George Pino experienced an emotional breakdown during the first day of his trial on manslaughter and vessel homicide charges in connection with the 2022 boat crash that killed a 17-year-old girl.
Pino sobbed and heaved shortly after his defense lawyer Howard Srebnick began his opening statement on Monday afternoon, prompting Miami-Dade Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez to send the jury out and end the day’s proceedings. Srebnick will resume his opening statement Tuesday morning.
Pino’s episode provided some drama to the somber start of the trial, which is expected to last roughly two weeks. He is accused of causing the death of Lucia “Lucy” Fernandez during a Labor Day weekend boating excursion in 2022 to celebrate Pino’s daughter’s 18th birthday.
Pino was steering his boat with 14 occupants — including his wife, daughter, Fernandez and 10 other teenage girls — when it crashed into a concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay near Elliott Key. All the occupants fell into the water and the boat capsized. Fernandez drowned and another girl, Katerina “Katy” Puig, now 21, sustained debilitating physical injuries.
Pino, CEO of Doral-based State Street Realty, originally faced misdemeanor charges of careless boating, but prosecutors issued the more serious manslaughter and vessel homicide charges in 2024 after a witness came forward.
“This was not a momentary lapse of judgement,” Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Laura Adams told the 10-member jury. “Lucy is dead because the defendant failed to do the basic things to do on the water…avoiding situations that can cause collisions.”
The courtroom filled up quickly nearly an hour before the trial began. Family members and supporters of Pino and Fernandez equally packed both sides of the chamber. Observers who could not be seated were directed to an empty court room where they watched Adams’ opening statement on a screen.
Dressed in a black suit, blue dress shirt and blue tie, Pino huddled with his daughter, Cecilia Pino, before jurors arrived. His wife, also named Cecilia, was not present as she is expected to be called as a witness. Pino turned to face the jury of six men and four women as they walked in.
Meanwhile, Fernandez’s parents, Andy and Melissa Fernandez sat in the front row behind Adams. During her opening statement, they both wiped away tears when she talked about their daughter’s last moments before the fatal crash.
Adams walked jurors through the events before and after the crash, telling them that the case would be proven by a “silent witness not swayed by money power or influence” — data that investigators mined from the global positioning system in Pino’s boat.
After spending the afternoon on Sept. 4, 2022 partying at a sandbar with other boaters, Pino and his guests departed shortly after 6 p.m. for a home in Key Largo that he and his wife had rented. Later that evening, the couple planned to take the girls to Ocean Reef Club for a catered dinner party to celebrate their daughter’s birthday, Adams said.
Not wanting to be late, Pino piloted the boat erratically through a deep water channel on the way to Key Largo, Adams said. Pino accelerated from 43 miles per hour to 47 miles per hour nine seconds before the boat plowed into the channel marker, making no attempt to avoid the object, she added.
While making her opening remarks, Adams showed jurors some of the evidence she will be presenting, including map images showing the GPS coordinates of the boat as it raced to Key Largo and photos of the capsized vessel with a gaping hole it sustained when it barreled into the channel marker.
Fernandez became trapped underneath the capsized hull, Adams said. First responders transported her to a ranger station to take her by helicopter to the nearest hospital, but they were unable to revive Fernandez.
Adams told the jury that Pino lied to investigators by claiming he crashed into the channel marker after another larger vessel created a massive wake that caused him to lose control of his boat.
“Even when the GPS proved him wrong, he doubled down,” the prosecutor said. “George Pino was reckless and coldly negligent.”
Srebnick, Pino’s attorney, began his opening statement by telling jurors that Pino “would never think to put any of these girls’ lives in jeopardy.” He noted that the channel does not have a posted speed limit and that Pino had traveled safely through the channel “many, many times.”
As Srebnick tried to continue his opening statement, his client lost it. Pino breathed heavily as he wept, which prompted the judge to remove the jury at Adams’ request. The prosecutor said Pino’s “emotional outburst was unavoidably distracting and inappropriate for the jury” to sit through.
During the break, paramedics arrived to check on Pino even though he initially declined medical assistance. Tinkler Mendez issued him and his legal team a warning. “Mr. Pino, you need to get a hold of yourself and be able to manage your emotions during these proceedings,” she said.
Earlier this year, Pino’s lawyers hinted in court filings that they may argue that their client suffered brain injuries that clouded his recollection of what happened.