Plea deal for Florida yacht captain charged in connection to teen's wakeboarding death

Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald on May 26, 2026

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MIAMI — The captain of the yacht that was towing 15-year-old Ella Adler, who was wakeboarding when she was struck and killed by another boat in Biscayne Bay, struck a plea deal with prosecutors Tuesday afternoon.

Edmund Richard Hartley, 33, pleaded guilty to two navigational rule violations, which are misdemeanor charges. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped two other misdemeanor charges.

Ella, a student at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, was being towed with another teen behind a 42-foot boat on a congested waterway off Key Biscayne when she was killed on May 11, 2024.

As a result of the agreement, Hartley received a withhold of adjudication, meaning no criminal conviction will appear on his record, and was sentenced to six months of probation. He was also ordered to complete a boating safety course — and cannot operate a vessel for a 60-day period starting in June.

The captain was also sentenced to another six months of probation for the second charge, although prosecutors say they will terminate the probation if Hartley successfully completes the first term.

Hartley will have to pay $5,000 to the crime victims’ compensation fund — starting with a $2,500 donation in Ella’s memory made within 60 days. When he completes all conditions, prosecutors may agree to set aside Hartley’s plea and drop the charges against him.

Ella’s family, who attended the hearing, approved of the plea deal, prosecutor Laura Adams said.

Attorney Michael Band, who was representing Hartley, said the captain wanted to end the case for the Adlers’ sake — and will have to live the rest of his life with the burden of the boating tragedy.

When entering the plea, Hartley declined to address the court.

Two weeks ago, Ella’s loved ones grieved the second anniversary of her death, her father Matthew Adler said in court Tuesday. He recalled how his daughter was a “bright, joyful, creative and deeply loved” girl who was passionate about dance. She performed in more than 100 productions of Miami City Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”

“At just 15-years-old, Ella was flourishing. Her final year was in many ways her happiest and most exciting,” Adler said. “She was thriving academically, participating in debate, performing in the school musical “Chicago” and growing into an exceptional young woman with limitless potential ahead of her.”

Later into his comments, Adler addressed Hartley, saying the professional captain should have exercised more caution on the day of the incident and emphasized the importance of boating safety in South Florida. The tragedy, Adler said, spurred the family to establish the Ella Ridley Adler Foundation, which supports Jewish life, education and art.

“We will continue fighting for a world where no family lives with this kind of heartache,” Adler said.

Man driving boat got deal, too

In January, Carlos Guillermo “Bill” Alonso, 79, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor careless-boating charges in connection to the accident. He was ordered to complete six months of probation and take a boater-safety course.

Alonso was operating his 42-foot Boston Whaler when he struck Adler, who was the granddaughter of Michael Adler, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium at the time of the incident. Alonso maintained he never knew he hit the girl. The accident happened on a busy Saturday afternoon on the waterway near the Nixon Beach sandbar off Key Biscayne.

Adler had fallen off the wakeboard and was treading water when she was struck. The other girl being towed behind the boat also was in the water.

The 2017 Hanse Fjord yacht that Hartley captained is owned by Jonathan Rothberg, a biotech multimillionaire who bought a $23.5 million home off the Venetian Causeway in 2021. Also on the yacht were Emma Roberts, then 30; Sebastian Pearce, then 21; seven 15-year-olds and three 14-year-olds. Ella was one of the 15-year-olds.

One of the girls on the boat was Rothberg’s daughter, a classmate of Ella at Ransom. Her 15th birthday was the day before the boat outing, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s initial report.

FWC investigators initially thought the incident could have been a hit-and-run. Officers did not locate Alonso’s vessel until days later, when they found the four-engine outboard docked behind his home in the Hammock Oaks neighborhood, a gated Coral Gables community near Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

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(Miami Herald staff writer David Goodhue contributed to this report.)

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