Jury convicts boater for DUI but not for fatality Series: BRIEFLY

St. Petersburg Times

Published Oct 22, 2005

A Tampa man charged with manslaughter in the boating death of his friend two years ago was found guilty of a lesser crime Friday.

Allan Warrington, 40, was charged with boating under the influence-manslaughter in the Oct. 25, 2003, death of Pavel Kraus, 37, of Madeira Beach. A jury on Friday took about an hour to find him guilty of simply boating under the influence, a misdemeanor.

Warrington’s attorney, Roger Futerman, conceded during the four- day trial that Warrington was driving his boat under the influence when he hit a channel marker in the waters off Redington Shores. But Futerman argued that prosecutors could not prove that the crash killed Kraus.

“I really believe this guy fell off the boat before the collision with the channel marker,” Futerman said after the verdict.

Judge Doug Baird sentenced Warrington to a year in the Pinellas County Jail. That was the maximum sentence faced by Warrington, who has at least two previous DUIs on his criminal record.