Pino seeks to toss statements and charges against him in boat-crash trial
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The investigation into 2022 boat crash that killed a high school student
On Sept. 4, 2022, a boat operated by real estate broker George Pino crashed in Biscayne Bay, killing 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez.
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The night George Pino crashed his boat into a Biscayne Bay channel marker, killing one teen girl and traumatically injuring another, he told a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigator that he lost control because a larger boat heading toward him in the channel caused a large wake.
Pino maintained that narrative months later in sworn statements in a civil case filed by one of the girls’ families and in a petition to limit his financial liability in any lawsuits resulting from the accident.
Now, Pino’s attorneys are asking Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez to bar prosecutors from mentioning the second-boat theory during the Doral real estate broker’s trial on manslaughter and vessel homicide charges.
The attempt to keep the theory of the other boat from jurors is one of a flurry of 11th-hour motions that Pino’s defense team filed this week as his June 1 trial approaches. Pino’s lawyers also want to shield the jury from hearing that Pino told police he had “two beers” that day, that a witness said his eyes were bloodshot when he was rescued from the water and that cops found 61 empty booze containers on his boat when they pulled it from the water the day after the crash.
The statement should not be admitted because Pino made it before lead investigator William Thompson read him his right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning — and because Pino suffered a head injury that caused him to remember events incorrectly, his attorneys argued in a motion filed in court on Thursday. In February, Pino’s attorneys hired a neurologist who evaluated Pino and determined he suffered a traumatic brain injury that could cause him to have amnesia and false memories.
Several statements that Pino made, his lawyers said, “were provided in response to an interrogation while he was in custody and without being advised of his Miranda rights.”
Thompson questioned Pino at a picnic table on Elliott Key, where first responders brought the boat passengers after the Sept. 4, 2022, crash that killed 17-year-old Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez and left Katerina “Katy” Puig, now 21, with a lifetime of physical disabilities. Pino gave both oral and written statements that night, saying the wake from the other boat caused him to lose control of his 29-foot Robalo center console.
The motion specifically asks to strike the other boat theory, but did not explain why the attorneys felt it would be problematic or whether there was or was not another boat. Howard Srebnick, one of Pino’s attorneys, did not respond to questions from the Miami Herald asking if the defense is now saying there was not another vessel that caused the crash.
The motions do not address that Pino made statements about the other-boat theory in the civil case filed by the Puigs and in his petition to limit liability for damages incurred in any lawsuits to the fair-market value of his boat after the crash, which his attorney states is about $5,000.
“At approximately, 6:30 p.m., the Subject vessel was subjected to a large wake thrown by a large center console or sport fish type vessel heading north east on the [Intracoastal Waterway] while both boats were transiting the Cutter Bank shallows in the vicinity of navigational marker 15,” his attorney, Andrew Mescolotto, wrote in the 2023 petition, adding, “The Petitioner adjusted course to meet the wake and impacted the wake. The Subject Vessel then began to turn unexpectedly on its own and put itself on a course roughly headed toward navigational marker 15.”
After reading the motions, Joel Denaro, the attorney for Lucy’s parents, Andres and Melissa Fernandez, said, “The family has only ever wanted to know the truth about what happened that day.”
Pino’s attorneys also requested last week that the judge dismiss the criminal charges. In the document, the defense said even though Pino was traveling at 47 mph on the wrong side of the channel when he hit the marker, he did not operate the vessel recklessly. The attorneys argued that unlike a roadway, it is legal to pass in and out of marked channels if the operator deems it safe to do so and there are no other boats in the driver’s path.
Clash over what charges to bring
In a sworn statement attached to the filing, the lead investigator said he submitted a report to prosecutors concluding that Pino operated the boat recklessly — but the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office disagreed.
The State Attorney’s Office initially only charged Pino with three misdemeanor charges of careless boating causing injury or death, which carry a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail, outraging the victims’ families. More than a year later, after a new witness came forward, prosecutors filed a more serious charge against Pino: felony vessel homicide, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors later added a manslaughter charge, but the jury can convict Pino on only one of the felonies.
READ MORE: New witness leads to felony homicide charge 2 years after boat crash killed Lourdes girl
When Thompson was deposed in January, his answers highlighted rifts in opinion among cops and prosecutors in the case. Four days after the crash, prosecutors and the FWC were already contemplating misdemeanor charges, according to a text conversation between Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and FWC Lt. Col. Alfredo Escanio, the deputy director of the south region.
