Florida actual property mogul George Pino was discovered not responsible Monday of smashing his boat right into a channel marker, resulting in the dying of a 17-year-old lady.
The jury in Miami-Dade County discovered Pino, 55, not responsible of felony second-degree manslaughter and vessel murder expenses within the 2022 crash that killed Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez and left one other lady, then 18, with everlasting and debilitating accidents. He pleaded not responsible.
The daddy and well-known Doral actual property dealer had been internet hosting a number of teen ladies for his daughter Carolina’s 18th birthday on his 29-foot boat after they crashed in Biscayne Bay on Sept. 4, 2022.
Pino was accused of driving the boat at 47 miles per hour when it slammed into the channel marker, tearing a big gap within the facet of the vessel and sending all the passengers – together with his spouse, Cecilia, and 12 teen ladies complete – into the water.
Eleven folks have been injured and 6 have been taken to the hospital.
Fernandez, who was reportedly trapped beneath the boat after it crashed, died from drowning-related accidents within the hospital about 12 hours later.
The slain teen was seen in a heart-wrenching video taken earlier that day, dancing and singing alongside her pals on the boat to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Lady.”
Prosecutor Laura Adams beforehand instructed the jury Pino was extra involved with being “the cool dad” than with the security of the passengers.
“He was going full throttle with all these youngsters on board who’ve been consuming alcohol – as quick as he can via this slender channel,” Adams stated throughout closing arguments Monday.
Moreover, “he decides to journey down the incorrect facet of the channel.”
“As a result of he was working in such full disregard for the children on his boat, Lucy winds up like this within the hospital,” the legal professional continued, and flashed a chilling photograph of Fernandez in a hospital mattress.
“No one and nobody is liable for the dying of Lucy Fernandez aside from that man proper there – he’s the explanation why she is lifeless,” Adams continued.
Adams claimed that Pino, who was not sobriety examined instantly after the incident, was seemingly mendacity about having “two beers” whereas on the boat, as he later instructed investigators.
“He lied again and again about what occurred. Why? To shift the blame off of himself and in an avoidance of accountability,” the prosecutor stated. “Simply as he wasn’t precisely truthful about how the crash occurred, maybe he wasn’t as precisely truthful about how a lot he needed to drink.”
A day after the crash, investigators discovered a complete of 61 alcohol bottles and cans on the boat, the Miami Herald reported in July 2025.
Pino “wasn’t fascinated by the well-being of his passengers – he wasn’t fascinated by the well-being of his personal spouse and daughter,” Adams slammed.
“He was too wrapped up in making an attempt to be the cool dad on the quick boat.”
Pino’s protection legal professional, Howard Srebnick, slammed Adams’ logic that Pino was making an attempt to be a “cool dad” by driving the boat quick.
“Each single witness who testified that was on the boat…felt the pace was protected. They’d been on his boat earlier than, they felt nothing totally different, nothing uncommon about how Mr. Pino was working this vessel.
“He wasn’t drag racing, he wasn’t doing donuts within the water…he was not making an attempt to be the ‘cool dad.’ I don’t know the place that got here from,” he stated. “No one on the boat requested George to decelerate.”
The vessel “was touring in a straight line with a pace that [the boat] is designed to journey, in a zone the place there’s no pace restrict,” Srebnick stated.
“If George had not hit the piling, nothing unhealthy would have occurred. The circumstances have been preferrred…there was no oncoming boat visitors – it was a large open bay. The pace had nothing to do with the accidents…with the crash,” he insisted.
