MIAMI, Fla. – An Ocala man accused of being responsible for the death of a diver back in 2020 has now been found guilty, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In a release on Thursday, USAO officials said that the man — Dustin McCabe, 49 — bought a 48-foot boat dubbed the “Southern Comfort” in March 2020, which he’d told the U.S. Coast Guard was for recreational purposes.
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“The truth was that McCabe planned to use the Southern Comfort to run paid scuba charters,” the release reads. “He refitted the boat for that purpose by removing the vessel’s main deck engine controls, among other things.”
Later that month, McCabe took customers on a scuba trip aboard the Southern Comfort, but during the dives, the boat experienced “significant mechanical malfunctions,” the release states.
Some of these malfunctions included a propeller activating unexpectedly, the loss of steering, and the boat itself running aground, USAO officials added.
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“One of the incidents involved the port side propeller engaging when the vessel was in neutral during the pickup of a diver, which led to the diver being sucked toward the propeller and narrowly escaping,” the release continues.
Despite the close call, McCabe took two customers — married couple Sean Flynn and Mollie Ghiz-Flynn — to an area known as “Breaker’s Reef” the next day for a diving trip, court records show.
During the trip, the Flynn couple resurfaced after finishing their first dive, and the crew aboard the Southern Comfort waved them back over toward the boat, a lawsuit states.
But as the couple tried to re-board the boat, McCabe put the boat into reverse, causing both Flynns to get sucked under the boat, with Mollie Ghiz-Flynn getting stuck in the moving propellers, the lawsuit claims.
Sean Flynn was unable to free his wife, and two people aboard the boat jumped in the water to help pull her body free, court records say.
The USAO release states that her leg was pulled up into the propeller’s shaft, which held her under the water. And while the wounds and leg fractures weren’t fatal on their own, they contributed to her death by drowning.
“(Sean) watched in horror to the futile efforts to save his wife, who was declared dead by the time the vessel returned to the marina,” the lawsuit reads. “Cause of death was determined to be ‘drowning’ with ‘chop wounds of the lower extremities’ as a significant contributing factor.”
According to USAO officials, McCabe was prohibited from operating the boat after Ghiz-Flynn’s death, and while he was never seen working at the marina again, he still tried to apply for loans from the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program. He reportedly claimed that his business was still operational, which investigators said was false.
Stemming from these incidents, the USAO announced that McCabe had been charged with seaman’s manslaughter, lying to the Coast Guard, and committing COVID-19 pandemic relief fraud. A federal jury in Fort Pierce found McCabe guilty of these charges on Thursday.
Now, McCabe’s sentencing is scheduled for June 12. He faces up to 35 years in prison for all three charges.