A 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 has pleaded not guilty.
George Pino and his attorney attended a hearing by Zoom Thursday morning, where he entered the plea.
Pino was charged last week with vessel homicide/operate in reckless manner in the Sept. 4, 2022 crash.
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. He'd pleaded not guilty to those charges.
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An FWC report said Pino "did operate his vessel in a careless manner by violating four navigational rules." The boat was traveling between 45-47 miles an hour, which the FWC said was a factor in the crash.
The 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 week, 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.
In a statement last week, Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, said the decision to file the homicide charge came as a surprise.
"I am dismayed by the State’s surprise-decision to file this new charge more than two years later," Srebnick said. "Officers on the scene of the crash determined that Pino was not intoxicated; Pino did not exceed any posted speed limit, Pino had the required number of Coast Guard-approved life preservers on board the vessel, and despite sustaining a head injury himself (requiring fifteen stitches), Pino made heroic efforts to rescue the injured passengers, including diving under the capsized boat. This was an accident, not a crime, much less a felony."
Pino is scheduled to appear in court in person on Nov. 14.
