Why was George Pino hit with similar charges in boat crash that killed teen girl?
Pino, 54, was already charged with vessel homicide, a nearly identical felony charge that also carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, the same as manslaughter.
Both charges stem from the death of 17-year-old Luciana 'Lucy' Fernandez, who died in the hospital the day after the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, when Pino slammed his 29-foot Robalo into a concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay around 6:30 p.m., causing the boat to capsize. Three girls were unconscious when they were pulled from the water, including Lucy, who had just started her senior year at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy.
READ MORE: Testimony of girls on boat leads to another charge for George Pino
So how can prosecutors charge Pino with both offenses at once? How do the charges differ, if at all?
Manslaughter and vessel homicide are equal offenses with the same consequences, said Roy Kahn, a former prosecutor who has been practicing criminal law in Miami for four decades. They are second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15 years behind bars, if convicted.
But manslaughter charges are more general; they center around a person's negligence causing another's death, rather than killing someone through recklessly operating a boat.
Prosecutors can charge Pino with both crimes because they're under separate statutes in Florida, Kahn said. Pino, however, can't be convicted of both charges because of the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, or being punished more than once for the same crime.
'It gives the jury two options,' Kahn said. 'So if the jury is split, [they] can find that it was more of a vessel homicide or a manslaughter.'
Prosecutors have to prove the same elements of the offenses, although the charges differ slightly, Kahn said.
In manslaughter cases, prosecutors are burdened with proving that the accused person acted negligently. In vessel and vehicular homicide cases, the law exchanges negligence for reckless operation of a boat or car, respectively.
READ MORE: George Pino charged with vessel homicide in crash that killed a girl. What does that mean?
In new testimony to Pino's attorneys and prosecutors, several of the girls detailed the scene that day on Pino's boat, including one who said she drank up to 10 beers and multiple shots of alcohol on the boat that day, sources told the Miami Herald.
On the day of the crash, there were 12 teenage girls on the boat; Pino's daughter, Cecilia, had just turned 18 and had invited 11 of her girlfriends — all under 18 — to celebrate on the boating excursion to Elliott Key in Biscayne Bay with her parents, George and Cecilia Pino.
When the girls first gave their statements to investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shortly after the crash, they provided scant details from that night as they were under 21, the legal drinking age in Florida.
READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl
But that was nearly three years ago. Since then, the Herald has published a series of stories about how the FWC never interviewed key eyewitnesses, leading a Miami-Dade firefighter at the scene to tell prosecutors that Pino appeared intoxicated when he was pulled from the water.
That led prosecutors to reopen the case, drop the three careless boating charges against Pino and charge him with felony vessel homicide on Oct. 31. They filed the second manslaughter charge on Thursday, Aug. 7, after the girls had given new testimony in their depositions and painted a more detailed portrait of the party scene on the boat, Herald sources say.
The day after the crash, the FWC investigators found a stash of empty booze bottles and cans on the boat. Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, has said the empty bottles and cans stemmed from five boats tied up that day at Elliott Key, though he hasn't said who were on those boats.
Prosecutors could enhance the severity of Pino's charge by upgrading it to aggravated manslaughter because Lucy was under 18 years old when she died, Kahn said. Seeking an aggravated manslaughter charge would make the offense a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
For maritime attorney Jack Hickey, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office reacted to the new evidence from the girls' depositions when it decided to pursue the new charge. Prosecutors confirmed to the Herald they filed the new charge based on new witness testimony, but they did not name the witness.
'It's interesting that the evidence has evolved,' he said. 'We don't often see this much of an accumulation of evidence after charges are filed but it is sometimes seen as witnesses come forward.'
The new manslaughter charge comes after the Herald in recent months reported on conflicting accounts about Pino being under the influence that emerged in law enforcement officers' depositions.
The Herald also uncovered that the body camera footage of four FWC officers who were in close proximity to Pino that night was deleted — and that the head of the FWC and Miami-Dade State Attorney texted about the case.
Pino's trial is set for summer 2026.
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