{"id":344566,"date":"2026-09-12T01:22:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344566\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T01:22:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:22:41","slug":"captain-in-deadly-statue-of-the-liberty-capsize-pleads-not-guilty-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344566\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain in deadly Statue of the Liberty capsize pleads not guilty \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

The operator of the boat that capsized in New York Harbor<\/a> on Aug. 8, killing a 27-year-old mother and her 5-month-old child, pleaded not guilty Thursday, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Urmana, who was also arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> in Manville, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to two counts of misconduct and negligence and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on both charges.<\/p>\n

The New York Police Department first took Hernandez, 46, into custody on 13 counts of reckless endangerment on Aug. 9, after the 22-foot Yamaha speedboat overturned near Liberty Island. He was moved to federal custody that same night.<\/p>\n

The victims, Sara S\u00e1nchez, a Queens resident, and her daughter, Antonella Garc\u00eda, were pronounced dead after they were taken to a hospital. Twelve other people were rescued from the water and were in stable condition, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities blamed the incident on an overcrowded boat–with 14 people on board, exceeding the maximum capacity of 10 people–, a lack of proper licensing and the failure to put a life vest on the infant.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Hernandez, originally from El Salvador, made a U-turn that brought the boat into a swell. He accelerated to pass through it, but the swell swamped the boat\u2019s bow and caused it to overturn immediately.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, of Manville, New Jersey, will be detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center as his case moves forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The operator of the boat that capsized in New York Harbor on Aug. 8, killing a 27-year-old mother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-344566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344566","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=344566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}