Broward man charged with BUI manslaughter in fatal Florida Keys boat crash
A Broward County man was charged with boating under the influence and manslaughter Wednesday following the conclusion of an investigation into a December fatal boat crash in the Florida Keys.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators say 61-year-old Guy Erdman, from Oakland Park, slammed his 21-foot center console vessel into a sailboat that was anchored in Buttonwood Sound in Key Largo around 8 p.m. on Dec. 27.
The impact caused Erdman and his three passengers to be ejected from his boat, police say. A nearby boater rescued Erdman and two of the passengers, but 24-year-old Sydney Cole, from North Carolina, was missing.
Police found her body floating in the water hours later, according to the FWC.
Investigators say Erdman drank alcohol less than an hour before the crash, and toxicology results showed his blood alcohol content was more than twice over the legal limit, said FWC spokeswoman Arielle Callender.
A man and woman, 71 and 70 years old respectively, were on board the sailboat and not injured. However, Erdman’s 31-year-old son, Christopher Erdman, attacked the man after the crash, according to court records. The man, William Bradley Miller, came outside of the sailboat’s cabin moments after the collision and boarded a dinghy attached to the vessel to assess the situation.
According to an arrest report, Christopher Erdman boarded the dinghy and pushed Miller into the water. Miller was able to get back on the dinghy, but the younger Erdman punched him several times in the face, the report states.
Prosecutors charged him with felony battery on a person 65 years or older. That charged was dropped in March after Christopher Erdman entered a pretrial diversion program, mandating he stay out of legal trouble for the next six months, according to court records.
Guy Erdman was being held in Monroe County jail Wednesday on a bond of $240,000. Information on his legal representation was not immediately available.
In addition to the BUI/manslaughter charge, he is also charged with two counts of boating under the influence in a crash that caused property damage and four counts of violating navigational rules that resulted in a crash that caused a death.
