The grandfather, who was with his 18-month-old granddaughter when she died from an open window on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, was sentenced to three years probation on Monday. according to the Department of Justice in Puerto Rico.
Salvatore “Sam” Anello, of Valparaiso, Indiana, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide last year after his granddaughter, Chloe Wiegand, fell through an 11-story window of the ship that sank in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in July 2019. has.
Anello initially pleaded not guilty, but said last February that he would plead guilty so his family could start moving away from the tragedy. The plea agreement enabled Anello to avoid the prison sentence and serve the trial in his home state, said Michael Winkleman, an attorney for the Wiegand family.
Chloe was with her mother in a water park area for children on the 11th deck of the pool. Her mother had to lean towards another case and asked Anello to keep an eye on her, according to an ongoing lawsuit the family filed against Royal Caribbean Cruises in December 2019.
The family claims that the cruise ship company is to blame for the death of Chloe, who strongly denies the company. Royal Caribbean did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
The lawsuit said Anello “closely supervised” his granddaughter when Chloe walked to a nearby glass wall. Anello follows and puts the girl up to the window so she can hit the glass, but she slips out of his hands and falls through the open window.
Anello repeatedly said that he did not know that the window was open, while the shipping company released images which, according to them, proved that Anello leaned out of the window and therefore knew that it was open. Winkleman said the photos were “misleading”.
In July 2019, Chloe’s mother, Kimberly Wiegand, said she was shocked that there would be an open-air window on a pool deck on the 11th floor. “A million things can be done to make it safer,” she said.
