A teenage girl who died in a fatal boat crash was spotted dancing in a bikini with her friends just moments before she was killed, a jury was told.

Lucy Fernandez, 17, was seen in a heart-wrenching video dancing to Billy Joel‘s ‘Uptown Girl’ as part of Carolina Pino’s 18th birthday in Biscayne Bay, Florida, on September 4, 2022. 

The footage was shown to a Florida courtroom on Monday who were hearing closing arguments over whether Carolina’s father George Pino, who was behind the wheel of the boat, was responsible over her death. 

The 55-year-old is facing manslaughter and vessel homicide charges relating to the incident that killed Fernandez and permanently disabled Katy Puig, 17, after his boat careered into a channel marker.

The prosecution has claimed that Pino was intoxicated, which has been central to their arguments. Pino claimed he was not drunk and only had a small amount of beer throughout the day.  

Prosecutor Laura Adams showed the clip to jurors in attempt to paint Pino, a millionaire property developer, that he was more concerned with portraying the ‘cool dad’ rather than actually caring for their safety. 

She told the court: ‘With a boat full of buzzed, if not drunk teenagers, this man decides to set a course to that channel.

‘A channel where he knows where the markers are. He was going full throttle with all these teenagers onboard who had been consuming alcohol.’ 

She continued: ‘The defendant for sure consumed alcohol. The defense would have you believe that it was only two beers.

‘The evidence suggests that just as he wasn’t truthful about how the crash happened, maybe he wasn’t also truthful about how much alcohol he consumed.

‘[Pino] wasn’t thinking about the well-being of his passengers, he wasn’t thinking about the wellbeing of his own wife and daughter. He was too wrapped up in trying to be the cool dad on the fast boat.’ 

Throughout the proceedings Pino appeared to be constantly muttering to himself whenever the camera panned round.  

His defense attorney Howard Srebnick argued that the state had failed to prove that Pino acted recklessly while driving the boat.

Srebnick based that on previous witnesses who addressed the trial and said that they did not believe he was impaired. 

He also said that the only realized Pino mixed up details of the crash is because he suffered a brain injury in the collision while asking the jury to find him not guilty. 

Last week the court heard from Claudia Portocarrero, 21, who was the first to take the stand in Pino’s defense as she told the jury that she did not believe Pino was drunk at the time of the crash, and that he was not speeding excessively. 

She described the crash as a ‘flash of white’, and said she initially thought Pino was dead when she saw ‘a lot of blood gushing’ as others lay wounded around them. 

In her testimony, Portocarrero said the boat crash came out of the blue while she and her friends were partying on the developer’s 29-foot yacht.

Investigators would later find at least 61 empty alcoholic beverages on the boat, drank by Pino’s daughter and her friends. 

‘I just remember opening my eyes after the impact and seeing like a lot of white,’ Portocarrero said, recalling the seconds after the fatal crash. 

‘And the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was George, and I thought he was dead. I just saw a lot of blood gushing and then my friends were telling me that I had to get out of the boat.

‘By the time I was going to get off the boat it was kind of almost like turned, flipped, so instead of jumping from the boat, I practically stepped into the water because of how tilted it was.’ 

Portocarrero said she and her friends were drinking on the boat, but she did not recall Pino having any alcohol or speeding excessively. 

Pino’s trial began on June 8, and has been marked by a number of emotional outbursts and dramatic moments, beginning with Pino causing his own proceedings to be halted by a breakdown during opening statements. 

The real estate developer was seen in courtroom footage that went viral on social media breaking down in tears and wailing as his trial got underway, causing the judge to dismiss the jury for the day and ordering Pino to control himself. 

But the very next day, Pino was again seen having an emotional breakdown in court, as he had to be comforted by Srebnick.

Pino’s second emotional moment came as Fernandez’s father Andres took the stand, and explained that he had known Pino for years and their daughters had grown up together.

Attendees in the courtroom were seen crying during Fernandez’s testimony as he said he raced to the scene after hearing of the boat crash, and searched for hours before eventually finding his daughter’s body in the water.

In Andres Fernandez’s testimony, he said he and his wife waited for hours to eventually find their daughter in hospital, and recalled a harrowing conversation with police in her final moments.

He said he tried to remove a piece of fiberglass from the boat from her head, but was stopped by an officer because that was part of the evidence in the case.

Andres said he then turned to his wife and said, ‘Our daughter is now evidence.’

The father grew emotional at times during his testimony, as supporters in the audience were seen also weeping as he spoke of his daughter.