Almost two years after the incident on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the grandfather who was with his 18-month-old granddaughter when she fell to her death from an open window was sentenced Monday to three years of probation based on the Department of Justice of Puerto Rico.
The grandfather sentenced with probation was a resident of Valparaiso, Indiana, Salvatore 'Sam' Anello, has pleaded guilty on the charge of negligent homicide in 2019 after he allegedly let his 18-month-old granddaughter Chloe Wiegand, fell through an 11-story window from the ship docked in San Juan, the Capital city of Puerto Rico in July of 2019.
Plea Deal
Despite initially pleading not guilty to the charges, last February, Anello stated that he was going to plead guilty, in order for his family to begin the moving on process from the unwanted tragedy.
According to NBC News, Michael Winkleman, the attorney for the Wiegand family, shared that the plea deal had allowed the grandfather of the victim to avoid jail time and will be serving his probation in his home state.
According to an ongoing lawsuit which was filed by the Wiegand family in December 2019 against the cruise ship company, Chloe was with her mother in a children's water park area on the pool's 11th deck, but her mother had to do some matter that's why she asked Anello to watch the 18-month-old baby.
Despite the allegations coming from the family that the Royal Caribbean cruise ship is at fault for the death of Chloe, the company strongly denied the claim.
When requested for a comment regarding the decision on Monday, the cruise ship company did not answer immediately.
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Based on the lawsuit, the grandfather sentenced with probation was closely supervising his granddaughter when Chloe walked over to a nearby wall of glass.
Then Anello followed and put the girl up to the window so she could bang on the glass but she slipped from his hands and fell through an open window.
In his previous statements, Anello repeatedly mentioned that he did not know that the window where Chloe fell was open, but the cruise company had released images that they claim that could prove that Anello had leaned out the window and knew that it was open prior to the incident, The Daily Beast reported.
But Winkleman, the attorney for the Wiegand family, said that the photos were misleading.
In addition, after the incident in 2019, Kimberly Wiegand, the mother of the 18-month-old victim, stated that it was confounding that there is an open-air window on an 11th-floor pool deck.
She also emphasized that there are millions of things that could have been done, to make the area safer as it is intended for kids area.
On the other hand, after he was sentenced, Anello shared that he felt a mixture of anger and relief, knowing that he will no longer serve jail time, did not have to admit any facts, and for his family to move on together from the incident.
The grandfather sentenced with probation also mentioned that he felt angry as the cruise company clearly should be blamed in the incident as they should not have the window opened in the first place in the area as it was dedicated for kids, Fox59 reported.
He also shared that he and his family missed Chloe so much even it is already almost two years since the incident happened.
