Keys dive-boat owners who fled after a woman died 11 years ago plead guilty
Eleven years ago, a woman on a dive boat was killed when a 300-pound bench detached and pinned her under the hard deck as the vessel sank in rough seas.
After her death, two dive-shop operators who owned the boat left the country. They were on the run for more than a decade.
Their freedom is over. Late last week, they pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in
South Florida federal court. Last year, Spanish authorities arrested British couple Christopher Jones, 57, and Alison Gracey, 54. They were brought to the United States in January.
Their sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18 in Key West federal court. Each faces up to eight years in prison. Defense attorney Adam Goodman did not return a call from the Miami Herald.
A grand jury originally indicted them in October 2012, almost a year after the death of Aimee Rhoads, a 36-year-old mother of a 3-year-old child. Rhoads was a mental-health counselor from Federal Way, Washington.
Jones and Gracey skipped town shortly after Rhoads died. Officials on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten arrested them in June 2015, but they fled while out on bond, a lawenforcement source with knowledge of the case said.
“The same thing happened in France after St. Maarten,” the official said.
The two were not on the boat during the tragedy. They weren’t even in the country. After the sinking, they returned to the Keys, packed up their stuff and disappeared, according to the investigation.
Jones and Gracey opened the Key Largo Scuba Shack out of a bayside motel in mid-2010.
There were problems from the start.
Their 25-foot boat, the Get Wet, had major structural issues, and Coast Guard inspectors had told Jones and Gracey that it was in need of repairs, including securing the center engine bench cover that ended up trapping Rhoads, to the deck, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Coast Guard also told them the bulkhead areas of the boat were not watertight. Their employees also repeatedly told them the Get Wet had dangerous flooding issues, the deck plates were barely attached and the engine bench cover “would rock back and forth,” federal prosecutors said.
On Dec. 18, 2011, the crew noticed the bilge pump failed and the Get Wet was quickly taking on water. It flooded the exposed hatches at the stern of the boat.
When the boat started to move, the water shifted and the boat began to sink, stern first. The vessel capsized and sank 30 feet to the bottom of the ocean. Four passengers and two crew members were unharmed. But Rhoads and another passenger, Amit Rampurkari, a 30-year-old man from New York, were trapped in the Get Wet’s forward section.
Another dive boat arrived to offer assistance. Divers rescued Rampurkari.
Rescuing Rhoads turned out to be more difficult because the divers could not free her legs from the heavy bench. After 15 minutes, divers surfaced with Rhoads. It was too late.