MIAMI — A 46-year-old tugboat captain pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a federal charge stemming from the Biscayne Bay crash that killed three girls in Miami.
Yusiel Lopez Insua will not be going to trial in the case of the deaths of 7-year-old Mila Yankelevich, 10-year-old Arielle Buchman, and 13-year-old Erin Ko Han.
Lopez Insua had been charged with seaman’s manslaughter after the July 28, 2025, collision off Hibiscus Island, as the girls participated in a youth sailing camp.
“My client will not put the families through a trial and expose them to relive this terrible tragedy,” Walter Reynoso, Insua’s defense attorney, recently told Local 10 News.
Lopez Insua was using his cellphone around the time of the crash, and data “indicated activity on internet marketplaces, including at the time when the collision occurred,” according to the indictiment.
Prosecutors also alleged the tugboat’s pilothouse view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane on the barge, and that the vessel lacked adequate lookout systems such as cameras or radar.
Court filings reported Lopez Insua had prior “near-misses” in the same area. The crash is also the subject of at least one lawsuit in Miami-Dade County court.
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