MIAMI (WSVN) - A tugboat captain accused of killing three children in a boat crash on Biscayne Bay has bonded out of jail, hours after he pled not guilty in a federal courtroom on Friday.
Months after three young girls were killed and two others along with their camp counselor were injured in the barge crash, 46-year-old captain Yusiel Lopez Insua appeared before a judge at the federal courthouse in downtown Miami.
Insua’s attorneys said he’s remorseful and taking responsibility for his actions that led to the fatal crash last July.
“He feels awful,” Insua’s attorney, Walter Reynoso, told 7News outside of the courthouse. “It’s a tragedy.”
During Friday’s arraignment, the judge handed out a $100,000 bond and ordered that Insua must stay away from the surviving family members and witnesses and must not operate a maritime vessel.
The surviving family members of the three girls killed in the crash and the others who were injured have endured life-changing trauma in the months since the incident occurred.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the forward view from the tugboat operated by Insua was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and no one aboard was assigned as a lookout.
The Miami Youth Sailing Foundation sailboat carrying a counselor and five children had stalled and lost wind, drifting into the barge’s path, prosecutors said. Because of the obstructed view aboard his vessel and lack of a lookout, Insua did not see the vessel before his barge struck it.
“It’s insane to think about that. It’s almost like an accident waiting to happen,” the father of an injured victim told 7News during an interview in 2025. “It’s a miracle it did not happen until now.”
“We need to make sure that something like this will never happen again,” the mother of an injured victim said.
7News cameras captured the moments Insua and his family walked out of the courthouse, offering no response to any questions as they left.
“We intend to accept responsibility for his conduct,” said Reynoso.
Prosecutors also believe Insua may have been on his cellphone and using the Internet at the time of the crash.
There is a separate civil lawsuit targeting the Miami Yacht Club and the construction company, Waterfront Construction, which owns the barge Insua was operating.
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.