{"id":318623,"date":"2026-08-11T13:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318623\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:56:20","slug":"operator-charged-after-mother-baby-killed-in-boat-capsize-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318623\/","title":{"rendered":"Operator charged after mother, baby killed in boat capsize"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Hernandez was led into federal court Monday wearing a gray T-shirt and what appeared to be water shoes, with cuffs around his ankles.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said Hernandez allegedly violated regulations intended to protect passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Garcia, Sanchez’s partner and Antonella’s father, was also aboard the boat when it overturned. He survived the incident.<\/p>\n

Garcia works at Il Punto Restaurants and the Marco LaGuardia Hotel, where his employers and co-workers are helping raise money for his family<\/a> as he mourns the loss of his wife and daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just devastating. Nobody should be going through this, especially Andres. All he wanted to do was have a family and live the dream,\u201d said Santina Wiggins, assistant general manager of the Marco Hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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,\u201d said Antonio Russo, general manager of Il Punto Restaurants.<\/p>\n

The couple’s 5-year-old son, Salvador, was not on the boat. He will turn 6 on Thursday, days after losing his mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The operator of the boat that capsized near Liberty Island late Saturday night is facing federal misconduct and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[387,25,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,1174,308,27,200],"class_list":["post-318623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-olivia-leach","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}