No alcohol detected in Pino’s hospital blood test after boat crash, defense says

Hours after the Biscayne Bay boat crash that killed a teen girl and seriously injured another, George Pino, the Doral real estate broker at the helm of the vessel, had a hospital blood test that showed “no alcohol was detected,” defense attorneys said during a Monday morning hearing.

The attorneys addressed the blood draw after prosecutor Laura Adams said she is intending to get records from Pino’s Sept. 4, 2022, visit to Baptist Hospital, where he was treated for injuries sustained in the crash earlier that day.

Pino had declined to submit to a blood alcohol test at the scene, telling a state law enforcement officer he only had “two beers,” that officer’s body camera shows. But his blood was drawn by medical staff when he was taken to Baptist.

Hospital staff drew Pino’s blood around 11:30 p.m on Sept. 4, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The crash happened at 6:37 p.m., according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators.

Alcohol takes 60 to 90 minutes to reach peak levels in the blood, then the body begins breaking it down, according to a Cleveland Clinic report. The average body metabolizes between .015 and .020 blood alcohol content an hour, meaning for someone at the legal level for intoxication -- .08 -- it would take between four and five hours to reach zero, according to the University of Arizona.

Adams filed the request for the hospital records on Friday, writing that the state had “a compelling interest” in the records. The filing included a short narrative of the events leading up to — and following — the crash, including Pino’s statement to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigator that he had “two beers.”

“These records will contain information on any toxicology tests conducted by hospital personnel; on the defendant’s medical condition and/or injuries at the time he was admitted...” the filing says. “Moreover, these records will contain information in the form of statements that may have been made by the defendant to medical personnel about how the vessel collision occurred.”

Attorney Mark Shapiro, who is representing Pino, hinted that the defense might not object to Adams’ request for the hospital records.

During the hearing, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez set dates in February to address motions. Pino’s trial is scheduled for June.

Pino, 55, is facing manslaughter and vessel homicide charges. Those felonies carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, although he can’t be convicted of both charges.

READ MORE: Pino pleads not guilty to new manslaughter charge in fatal boat crash case

The charges are the result of the boat crash leading to the death of 17-year-old Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, who was starting her senior year at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. The Sept. 4, 2022, crash also seriously brain injured her classmate, Katerina “Katy” Puig, now 20, a standout soccer player still regaining basic motor skills.

Blood alcohol testing — or lack thereof— has been at the center of controversy in the case.

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

On the night of the crash, FWC investigators did not give Pino a blood alcohol test to determine his sobriety levels, even though they are trained to do so in boating accidents with serious injuries or fatalities. Investigators on the scene knew that four of the 14 people on the boat were airlifted as trauma alert patients by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, including Lucy, who died the next day in the hospital.

In addition, Pino told FWC investigators on the scene that he had “two beers” that day. The Pinos were celebrating their daughter’s 18th birthday; she had invited 11 of her close girlfriends — all underage — to go on the boat outing to Elliott Key in Biscayne Bay.

The FWC has maintained it did not have probable cause to get a court warrant to force Pino to take a sobriety test. But the FWC could have contacted the State Attorney’s Office, which has a prosecutor on call 24/7 to help officers get a search warrant, arrest warrants or court orders in these types of cases. In fact, the second page of a State Attorney Office’s slideshow for the FWC on vessel homicides gives the hotline number for the prosecutors.

The FWC didn’t call.

Pino was initially charged with three careless boating misdemeanors in the crash. After the Herald published a series of investigative articles detailing how investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency that investigates fatal boating accidents, never interviewed key eyewitnesses, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office reopened the case.

READ MORE: ‘Radio silence’: Deadly boat crash witnesses say they weren’t interviewed by investigators

A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue firefighter who was among the first rescuers on the scene came forward after the Herald’s articles and gave a statement to prosecutors saying Pino showed signs of being intoxicated when he came upon him in the bay shortly after the crash.

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.