A Florida real estate developer has been charged with felony murder stemming from a 2022 boat accident that killed a 17-year-old girl and left another disabled.
Miami-Dade prosecutors now believe George Pino, 53, committed a “boat homicide,” a crime that could land him up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
On September 4, 2022, Pino was driving a 29-foot Robalo boat with 13 other people on board, including his daughter Cecilia Lianne Pino, who was celebrating her birthday.
Most of the passengers were teenage friends of Cecilia.
Pino eventually crashed into a channel marker in the Upper Keys near Boca Chita Key, causing the boat to capsize and throw everyone overboard, according to prosecutors and officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (FWC).
Almost everyone was injured, but 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez died and Katerina Puig, who was 18 at the time, was left with debilitating, permanent injuries that will prevent her from living an independent life.
George Pino, 53, has been charged with homicide by boat in connection with the boat accident on September 4, 2022.
The boat capsized and all 14 people on board ended up in the water.
Pino was initially charged with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating, to which he pleaded not guilty.
The murder charge he now faces comes after Kathya and Rodolfo Puig, Katerina Puig’s parents, filed a lawsuit against Pino and his wife Cecilia.
The Puigs sued them for negligence, alleging that Pino was drinking before the accident and had provided alcohol to the teenagers on board.
Cecilia, 49, was ordered in May by Circuit Court Judge Migna Sánchez-Llorens to pay Puig’s $16 million with 0.934 percent interest.
An FWC incident report said authorities found 61 empty alcohol bottles and cans, one empty champagne bottle and a half-empty liquor bottle on the boat, NBC 6 reported.
Despite this, no one admitted to having consumed alcohol and Pino refused to take a breathalyzer test because he did not have a lawyer present.
Lucy Fernández, left, died in the accident, while Katerina Puig survived but was left with severe disabilities for life.
Katerina (pictured in a wheelchair), now 19, will probably never have the chance to live independently.
A final FWC report released about a year after the accident concluded that Pino showed no signs of impairment but “operated his vessel in a careless manner by violating four boating rules.”
For example, he was piloting the boat at between 45 and 47 miles per hour, which was a factor in the accident according to the FWC.
An attorney representing the Fernandez family told NBC 6 that prosecutors revisited the case when a Miami-Dade firefighter who responded to the crash came forward.
The firefighter told prosecutors that alcohol was a factor in the crash, which contradicts the FWC report, according to Fernandez’s attorney.
The Fernandez family thanked Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement Thursday, praising her and her team for their “perseverance and dedication.”
Pino was driving this 29-foot Robalo boat. The right side of the boat was left open in the accident.
Howard Srebnick, the Pinos’ attorney, said the new charge took him by surprise.
“I am dismayed by the State’s surprise decision to file this new charge more than two years later,” Srebnick said in a statement.
‘Agents at the scene of the accident determined that Pino was not intoxicated; Pino did not exceed any posted speed limit, Pino had the required number of Coast Guard-approved lifeguards aboard the vessel, and despite suffering a head injury (requiring fifteen stitches), Pino made heroic efforts to rescue injured passengers, including diving under the capsized ship. “This was an accident, not a crime, much less a serious crime,” the statement continued.
The Puig family also reacted to the new accusation against Pino.
“The Puig family appreciates the State’s continued efforts to prosecute Mr. Pino for his reckless operation of his boat while transporting 12 teenagers and resulting in the death of Lucy Fernández,” according to their statement.
