A New Jersey man whose overloaded tour boat capsized on the Hudson River in 2022, causing the drowning deaths of a 48-year-old woman and her 7-year-old nephew, entered a guilty plea in court Tuesday – and could face up to 10 years in prison.
Richard Cruz, 32, plead guilty to misconduct and neglect resulting in death when the boat he owned and used to give illegal tours capsized July 12, 2022, killing Lindelia Vasquez and her young nephew Julian Vasquez.
“Richard Cruz admitted today that his misconduct and negligent actions caused the tragic deaths of a young boy and a woman when Cruz’s vessel capsized in the Hudson River,” U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in court on Tuesday. “This prosecution should send a message to all captains and operators of commercial vessels that there will be consequences when they fail to follow the federal regulations and safety protocols that exist to keep passengers safe.”
Cruz bought the vessel, named “Stimulus Money,” in April 2022 and began offering paid tours on the Hudson shortly after, according to the feds.
Even offering the tours was illegal, as Cruz never had the boat inspected by the Coast Guard, investigators said. Such inspections are required when charging people for boat rides.
On the day of the wreck, the ship was overloaded with people, feds said. The 24-foot 2020 Yamaha AR 240 had a maximum capacity of 12 people, but a total of 13 were onboard when the speedboat capsized.
During the tour Cruz had been traveling behind the boat on a jet ski. The boat’s operator, Jaime Pinilla Gomez, 25, has also been charged.
Lindelia and Julian Vasquez were part of a group of 13 relatives, some visiting from Colombia and Miami, who gathered for a family breakfast in New Jersey before heading for a chartered boat ride around 9:30 a.m.
Tragedy occurred less than three hours later, when the boat flipped over and dumped its passengers into the water in the wake of a passing ferry.
“There were about four people on top of the bottom of the boat screaming,” Raidy Garcia, 28, who watched in horror from the New Jersey shoreline as the panicked boaters clung to the flipped vessel and nearby jet ski, told the Daily News at the time. “I couldn’t make out anything other than their screams.”
Two NY Waterway ferries — the Garden State and the John Stevens — rescued nine passengers from the water, a NY Waterway spokesperson said. When the boy and woman remained missing, NYPD and FDNY divers leaped into the river in search of them.
FDNY diver Ryan Warnock, who pulled the little boy’s body from the water, recounted locating the boy, still wearing the vest, before a frantic and failed attempt to resuscitate him.
“They took us out to the middle of the river there, and conditions were windy … rather (like) the ocean was being stirred up,” he said, adding “there were quite a few boats. So the waves seemed significant.”
“I was checking for an air pocket for myself (under the capsized boat) and while I’m doing that, located a small person” with “a vest on,” he related. “Rescue medics with there and they started to intubate and do CPR.”
“Any time it’s a child… your emotional state changes, but you just have a job to do and you do it and we train for this,” he said.
Approximately 25 minutes after the capsizing, members of the FDNY Dive Rescue Team recovered both victims from the water. The two victims were pronounced dead at an area hospital. According to a source, the dead boy’s life vest became snagged in the debris under the boat and hampered him from reaching the surface.
Three others rescued were in critical condition at area hospitals, but survived.
In addition to being over the maximum capacity, Cruz had also ignored an advisory from the National Weather Service for winds creating dangerous conditions for small crafts that was in effect the day of the tragedy, according to a statement from the US coast guard.
Federal prosecutors laid out four specific reasons they believed Cruz and Gomez were to blame for the disaster: the overloaded boat, the boat’s speed in choppy waters, ignorance of Coast Guard inspection and Gomez’s dangerous operation of the boat.
The “Stimulus Money” was traveling at 25 to 35 knots when it encountered swells near Manhattan’s Pier 90, investigators said. According to video footage reviewed by police, Gomez decided to take those swells head-on.
When that didn’t work and the boat took on water, Gomez brought it to a stop, then pushed the boat’s right-side engine to full throttle, causing it to capsize to the left, according to Coast Guard investigators.
According to prosecutors, if Cruz and Gomez had bothered to have the boat inspected, it would have failed and been barred from carrying paying customers.
Cruz will be sentenced on Jan. 25.
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