Speed boat driver charged in Florida Keys crash that killed a Hialeah woman: FWC
Reinaldo Aquit, 48, was piloting the 39-foot speedboat on Nov. 7 from Miami to Key West in a 120-boat 'poker run' event to celebrate the Race World Offshore World Championship, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.
MORE: Boat crash in Florida Keys kills Hialeah woman and injures several others, FWC says
In the Calda Channel, north of Key West, the agency said Aquit was driving carelessly, speeding and 'disregarding navigational rules. The channel is narrow, and when Aquit took a sharp turn, the speedboat rolled, ejecting six people who were on board.
Stephanie Rodriguez, 28, died, and several others were injured.
On Friday, Aquit was arrested and charged with vessel homicide and eight misdemeanors. It's unclear what the other charges are. The Miami Herald has requested his arrest warrant.
'The tragic death of this young woman was completely avoidable,' Maj. Alberto Maza, FWC South Bravo Regional Commander, said in a statement. 'We continue to think of Ms. Rodriguez's friends and family as they grieve her loss.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Appeals court overturns Mosby's mortgage fraud conviction, upholds perjury charges
Former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby walks out of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt with her daughers after Mosby's sentencing in May 2024. (Photo by Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters) A federal appeals court gave former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby a partial win Friday, overturning her 2024 conviction for mortgage fraud but upholding perjury convictions in connection with the purchase of two Florida homes. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also reversed a lower court's order that Mosby forfeit a Florida condo as a result of the mortgage fraud conviction, noting that with the conviction now overturned, the forfeiture was improper. Neither Mosby's attorneys nor prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland immediately responded to requests for comment on the case Friday. Friday's ruling is the latest turn in the legal trials of Mosby, who served two terms as Baltimore's top prosecutor, from 2105-2023. She was indicted in 2022 by a federal grand jury on two counts of perjury, for falsely claiming a COVID-19 hardship on an application to withdraw $90,000 from her retirement account, and two counts of mortgage fraud, on charges she made false statements on mortgage applications for the two vacation homes in Florida that she bought in 2021. Her trials on the charges were held separately. At her perjury trial, Mosby argued that questions on the form that was the basis of her perjury conviction were 'fundamentally ambiguous.' The form asked if she had suffrered 'adverse financial consequences' during the COVID-19 pandemic that justified allowing her to withdraw retirement funds early without penalty; she said she feared the pandemic could affect Mahogany Elite, a travel firm she had founded. Former prosecutor Mosby gets probation for perjury, false claims convictions But prosecutors argued that Mahogany Elite could not have suffered financial consequences because it was brand new — she had 'not yet started the company, earned any revenue, or incurred any costs.' Jurors apparently agreed, convicting her on Nov. 9, 2023, of both perjury counts. At her mortgage fraud trial, Mosby argued that prosecutors never established that she was in Maryland when the alleged crimes occurred, but an overbroad jury instruction allowed them to determine she was, even in the absence of evidence. That jury convicted her on Feb. 7, 2024, of a single fraud count. Federal prosecutors sought 20 months in jail for Mosby, in addition to supervised release and the forfeiture of her Longboat Key vacation condo. But U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby sentenced Mosby to three years supervised release, with one of those years under home confinement, along with the forfeiture of the condo. On appeal, the circuit court rejected her claims on the 'ambiguous' form, saying it was without merit. It was 'adequately clear' on the form what 'adverse financial consequences' meant, Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote in the ruling. But the court agreed with Mosby on the jury instruction, saying the trial court's instruction to jurors regarding the mortgage fraud case's venue was indeed 'erroneously overbroad.' Thacker's opinion said those instructions 'went so far as to say that the Government did not need to 'prove that the crime itself was committed in this district,''only that acts leading up to the crime were done in Maryland. That was wrong, Thacker wrote. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE After vacating the mortage fraud conviction, Thacker wrote, the court had to vacate the forfeiture of Mosby's condo in Longboat Key, what had originally been ordered because the condo was believed to be 'the fruit of the alleged mortgage fraud.' In a partial dissent, Judge Paul Niemeyer said he would have upheld the mortgage fraud conviction along with the perjury convictions. He wrote that the evidence at her trial 'amply and clearly demonstrated that venue was proper in Maryland by a preponderance of the evidence.' 'It showed that Mosby made the false statement in Maryland by obtaining and signing the false gift letter in Maryland and that she transmitted the statement from Maryland by uploading it to the Internet for use at the closing in Florida,' Niemeyer wrote. 'She also engaged her husband to wire the funds from Maryland in support of the gift letter. ' Those were all elements of the crime, which justfied its trial in Maryland, he wrote.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mom Cried 'My Baby' After 2-Car Crash Leaves Both of Her Children Dead: Reports
A baby and a toddler are dead after a two-car collision in Gainesville, Fla. on July 10 The mother suffered "incapacitating injuries" after the crash, police said An investigation into the incident is ongoingA mother cried out for her babies after a crash in Florida left her 5-month-old and 22-month-old children dead, according to reports. On Thursday, July 10, at just after 6 a.m. local time, two vehicles collided on Williston Road near the Interstate 75 on-ramp in Gainesville, resulting in the death of the two children, ABC affiliate WCJB and The Gainesville Sun reported. Early that morning, a 49-year-old man in a 2013 Nissan van was driving east and a 28-year-old woman was traveling west on the road when the vehicles crashed into each other at the intersection to the on-ramp for northbound Interstate 75, the Gainesville Police Department confirmed to the Sun. The female driver had "incapacitating injuries,' while the other driver was only minorly injured, the Sun reported. An investigation is ongoing, and the mother's current status is unclear. The Gainesvile Police Department and the Office of the Medical Examiner, Florida District 8, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment. Witnesses of the collision told WCJB they tried to help the mother after the incident. 'When she opened the door, she said, 'My baby, my baby,' ' witness Roy Gyles told the outlet. 'I looked down and the baby was lying between her legs. I picked the baby up, but it was already gone.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He and his partner, Stephanie McCallister, told WCJB that it appeared the woman was making a left turn when the driver of the van ran a red light, causing the fatal crash. Later, the son of the van's driver told the outlet that the light was yellow as his dad drove into the intersection. 'I saw blood, I saw babies on the floor,' McCallister told WCJB. 'I ran to the other side as soon as [the mother] said she had a second baby, and I pulled him out and put him in my arms. That baby took its last breath in my arms.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
St. Johns County drug bust leads to two arrests, rattles community
A major drug bust in St. Johns County leaves two people arrested and a neighborhood rattled. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, SWAT, and other specialized units raided a West Augustine home for drugs on June 5th. Investigators told Action News Jax that the amount of drugs they found has the potential to kill thousands of people. The Sheriff's Office says they seized: 4 ounces of Methamphetamine 17.5 grams Fentanyl 2.2 grams of suspected Ketamine 7 Firearms Ammunition Drug paraphernalia [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Baron Long (left) and Steven Jones (right) were arrested and are both facing several charges. 'I've seen frequent people coming in and out, but not knowing the nature of what was on,' said West Augustine community mentor Mark James. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] James has been living in West Augustine his entire life. He says he's not surprised by the scale of the raid. 'I am happy that the SWAT team came in and is trying to help clean it up through the sheriff's office,' said James. 'I think those efforts are needed in our community.' You can watch the full raid by clicking here. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
