FILE - This May 11, 2006 file photo shows the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship docked in Bayonne, N.J. An attorney for an Indiana family whose 18-month-old daughter fell to her death in July from the cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico says the negligent homicide charges her grandfather now faces "are pouring salt" on the family's wounds. A judge in Puerto Rico ordered the arrest of Salvatore Anello on Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, after prosecutors submitted evidence saying that Chloe Wiegand fell from Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas cruise ship when Anello raised her up to an open window. (AP Photo/Mike Derer, File) (Mike Derer, Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
SAN JUAN – A grandfather who pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the fall of his young granddaughter from an 11th-story window of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico was sentenced Monday to three years’ probation, according to justice officials.
Salvatore “Sam” Anello, of Valparaiso, Indiana, had pleaded guilty in the case in October 2020. Defense attorney Michael Winkleman has said Anello would serve probation in his home state.
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Anello was aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruises’ Freedom of the Seas ship with family in July 2019 when the death occurred. He has said he did not know the window in the children’s play area was open and that he lifted 18-month-old Chloe Wiegand up to it so she could knock on the glass as she had done at her brother’s hockey games.
The girl’s parents sued Royal Caribbean in a civil case that is still ongoing.
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