Overview
- The case stems from a Sept. 4, 2022, crash near Boca Chita Key when Pino’s 29-foot boat struck a channel marker, killing 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez and injuring other passengers.
- Prosecutors introduced technical reconstructions including GPS data that a boating expert said showed the vessel reached about 47 miles per hour roughly nine seconds before impact and a medical examiner who ruled the cause of death drowning.
- The defense presented emotional testimony from survivors and Pino’s wife, called a navigation expert to challenge the state’s reenactment based on tidal and visibility differences, and produced a neurologist who said Pino suffered a concussion with memory loss after the crash.
- After the defense rested late Wednesday, prosecutors called rebuttal witnesses including victims’ fathers who described long-term injuries to survivors and the judge recorded that Pino declined to testify in his own defense.
- Jurors will now weigh conflicting expert reconstructions, forensic findings and witness credibility as they decide whether the state proved criminal recklessness beyond a reasonable doubt, a verdict that could carry decades in prison if guilty.