SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: A grandfather accused in the fatal fall of his young granddaughter from an 11th-story window of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico last year pleaded guilty Thursday to negligent homicide.
Salvatore Sam Anello of Valparaiso, Indiana, said earlier this year that he would drop a not-guilty plea to help end what he called this nightmare for his family. Eighteen-month-old Chloe Wiegand slipped from his grasp and fell about 150 feet from an open window of Royal Caribbean Cruises Freedom of the Seas ship in July 2019.
Puerto Rico prosecutor Laura Hernndez said Anello would be sentenced Dec. 10.
We have found justice for Chloe, she said.
Anellos attorney, Michael Winkleman, did not immediately return a message for comment.
Anello, 51, has repeatedly said he did not know the window in the childrens play area was open and that he lifted Chloe up to it so she could knock on the glass like she had done at her brothers hockey games.
I wasnt drinking and I wasnt dangling her out of a window, he said in a previous statement. He said he is colorblind and might not have realized the tinted window was open.
The girls parents sued Royal Caribbean last year and accused the company of negligence. In response, Royal Caribbean said that surveillance video shows Anello leaning out the window for about eight seconds before lifting the girl by and out of the open window for 34 seconds before he lost his grip. The family said it would have been physically impossible for Anello to lean out like that.
Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
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