MIAMI — Testimony in day five of the George Pino trial concluded on Friday. Proceedings ended with a tense confrontation between the state’s lead prosecutor and the real estate mogul.
Pino, 55, is facing manslaughter and vessel homicide charges in the death of 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez.
Prosecutors accuse Pino, then 52, of being reckless when he lost control of a 29-foot Robalo boat in the early evening hours of Sept. 4, 2022 and slammed it into a channel marker near Boca Chita Key, killing Fernandez. Two other girls were seriously hurt, including 17-year-old Katerina Puig.
His defense team counters that the crash was merely an accident and not the result of negligence.
On Friday, jurors heard testimony from a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission lieutenant and watched video from his body-worn camera.
On that body-worn camera footage, jurors heard Pino’s immediate recollection of the crash to FWC Lt. William Thompson.
“And then I stand up, I hit the wave, and, I tried to sway,” he said in the footage.“ ”The left side of the boat hit the piling.”
“I lost a little bit of control,” he added, saying a few minutes later on the footage, “I was freaking out.”
Prosecutor Laura Adams asked Thompson on the stand, “Did he tell you he was drinking alcohol?”
Thompson replied, “He tells me he had two beers.”
When asked if Pino had given him “any impression that he is impaired by alcohol,” Thompson testified, “No, ma’am.”
Jurors also learned that investigators found 61 bottles of alcohol while executing a search warrant.
They also saw more from a re-enactment video by FWC and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, learning more about how speed and location data points recovered from the vessel’s GPS units were used to re-enact the path Pino took through the channel before hitting marker 15.
Prosecutors continued to try to convince jurors that Pino operated the boat in a reckless manner.
But during cross-examination, the defense worked to focus the jury on its point of view: that their client didn’t intend to hurt anyone and didn’t have too much to drink.
“You told him that it is legal to drink and operation a boat?” one of Pino’s attorneys asked Thompson, to which the lieutenant replied, “Yes I did.”
Tense moment after jurors leave
A tense moment occurred during proceedings after jurors were sent home from the day.
Adams raised a concern to Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez that Pino, whom she previously admonished for his “emotional behaviors” during proceedings on Monday, may have been muttering something as she questioned Thompson.
“I am told that the defendant may have been muttering something along the lines of, ‘It happens. It happens. It happens,’” Adams said. “I hope maybe somebody misunderstood what was taking place, but I did hear noise behind me, and so I just hope that the defendant is not doing something along those lines.”
Tinkler Mendez said she “did not hear anything.”
Then, Adams confronted Pino after she walked back to the prosecutors’ table.
She face Pino and said, “I’m sorry. Do you have something you want to say to me? Why are you staring at me?”
RAW: Prosecutor confronts Pino
Pino protested that assertion.
“I’m staring up there,” Pino said, gesturing at the ceiling. “I don’t want to say anything to you.”
Tinkler Mendez interrupted the exchange.
“Excuse me. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not going to do this,” the judge said.
Tinkler Mendez added, " I’m reminding everyone that even gestures are inappropriate, so with any witness and with anyone in the courtroom, so not only verbal ― but any kind of gestures from anyone in this courtroom that could potentially be seen by the jury. And again, that includes Mr. Pino, that includes me, frankly."
She then spoke to Pino directly.
“Mr. Pino, I will remind you to please maintain composure and please no statements or whispering,” Tinkler Mendez said. “Again, I didn’t hear anything, and please refrain ― I haven’t seen anything, from any kind of gestures or anything that could potentially be seen by the jury."
“OK, your honor,” Pino replied. “For the record, I haven’t done any of those things.”
Proceedings in the case are set to resume on Monday.
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