New body-worn camera shows a prominent South Florida real estate developer speaking with state wildlife officers shortly after a boat crash that killed a teen girl. NBC6’s Laura Rodriguez reports
New body-worn camera shows a prominent South Florida real estate developer speaking with state wildlife officers shortly after a boat crash that killed a teen girl, as he now faces a new homicide charge more than two years after the incident.
The new footage obtained by NBC6 on Thursday shows George Pino speaking with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers the night of the Sept. 4, 2022 crash.
It was learned Thursday that Pino was facing a new charge of vessel homicide/operate in reckless manner in the crash.
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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 FWC. The boat capsized and all the passengers, including several teens, were thrown into the water.
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.
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In the new footage, a shirtless Pino explains to an officer that they were going through a channel when another boat caused a wave.
"I turned back to look because there was two girls sitting in the back seat of the boat, I had five or six at the front, my wife in the middle, we were coming and I approached the waves head-first like I always do, and the boat hit, I was looking at the girls just to make sure they were ok because they were sitting on the back, and the next thing I know I hit the wave and I tried to swing and the right side of the boat, that would be the left side of the boat, hit the pylon," Pino says in the video. "I can't believe it."
Later in the video, the officer asks Pino if he'd be willing to give a blood sample, telling him it's up to him.
"No, I had two beers," Pino tells the officer.
"It's not illegal to drink a couple beers and drive," the officer responds.
"I feel perfect in the way that my mind was, I mean, I know what happened, I've been operating boats forever, I've done that ride 1,000 times," Pino says.
"You're allowed to drink alcohol and drive a boat," the officer tells him. "I'm just asking since there was a boating accident with injuries, I always like to ask for consent of my operator to give blood just so we can draw that out that there was no alcohol involved in a boating accident. I'd like to ask for your consent for blood, it's your choice, it's completely voluntary, it's a voluntary consent, it's up to you."
The officer presents Pino a consent form for the blood sample, then asks him if he's bleeding. Pino says he is and the officer takes him to get it looked at.
Pino declined the blood draw and refused a breathalyzer test after the crash, authorities said.
An incident report from FWC said 61 empty alcoholic bottles and cans, one empty champagne bottle and a half-consumed bottle of liquor were found on the boat.
The 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.
And the final FWC incident report released almost a year after the crash said Pino showed no signs of impairment when officers responded.
But an attorney for Fernandez's family said prosecutors re-evaluated the case when 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.
Pino was initially charged with misdemeanor counts including careless boating. He'd pleaded not guilty to those charges.
In a statement Thursday, 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."
