Indiana toddler's grandfather can avoid jail if he accepts blame for her fatal fall, say Puerto Rican prosecutors
SAN JUAN: The grandfather of the Indiana toddler who died after falling 11 stories through an open window on a cruise ship was offered a plea deal by Puerto Rican prosecutors which can spare him a prison sentence if he pleads guilty.
Salvatore 'Sam' Anello was charged with negligent homicide in November in the death of his granddaughter Chole Wiegand.
The 18-month-old child died on July 7 after falling 150ft from an open window on the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship onto a concrete dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Seconds before the tragedy, Anello had held her to a "wall of windows" so that she could bang on the glass, something that the toddler reportedly loved to do.
However, the window Anello had held the child up to had been slid open, causing the child to fall onto the deck from the 11th floor. Anello, who is from Valparaiso, Indiana, now faces three years in prison if he is found guilty.
Prosecutors, however, after a hearing in San Juan on Tuesday, December 17, offered the grandfather a plea deal, which requires him to admit guilt by negligence to receive no jail time, minimum probation and minimum supervision, CBS reported.
Anello, who has maintained his account of the events stating that he did not realize the window Chloe slipped through was open, has reportedly rejected the deal.
He had previously claimed that he was colorblind and did not realize that the ship's tinted windowpane was open when he lifted the toddler up to the railing.
Anello's lawyers, during Tuesday's hearing, said that that they planned to present the elderly man's medical records and evidence on his health status. The lawyers also suggested that they would want a trial by jury where his legal team would attempt to prove his color blindless meant he could not see whether there was any glass in the windowpane.
The grandfather, while talking to CBS, said: "I am color blind so that's something that ... I don't know. I just never saw it. I've been told that's a reason it may have happened." He added that there was nothing the prosecutors could do to him that would be more painful than the grief of losing his granddaughter.
"Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever so I'm like whatever," he told the outlet. "You know. I don't know... there's nothing worse that they could do to me than what's already happened... Whether they find me guilty or not it's inconsequential." The next court hearing has reportedly been scheduled for January 27, 2020.