George Pino’s statements about boat crash will be allowed at trial, judge rules

The account Doral real estate broker George Pino gave to an investigator about another boat coming at him and throwing a wake — causing him to crash into a Biscayne Bay channel marker and killing a teen girl in 2022 — can be brought into his trial, a judge ruled Monday.

The theory of the other boat, which no one else on the water that day witnessed, had long been a tenet of Pino’s explanation as to why he slammed his boat into the steel channel marker. But last week, his attorneys filed a motion arguing it shouldn’t be mentioned during trial, and stated that a head injury may have caused him to have a false memory of what led to the crash.

“I think that’s why the defense hired [the doctor]. To say that the statements he gave were caused by amnesia or false memories without the intent to deceive,” prosecutor Laura Adams told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez. “ But, perhaps, it could also be that the defendant was looking for excuses for why he smashed into that steel pole in the middle of the bay.”

Tinkler Mendez issued her ruling Monday morning before jury selection. Pino, 54, is charged with manslaughter and vessel homicide in connection to the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, which killed 17-year-old Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez and left Katerina “Katy” Puig, now 21, with physical and neurological disabilities.

During the hearing before jury selection, Adams mentioned that the state hadn’t extended a plea offer to Pino — and he hadn’t offered a deal the state would accept.

Pino, the prosecutor said, offered to plead no contest to the felony charges, meaning he would not admit guilt, as long as he receives no jail time and maintains a right to appeal. He also offered to plead down to a misdemeanor charge.

“Our ears are open, and our minds are open if there’s anything the defense wishes to convey,” Adams said.

Also before jury selection, Pino’s defense team again tried to sway Tinkler Mendez to dismiss the charges against him. Howard Srebnick, Pino’s lead attorney, argued that there were no factual issues in dispute aside from the prosecutors’ contention that alcohol consumption was a factor in the crash.

While Pino told the investigator that he had “two beers,” the investigator and other witnesses stated Pino did not appear impaired after the crash, Srebnick said.

“They have no evidence that his faculties were impaired, but they want to put in the jury box, well, he had two beers and so you should find him guilty because of the two beers, even though it doesn’t violate any statutory rule, because you can operate a motor vessel having consumed two beers over the course of a couple of hours,” Srebnick said.

Adams, however, countered that Pino having any amount of alcohol contributed to the manner in which he drove his boat, leading to him to hit the channel marker.

“Am I establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant had an unlawful blood alcohol level or that he was impaired or that his normal faculties were impaired? No,” Adams told Tinkler Mendez. “I can’t prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. But it certainly is an issue for a jury to consider or take into account when he has a vessel with 12 minors on board whether or not his consumption of any amount of alcohol contributed to the recklessness of his conduct.”

The judge denied the defense’s request.

Why were statements admitted?

Pino’s statements to the lead FWC investigator, Lt. William Thompson, including those about the second boat and having “two beers,” will be allowed at the trial.

Some of the statements, the judge said, were spontaneously made while Pino was not in custody. Other statements, Tinkler Mendez said, were protected by a privilege in Florida law for accident reports. However, Pino waived that privilege in sworn written statements that Pino and his wife gave attorneys during proceedings in a civil lawsuit brought by Puig’s parents.

In those statements, the Pinos say the other boat was the cause of the crash.

“Once he responded to the attorneys ... in the civil case, he was no longer protected by the accident privilege, in terms of what could be admissible evidence during a criminal trial,” Tinkler Mendez said.

Pino’s lawyers argued that their client should have been read his rights before he was questioned by Thompson. And they are also now claiming Pino suffered a head injury that day and that it might have caused him to remember events incorrectly.

When Pino arrived at Elliott Key, where first responders took him and the passengers after the crash, Thompson asked him if the 29-foot Robalo vessel was his. Thompson did not ask what led to the crash. But in response to that question, Pino began telling Thompson about the other boat being the reason he crashed, the officer testified.

At a hearing last week, Thompson testified that Pino was the subject of the crash investigation from the beginning because he was the operator of the vessel. The investigator said that at the time Pino was questioned, he was not considered a suspect in a criminal investigation.

Pino’s attorneys argued otherwise, saying he was not free to leave Elliott Key while Thompson questioned him.

Adams said Pino was not able to leave only because he was on an island waiting to be taken to Black Point Marina while Thompson gathered information about the crash. And Pino was not the only person on Elliott Key; several of the girls on his boat were also there, waiting to be taken back to the mainland.

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.