facing federal misconduct and negligence charges in connection with the deaths of a mother and her 5-month-old daughter.
Manuel Hernandez, 46, was charged with negligently causing the deaths of 27-year-old Sarah Sanchez and her daughter, Antonella Garcia, when the 21-foot boat he was piloting overturned in New York Harbor.
Hernandez was led into federal court Monday wearing a gray T-shirt and what appeared to be water shoes, with cuffs around his ankles.
Federal prosecutors allege Hernandez was conducting a tour for paying customers on a vessel intended to carry no more than 10 people. The boat had 14 people aboard when it capsized, according to the federal complaint.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said Hernandez allegedly violated regulations intended to protect passengers.
“The defendant allegedly flouted those regulations when he transported paying customers on a commercial vessel without appropriate licenses, overcrowded the vessel, and took on a five-month-old infant passenger, with no infant life vests onboard,” he said in a statement.
Prosecutors allege Hernandez told Sanchez and her husband, Andres Garcia, that one of them could wear a life vest and hold their infant during the trip because he did not have a life jacket of the appropriate size for the baby.
The federal complaint says Hernandez did not have the required U.S. Coast Guard certification to operate the boat as a tour vessel. The boat also was missing a Coast Guard inspection certificate, prosecutors said.
Hernandez was released from custody on $50,000 bail. He was ordered to restrict his travel, not operate any boat and not communicate with passengers who were aboard the vessel Saturday night.
Garcia, Sanchez’s partner and Antonella’s father, was also aboard the boat when it overturned. He survived the incident.
Garcia works at Il Punto Restaurants and the Marco LaGuardia Hotel, where his employers and co-workers are helping raise money for his family as he mourns the loss of his wife and daughter.
“It’s just devastating. Nobody should be going through this, especially Andres. All he wanted to do was have a family and live the dream,” said Santina Wiggins, assistant general manager of the Marco Hotel.
“He told me how blessed he felt to have such a wife, I’m not kidding, that she saved him from a very different life that he would have had, that he was very grateful to have her,” said Antonio Russo, general manager of Il Punto Restaurants.
The couple’s 5-year-old son, Salvador, was not on the boat. He will turn 6 on Thursday, days after losing his mother.