Pino’s vessel homicide trial date set in crash that killed Lourdes student

George Pino, the prominent Doral real estate broker who slammed his boat into a channel marker in Biscayne Bay, leading to the death of a Lourdes student in 2022, may face a jury in July.

In court on Wednesday, prosecutor Laura Adams said she and Pino’s attorneys agreed on a trial date in the summer because many of the witnesses are college students. Pino’s camera was off during the Zoom hearing.

Pino’s trial is expected to take a week, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez said after setting a preliminary trial date of July 14.

Pino’s careless boating misdemeanor charges were upgraded to vessel homicide, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, in October after a series of articles in the Herald revealed how investigators never took statements from key eyewitnesses at the scene, leading the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to re-evaulate the case.

The Herald’s investigation also revealed the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency that investigated the crash, early on ruled out alcohol as a factor in the accident. Yet records reviewed by the Herald showed that Pino, 54, admitted to drinking that day, a severely injured girl had a blood alcohol level of nearly twice the legal limit and 61 empty booze bottles and cans were found on the boat the day after the crash. (Pino’s defense attorney, Howard Srebnick, has said the empty booze containers stemmed from five boats tied up that day on Elliott Key.)

READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl

Srebnick issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, maintaining his client’s innocence.

“During today’s hearing, the prosecutor confirmed that the witness list has not changed since the State filed misdemeanor charges more than one year ago,” Srebnick said in the statement. “No new witnesses and none of the original witnesses allege that Pino was intoxicated or impaired, exceeded any posted speed limit or otherwise engaged in reckless driving to justify charging a felony. This was a tragic accident, not a crime.”

Luciana ‘Lucy’ Fernandez, 17, died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash. Katerina ‘Katy’ Puig, her classmate at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, 19, faces a lifetime of care after a suffering a traumatic brain injury.

Pino has pleaded not guilty. At his last hearing in November, in which he surrendered to jail authorities, Pino had a strong show of support, with about 75 family members and friends filling the courtroom.

The next hearing is set for Feb. 21.

No sobriety test given

Around 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4, 2022, over the Labor Day weekend, Pino was driving his 29-foot Robalo center console boat back to the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, where he is a member, when he slammed his boat into the concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay. He was returning from Elliott Key with his wife, their daughter Cecilia and her 11 teenage girlfriends, who were celebrating Cecilia’s 18th birthday.

After a nearly year-long investigation by the FWC, the state cops that investigate boating accidents, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in August 2023 charged Pino with the three misdemeanor counts of careless boating, which carry a maximum sentence of 60 days in county jail and a $500 fine.

The misdemeanor charges outraged the Fernandez and Puig families, who were assured by both agencies they would conduct a thorough investigation before concluding their probe.

The night of the accident, FWC investigators did not give Pino a sobriety test, saying he did not seem impaired and thus they said they did not have probable cause to get a judge’s warrant to compel him to take the test.

Yet the Herald’s investigation revealed that the training manuals of the FWC and the State Attorney’s Office list significant injuries and deaths as probable cause for a blood draw for a sobriety test.

In fact, “WHEN IN DOUBT, GET THE BLOOD!” is a mantra that appears throughout a 52-page presentation the State Attorney Office’s put together for the FWC in 2023, titled, “Search Warrants In Vessel Homicide Investigations.”

After the Herald articles detailed what three boaters witnessed immediately after the crash — one of whom performed CPR on the victims — a Miami-Dade firefighter who was at the scene came forward and told prosecutors Pino appeared intoxicated when he was pulled from the water.

This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 10:26 AM.

Grethel Aguila

Miami Herald

Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.