A prominent South Florida real estate developer facing a homicide charge in a 2022 boat crash near Boca Chita Key that killed one teen and left another permanently disabled turned himself in Thursday. NBC6’s Cherney Amhara reports
A prominent South Florida real estate developer facing a homicide charge in a 2022 boat crash near Boca Chita Key that killed one teen and left another permanently disabled turned himself in Thursday.
A judge last week ordered George Pino to surrender and be booked into jail by Nov. 21 on a charge of vessel homicide/operate in reckless manner in the Sept. 4, 2022 crash.
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Pino arrived at Miami-Dade Richard E. Gerstein Building around 8 a.m. to surrender surrounded by family and attorneys.
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He didn't speak but his attorney, Howard Srebnick, said Pino already has pleaded not guilty.
"George will be processed and then he'll be released. He's already pled not guilty, he's been arraigned and the trial will be set for some time next year," Srebnick said.
Pino attended a brief court hearing before he was booked into jail and set to be released. His next court hearing was scheduled for Jan. 8.
Pino, 54, was driving the 29-foot vessel with 14 passengers on board when he crashed into a channel marker near Boca Chita Key, according to prosecutors and officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The boat capsized and all the passengers, including several teens, were thrown into the water.
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The crash killed 17-year-old Luciana Fernandez, a senior at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, and injured most of the passengers on the boat, including Katerina Puig, who was 18 at the time and was left permanently disabled.
Pino was initially charged with misdemeanor counts including careless boating but the homicide charge was filed last month. He has pleaded not guilty.
An initial incident report said 61 empty alcoholic bottles and cans, one empty champagne bottle and a half-consumed bottle of liquor were found on the boat, but a final FWC incident report released almost a year after the crash said Pino showed no signs of impairment when officers responded.
New body camera footage of Pino speaking with FWC officers after the crash, released last month, showed Pino admitting to having two beers but declining to give a blood sample. Authorities said he also refused a breathalyzer.
But an attorney for Fernandez's family said prosecutors re-evaluated the case and filed the new charge after a new key witness came forward.
The witness, a Miami-Dade firefighter who responded to the boat crash, told prosecutors alcohol was a factor in the crash, the attorney said.
After Thursday's court hearing, Pino's niece and Srebnick gave statements to reporters.
"From that moment, we have been wracked with despair and grief, and living a nightmare we could never have imagined," niece Sofia Castellanos said. :Worse than this though, is knowing that our anguish does not compare to the pain and suffering experienced by the impacted families."
"It's too bad that this has now become a criminal case and that we have to look at it as such," Srebnick said. "But it's my great hope that during the course of the next few months, as we have an opportunity to show the facts of the case, that perhaps the state attorney will understand that this was just an accident. There was no crime committed here."
