IN - Grandfather charged in cruise ship death of toddler Chloe Wiegand #8

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EXCLUSIVE: Grandfather who dropped toddler to her death from Royal Caribbean cruise ship window asks for a trial by judge
  • Salvatore Anello asked for a bench trial in front of a judge on Monday in the prosecution of the death of his granddaughter Chloe Wiegand
  • The toddler died instantly when she fell from his arms out of a Royal Caribbean ship window and landed on a dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 7
  • The elderly IT worker has consistently protested his innocence over 18-month-old Chloe's fatal plunge
  • Anello will stand trial in April and faces three years behind bars if he is found guilty of negligent homicide
  • Royal Caribbean insists Anello would only have had to use his 'basic senses' to understand the danger this posed to Chloe
  • Chloe's parents hit Royal Caribbean with a multi-million dollar negligence suit that blames it for failing to install safety devices or warning signs on a waist-height glass window that Anello says he didn't realize was slid wide open...
I took one for the team and braved the onslaught of ads/videos on DM to share the gist of the article :D

Elderly IT worker? WTF!?! SA is 51: definitely NOT elderly! I'm 70 and would never consider myself to be "elderly". I'm alert, active, and aging gracefully :)
 
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BetteDavisEyes said:
EXCLUSIVE: Grandfather who dropped toddler to her death from Royal Caribbean cruise ship window asks for a trial by judge
  • Salvatore Anello asked for a bench trial in front of a judge on Monday in the prosecution of the death of his granddaughter Chloe Wiegand
  • The toddler died instantly when she fell from his arms out of a Royal Caribbean ship window and landed on a dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 7
  • The elderly IT worker has consistently protested his innocence over 18-month-old Chloe's fatal plunge
  • Anello will stand trial in April and faces three years behind bars if he is found guilty of negligent homicide
  • Royal Caribbean insists Anello would only have had to use his 'basic senses' to understand the danger this posed to Chloe
  • Chloe's parents hit Royal Caribbean with a multi-million dollar negligence suit that blames it for failing to install safety devices or warning signs on a waist-height glass window that Anello says he didn't realize was slid wide open...
I took one for the team and braved the onslaught of ads/videos on DM to share the gist of the article :D

Elderly IT worker? WTF!?! SA is 51: definitely NOT elderly! I'm 70 and would never consider myself to be "elderly". I'm alert, active, and aging gracefully :)
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I sure hope SA doesn't get probation served in Indiana if he's found guilty. I hope he gets jail time. He deserves it, and more.
 
Wicked Strong said:
Wow, backing away from a jury trial. IMO he has finally thought enough about this to just want to accept whatever the evidence shows and let the judge make the decision.

That's probably not great news for MW and his lawsuit.

MOO
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I think he figures he has a better chance of trying to convince one judge than a panel of jurors because of the backlash against the family and himself. Once that video came out it pretty much made his version of events extremely questionable. At first when they described what happened I thought he was carrying CW and just walked up to a panel of windows and didn't realize one was open. But the video clearly shows him standing in front of the open window for some time before he bends down to pick her up.

One interesting thing about this, I live in Brooklyn and I've noticed all throughout NYC that when someone is jay walking across the street they have this tendency to crosss the street right where a car is either pulling into or out of a parking spot. Even though they have plenty of other of firmly parked cars to walk between either in front of or behind, over and over again I watch people cutting behind a car that's moving. I wonder if anyone else notices this elsewhere.

I bring this up because I wonder if it's a subconscious thing and he just subconsciously was drawn to the open window because when they walking into the room they didn't wander around, they went straight in that direction. JMO
 
I'm curious how this would have played out if the window had been closed and he lifted her up and held her on the bar and dropped her and she fell inside the ship onto the floor and suffered a fatal head injury. Wouldn't he be the one considered liable then? Why is it different because she fell out the window? The reason she fell is because he dropped her, she didn't do this herself.
 
Grandfather who dropped toddler to her death from Royal Caribbean ship window asks for bench trial | Daily Mail Online

Feb 24, 2020

The grandfather accused of dropping Indiana toddler Chloe Wiegand to her death from a cruise ship window will stand trial in April.

Salvatore 'Sam' Anello faces a charge of negligent homicide over the little girl's fatal plunge from the 11th deck of the Freedom of the Seas as it docked in Puerto Rico last July.

Anello was in court on Monday in San Juan to say he wants a bench trial in front of a judge rather than a jury.

[..]

'Yes, yes, I understand,' Anello repeated in English, when judge Gisela Alfonso Fernandez asked him to confirm he did not want a jury.

The judge gave Perez Ortiz more time to prepare a defense for the elderly IT worker, but said the trial will proceed on April 2 and run for four days.

[..]

Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor but can be punished with a three-year prison sentence under the Puerto Rican criminal code.

But if Anello is found guilty, prosecutors will likely recommend a period of probation that can be completed in his native Indiana, DailyMail.com has learned.

[..]

Police officer Alan, 41, and his attorney wife Kimberly, 37, could claim 'unlimited' damages for pain and mental suffering if their suit, filed in Miami federal court, succeeds.

However they say their sole motivation is to force Royal Caribbean to make their windows safer on the Freedom of the Seas so Chloe's fatal fall is never repeated.

Royal Caribbean has tried unsuccessfully to have the case thrown out, presenting harrowing video footage of Chloe's last moments to argue that Anello poked his head through the window and 'unquestionably' knew it was open.

The company denies breaching industry safety standards, insisting Anello would only have had to rely on his 'basic senses' to realize he was endangering his beloved granddaughter.
 
JulieBEMT said:
Looking at the Daily Mail's article I wondered how many times they could use the word "elderly" in one piece!
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I counted 3 elderly's and one silver-haired!

One other thing from the article, which we have all noticed, was the sentence of despite the windows having handles and a blue green tint..... What wall of windows have fake handles on the glass?

MOO
 
Chewy said:
I'm curious how this would have played out if the window had been closed and he lifted her up and held her on the bar and dropped her and she fell inside the ship onto the floor and suffered a fatal head injury. Wouldn't he be the one considered liable then? Why is it different because she fell out the window? The reason she fell is because he dropped her, she didn't do this herself.
Click to expand...

I'm sure MW would twist his brain in knots finding a reason it was RCCL's fault but I believe it would have been called a tragic accident, the family would have been treated the same way by RCCL and they'd have taken CW home to bury her, end of story. I don't even necessarily think SA would have been charged with anything. JMO.
 
Hughaskton said:
Hmm, I don’t know. Alford pleas to me are just a guilty person refusing to admit guilt. I really have no idea why they exist!
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Well it would apply in a case like this where he'd acknowledge that even though he doesn't think he's guilty he knows they have enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It's sort of a compromise that is pushed by the courts to gives a lesser sentence and meets the prosecutions requirement for a guilty plea while not subjecting the defendant to a severe penalty or punishment. It saves the court system and tax payers money and also avoids subjecting the families involved to a long drawn out emotional trial.
 
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