(MIAMI) — Two men face charges in connection with a deadly boat collision that killed a 15-year-old girl who was wakeboarding in Florida last year, authorities announced.
Ella Adler, 15, had fallen in the water while being towed in Biscayne Bay in the Miami area on May 11, 2024, when another boat struck her and didn’t stop, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said.
The alleged operators behind the vessels involved in the incident have since been charged following a “thorough investigation,” the FWC said Tuesday.
Carlos Guillermo Alonso, 79, the alleged operator of the boat that struck the teen, has been charged with two misdemeanors for careless operation of a vessel, according to the FWC.
Edmund Richard Hartley, 32, the alleged operator of the vessel towing Ella, has been charged with four misdemeanors for careless operation of a vessel, the commission said.
They are both accused of violating U.S. Coast Guard navigational rules on responsibility and look-out, while Hartley is additionally charged with violating rules regarding risk of collision and action to avoid collision, the FWC said.
“The FWC extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Ella Adler,” the FWC said in a statement. “Our thoughts remain with them as they continue to cope with this unimaginable loss.”
The FWC said it brought the charges against the men in late April. Both suspects have since pleaded not guilty and are set to appear in court in Miami-Dade County on June 30 for a trial hearing, online court records show.
An attorney for Alonso, who goes by Bill, said they were “surprised” to learn about the charging decision.
“What happened last year was an absolute tragedy. But it was not Bill’s fault,” his attorney, Lauren Krasnoff, said in a statement Tuesday. “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,” she added.
ABC News has reached out to Hartley’s attorney for comment but has not yet received a response.
In the wake of the incident, investigators seized the boat believed to have struck Ella following a dayslong search, the FWC said. At the time, Alonso said he had “no knowledge” of the accident and is “devastated” to learn he may have been involved, according to his attorney.
“This is the worst possible tragedy and before saying anything else, we want to express our deepest sympathies to Ella Adler’s family and friends,” Krasnoff said at the time.
Alonso was boating by himself at the time of the incident and had “no knowledge whatsoever of having been involved in this accident,” she said.
“If he hit Ella that day, he certainly did not know it,” Krasnoff said, adding that he “absolutely would have stopped” if he realized he had.
He is “absolutely devastated by the loss of this intelligent, accomplished and beautiful young woman,” she said.
Ella was a student at Ransom Everglades School, a college-prep day school in the Miami area, and had appeared in more than 100 performances with the Miami City Ballet.
“The world lost a star this weekend. Ella was beautiful and shined brightly,” her parents, Amanda and Matt Adler, said in a statement to ABC News last year. “In her 15 years she gave us more light than we could have ever dreamed.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
