George Pino Seen in New Video After Deadly Boat Crash in Boca Chita – NBC 6 South Florida

A new body-worn camera shows a prominent South Florida real estate developer speaking to state wildlife officials shortly after a boat accident that killed a teenage girl, as he now faces a new murder charge more than two years after the incident .

New footage obtained by NBC6 on Thursday shows George Pino speaking to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials on the night of the Sept. 4, 2022, crash.

It was announced Thursday that Pino faces new charges of homicide and reckless conduct in the crash.

A well-known South Florida real estate developer now faces murder charges in connection with a 2022 boat accident near Boca Chita Key that left one teenager dead and another permanently disabled. Miami-Dade prosecutors are charging George Pino with vehicular homicide and reckless conduct, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

According to prosecutors and FWC officials, Pino, 54, was piloting the 29-foot-long vessel with 14 passengers on board when he crashed into a channel marker near Boca Chita Key. The boat capsized and all passengers, including several teenagers, were thrown into the water.

The crash killed 17-year-old Luciana Fernandez, a senior at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, and injured most of the passengers on the boat, including Katerina Puig, who was 18 at the time and permanently disabled .

Katerina Puig, one of the teenagers seriously injured in a boat accident in September 2022, received her high school diploma from the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes. NBC6's Laura Rodriguez reports

In the new footage, a shirtless Pino explains to an officer that they were traveling through a canal when another boat caused a wave.

“I turned around to look because there were two girls in the back seat of the boat, I had five or six in the front, my wife in the middle, we were coming and I was approaching the waves head first like I always do .” , and the boat hit, I looked at the girls just to make sure they were okay because they were sitting in the back, and next thing I knew I hit the wave and tried to swing and the right side of the boat, “That would be the left side of the boat and would hit the pylon,” Pino says in the video. “I can't believe it.”

Later in the video, the officer asks Pino if he would be willing to provide a blood sample and tells him it is his decision.

“No, I had two beers,” Pino tells the officer.

“It’s not illegal to drink a few beers and drive,” the officer replies.

“I feel complete, the way my spirit was, I mean, I know what happened, I've always driven boats, I've done this ride 1,000 times,” Pino says.

“You can drink alcohol and go boating,” the officer tells him. “I'm just asking because there was a boat accident with injuries. I always want to ask my operator for permission to donate blood just so we can determine that alcohol was not involved in a boating accident. I would like to ask for your consent to blood, it is your decision, it is completely voluntary, it is voluntary consent, it is up to you.

The officer presents Pino with a consent form for the blood sample and then asks him if he is bleeding. Pino says yes and the officer takes him to have a look at the whole thing.

Pino refused a blood draw and refused to take a breathalyzer test after the accident, authorities said.

Charges have been filed against the operator of a boat following an accident near Boca Chita Key over Labor Day weekend that killed a high school student. NBC6's Niko Clemmons reports

According to an FWC incident report, 61 empty alcohol bottles and cans, an empty champagne bottle and a half-drunk bottle of liquor were found on the boat.

The FWC report said Pino “operated his vessel negligently and violated four rules of navigation.” The boat was traveling between 45 and 47 miles per hour, which the FWC said was a cause of the crash.

And the most recent FWC incident report, released nearly a year after the crash, said Pino showed no signs of impairment when officers responded.

But a lawyer for Fernandez's family said prosecutors reevaluated the case when a new key witness came forward.

The witness, a Miami-Dade firefighter who responded to the boating accident, told prosecutors that alcohol was a factor in the crash, the attorney said.

Pino was initially charged with misdemeanors including negligent boating. He had pleaded not guilty to those charges.

In a statement Thursday, Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, said the decision to file murder charges was a surprise.

“I am dismayed by the state’s surprising decision to file this new charge more than two years later,” Srebnick said. “Officers at the scene determined that Pino was not drunk; Pino did not exceed a posted speed limit, Pino had the required number of Coast Guard approved life jackets on board the vessel and despite sustaining a head injury himself (required). Pino made heroic efforts to save the injured passengers, including diving under the capsized boat. This was an accident, not a crime, let alone a crime.