Thompson, a seasoned marine patrol officer with years of experience probing boat accidents, said his investigation concluded that there was probable cause to charge Pino with reckless operation of a vessel, which is a misdemeanor.
“I think it’s the totality of all the rules. All the rules in my eyes are equal,” he said. “But with every different rule that he did violate, I do believe that it constitutes reckless. There was probable cause for charging Mr. Pino with reckless operation of that vessel.”
But Thompson said the case’s original prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Ruben Scolavino, told him and his colleagues that he did not believe there was enough evidence to charge Pino with reckless boating, and the FWC’s report was changed to recommend the careless-boating charges, according to the deposition transcript.
Hoping to dismiss the charges, Pino’s attorneys argued that investigators did not uncover new “material evidence” in the time before Pino’s charges were upgraded.
Defense wants to curb mention of alcohol
Pino’s legal team filed a slew of other motions this week. They include requests to limit prosecutors from admitting evidence related to alcohol use on the boat as well as photographs of Lucy’s body and testimony about the injuries that two other girls sustained.
The outing to Elliott Key that day and a planned dinner at Ocean Reef Club, a gated community and resort in Key Largo, were to celebrate the 18th birthday of one of Pino’s daughters.
In one of the documents, Pino asked the judge to bar prosecutors from referencing the 61 empty bottles and cans of alcohol found on his boat when investigators pulled the vessel out of the water the day after the crash. The defense also seeks to exclude any evidence that the teens were drinking while on the boat.
This evidence, Pino’s legal team argues, is irrelevant because it does not relate to whether Pino operated the boat recklessly.
In the filing, defense attorneys acknowledge that the teens on the boat “helped themselves to alcoholic beverages which were in a cooler on Pino’s boat.” The motion also states that the empty containers recovered by the FWC were from several boats that were tied up that day.
“The jury may disapprove of Pino allowing underage drinking and therefore admitting this evidence risks the jury basing its verdict on their own moral disapproval of Pino and his parenting decisions,” the motion says.
The document also included parts of several deposition transcripts, including the interview of one of the girls on the boat, who said “everyone was drinking a lot” and throwing away the containers on Pino’s boat.
Pino’s legal team wants to stop prosecutors from introducing testimony that Pino had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol after the crash. The attorneys pointed out that Thompson testified in his deposition that alcohol was not a factor in the crash — and that there was no connection between Pino and the empty alcohol containers.
The testimonies of an FWC officer and an off-duty Miami-Dade firefighter, the defense argued, should also be kept out of the trial because they contradict the lead investigator’s testimony.
READ MORE: Pino smelled of alcohol, had ‘bloodshot eyes’ after deadly boat crash, FWC cop says
In a deposition in April 2025, FWC Officer Julien Gazzola said Pino smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and appeared to be disoriented and have a “flustered demeanor.” Firefighter Matthew Smiley testified in his deposition that he smelled “alcohol on [Pino’s] breath when he talked to me” and that Pino’s eyes were a “little bloodshot.”
However, Smiley testified that Pino’s eyes might have been bloodshot for other reasons, including that he might have gotten saltwater in his eyes.
Thompson did not give Pino a sobriety test, saying in his final report that he did not administer the test because Pino did not show signs of impairment. Thompson’s report says Pino didn’t want to take the test because his attorney wasn’t present.
READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl
Pino’s attorneys also want to prevent jurors from seeing photos of Lucy when she was in the hospital and when her autopsy was performed — as well as body camera footage showing first responders performing life-saving measures on the girl. The defense argued the photos and videos had “little evidentiary value” and would “serve to evoke the jury’s emotion.”
In another motion, the attorneys seek to limit prosecutors from mentioning that two other girls were injured: Puig, who is still regaining basic motor skills, and Isabella Rodriguez, who suffered a brain bleed but has recovered.
Pino also requested that his trial be moved to Palm Beach or Orlando because media coverage of the case, his attorneys argued, would prevent him for getting a fair trial in Miami.
The judge has not ruled on any of the requests but will likely address them at the next hearing on Wednesday.
This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 2:03 PM.
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