Former South Florida resident guilty of manslaughter in scuba diver's death
FORT PIERCE — A former resident of St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties was found guilty Tuesday in the death five years ago of a 37-year-old diver who got caught in a boat propeller off Riviera Beach and drowned, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Dustin McCabe, who was 49 on Thursday, was convicted by a federal jury of seaman's manslaughter in the death of Mollie Ghiz-Flynn on March 29, 2020. Ghiz-Flynn and her husband Sean Flynn were residents of Melbourne when she died, the Palm Beach Post reported.
McCabe, now of Ocala, was also found guilty of lying to the U.S. Coast Guard, and additionally, of COVID-19 relief fraud. McCabe faces up to 10 years in prison for manslaughter, up to five years for lying and up to 20 years for wire fraud.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 12 before U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon. Attempts to reach McCabe or McCabe's lawyer were unsuccessful Saturday.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, McCabe bought a 48-foot boat in early March 2020, named it Southern Comfort, and lied on Coast Guard forms that he was going to use the boat for recreation.
He really intended to use the boat to make money by taking people scuba diving, federal prosecutors said. McCabe retrofitted the boat for that purpose, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
On the day before Ghiz-Flynn's death, McCabe took people scuba diving twice, federal prosecutors said. The boat malfunctioned more than once, federal prosecutors said, including during the pickup of a diver.
The port-side propeller started spinning even though the engine was in neutral, prosecutors said, sucking the diver toward the propeller. The diver barely escaped injury, prosecutors said.
The following day during a dive at Breakers Reef, located off the coast from the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach County, the boat malfunctioned again, according to the Palm Beach Post and prosecutors.
As Flynn and Ghiz-Flynn were boarding Southern Comfort following a dive, the propeller sucked Ghiz-Flynn toward it, according to the Palm Beach Post and prosecutors.
Ghiz-Flynn got caught in the propeller. It cut and mangled her, keeping her under water, and she drowned, federal prosecutors said.
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Following the woman's death, McCabe was prohibited from operating Southern Comfort, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. But prosecutors said McCabe applied for COVID-19 relief money through the paycheck protection program, which was meant to help small businesses survive the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
McCabe claimed his business was active, prosecutors said, and he filed fraudulent payroll records and fake tax documents to support his claim.
Keith Burbank is TCPalm's watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com and at 720-288-6882. Reporting by former longtime Palm Beach Post staff writer Eliot Kleinberg contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Former South Florida man convicted Tuesday in scuba diver's death
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