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Ella Adler (Levitt-Weinstein Memorial Chapels and Cemeteries) and the area where she had been wakeboarding when she was fatally struck by a boat that did not stop (WPLG/YouTube screenshot)
Two men have been charged after a 15-year-old fell while wakeboarding in Florida and was fatally struck by a boat.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Ella Adler was killed while in the water in Biscayne Bay on the afternoon of May 11, 2024. Now, authorities say, Carlos “Bill” Guillermo Alonso, 79, was piloting the vessel that killed young Ella, and Edmund Richard Hartley, 31, had been operating the boat that had been towing Ella before she fell.
“The world lost a star this weekend,” Ella’s family said in a statement through their attorney, Etan Mark, at the time of the girl’s death. “Ella was beautiful and shined brightly. In her 15 years she gave us more light than we could have ever dreamed. While we cope with this unspeakable tragedy, we ask the public to give us our privacy as we mourn.”
Ella had been wakeboarding on May 11, 2024, in Biscayne Bay in the Miami area. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC), she fell in the water, another vessel struck her, and the pilot did not stop. She died from her injuries.
As previously reported, FWC officers said they relied on witness descriptions to track down a vehicle. They described the owner as cooperating.
“What happened last year was an absolute tragedy. But it was not Bill’s fault,” said Alonso’s attorneys Lauren Field Krasnoff and David Markus in a statement provided to Law&Crime. “Bill is an experienced and cautious boater and that is how he acted that day. FWC explicitly told us that they did not find Bill’s actions caused the accident. Because of that, we were very surprised to learn about the citations. We understand that FWC is under a lot of pressure from recent events. But now, after telling us that Bill was not to blame, we will need to get to the bottom of this charging decision a year later.”
More from Law&Crime: Mom sues teen and parents after 15-year-old son ‘violently cast overboard’ and killed when ‘distracted’ boat operator trying to ‘change the music’ slammed into dock
Alonso and Hartley are charged with misdemeanor counts of careless operation of a vessel and violating various U.S. Coast Guard navigational rules.
