A Miami tugboat captain has pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in last year’s crash in Biscayne Bay involving a barge and a sailboat carrying campers that killed three young girls.
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Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday to seaman’s manslaughter for operating a barge with obstructed visibility and without a proper lookout in the July 28, 2025 incident.
Insua became emotional as he entered the plea in the federal courtroom, but declined to speak with reporters after the hearing.
“My client is deeply remorseful for his conduct, he feels awful,” defense attorney Walter A. Reynoso said after Tuesday’s hearing. “He feels awful about the unimaginable pain and loss suffered by the three families who lost their three very young daughters. Our thoughts remain with each of the families as they continue to endure this profound tragedy.”
His trial had been scheduled to begin next week but his attorney had previously said they would be working something out to avoid a trial, adding that they didn’t want to put the families through one.
Sentencing is set for Oct. 13 where Insua faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, though a plea agreement recommendation would sentence him to one year plus one day in prison with six months of home confinement.
A group of five girls and their 19-year-old sailing instructor were on the sailboat when it was struck by the barge near Hibiscus Island.
The girls were in their last week of a sailing camp for children aged 7 to 15, according to the Miami Yacht Club.
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Three girls – 7-year-old Mila Yankelevich, 10-year-old Arielle Buchman and 13-year-old Erin Ko – were killed in the incident.
A fourth girl was hospitalized and later released, while the fifth girl and the instructor were treated at the scene.
Prosecutors said Insua was piloting a tugboat pushing the barge that was loaded with construction debris when it struck the sailboat.
The vessel’s forward view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and no one aboard was assigned as a lookout, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release.
Insua was also using his phone around the time of the collision, prosecutors said.
“Due to the obstructed visibility, and lack of a lookout, Insua did not see the stalled sailboat before the barge struck it,” the release said. “A forensic review of Insua’s cellphone revealed internet activity during transit, including at or near the time of the collision.”
The counselor and two children escaped after being dragged under the barge but the other three girls were trapped in the wreckage and drowned, the release added.
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