The captain of a 25-foot tugboat pushing a barge that struck a sailboat off Miami Beach last year, killing three children from a sailing camp, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Tuesday, his lawyer said.
The captain, Yusiel Lopez Insua, 47, of Miami, pleaded guilty in July to a count of seaman’s manslaughter in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Jacqueline Becerra went above the sentence recommended by the prosecution and Mr. Insua’s lawyer. Under the plea agreement, they proposed a sentence of 12 months and one day in prison, to be followed by six months of home detention. He had faced up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors said.
His lawyer, Walter A. Reynoso, said in a statement on Tuesday that he “respects and accepts the 18-month sentence imposed by the Honorable Judge Becerra.”
Mr. Reynoso added, “Yusiel is profoundly sorry, and accepted responsibility for his conduct that caused this heart-wrenching, life-altering tragedy.”
The U.S. Coast Guard received a report just before 11:30 a.m. on July 28, 2025, that a barge had hit a sailboat near Hibiscus Island and Monument Island in Miami Beach.
Mr. Insua was using the tugboat to push the barge across Biscayne Bay when the craft slammed into a stalled sailboat, which was carrying five girls, ages 7 to 13, and a 19-year-old camp counselor, prosecutors said. The Miami Yacht Club said that the children and the counselor were taking part in a sailing camp run by the Miami Youth Sailing Foundation.
The counselor and two of the children survived after being dragged beneath the barge. Three of the girls were killed in the collision.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office identified two of the victims as Mila Yankelevich, 7, and Erin Ko, 13. Days later, the family of a third victim, Arielle Buchman, 10, announced that she, too, had died.
The camp counselor had tried to warn Mr. Insua of the sailboat’s presence, prosecutors said, but his forward view was obstructed and no one had been assigned as a lookout.
Mr. Insua failed to see the stalled sailboat before the barge ran over it, submerging it beneath the hull, prosecutors said.
A forensic analysis of Mr. Insua’s phone found evidence of internet activity around the time of the collision, according to prosecutors.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.
The post Miami Tugboat Captain Gets 18 Months in Crash That Killed 3 Children appeared first on New York Times.
