John Jefferson
Main: a pickup truck tows the damaged boat George Pino was driving on Labor Day weekend in 2022 (WPLG). Right inset: Lucy Fernandez (Lucy Fernandez Foundation/YouTube).
More than two years after a Labor Day weekend boat crash killed a 17-year-old girl in Florida, the real estate developer operating the boat with 12 teen girls aboard while celebrating his daughter’s birthday now faces a homicide case that could put him in prison for a decade and a half.
George Pino, now 54, had up to now only faced misdemeanor charges for careless boating even though the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found more than 60 empty alcohol containers on the boat after the Boca Chita Key-area crash on Sept. 4, 2022. But a firefighter who responded to the scene has since told Miami prosecutors that alcohol did play a role in the tragedy, local NBC affiliate WTVJ reported Thursday on the new vessel homicide case in the death of Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez.
On the day of the crash, Fernandez, Katerina “Katy” Puig, 10 other teen girls, and Pino’s wife had been celebrating the birthday of Pino’s daughter when the operator of the 29-foot boat moving at around 45 mph slammed into a channel marker, with fatal and otherwise life-altering consequences for the passengers sent into Biscayne Bay, WPLG reported.
Fernandez lost her life and Puig, the captain of the soccer team at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, suffered a brain injury and permanent disability, reports said.
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Fernandez, also a student at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, posthumously received a diploma in 2023 and the Lucy Fernandez Foundation was established in her memory to “provide scholarship and experiential learning opportunities for students at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, her beloved school[.]”
Puig graduated the same year, appeared on a stage in a wheelchair, and inspired all in attendance.
Katy Puig graduates from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in 2023 (WTVJ).
Reports said that Puig’s family later sued the Pinos claiming that they provided the teens alcohol, and that suit has since ended in a $16 million settlement.
According to the Miami Herald, Pino allegedly said after the crash that he had “two beers,” and he was not tested for alcohol consumption.
Both the Fernandez and Puig families reportedly said they were “grateful” that Pino was now facing a homicide charge.
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