Overview

• Fifteen-year-old Ella Adler fell from a tow rope on May 11, 2024, and was fatally struck by a passing vessel during a wakeboarding outing in Biscayne Bay.
• The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission charged boat owner Carlos Guillermo Alonso with two counts of careless operation for alleged violations of U.S. Coast Guard navigational rules.
• Edmund Richard Hartley faces four misdemeanor counts for alleged failures in look-out, collision risk management, and actions to avoid collision under Coast Guard regulations.
• Investigators seized Alonso’s Boston Whaler at his Coral Gables dock following the probe into the hit-and-run incident.
• They have both pleaded not guilty and are set to stand trial on June 30 in Miami-Dade County.