MANDEL: 'I'm not the captain anymore,' says man who denies being at wheel during fatal boat crash
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A nervous Filip Grkovski took the stand in his own defence, continuing to point the finger at his former friend for the Lake Ontario boat crash that killed two of his passengers.
After a late afternoon and night of partying at a “tie-up” with other boats on the water near Centre Island, Grkovski, 41, insisted he turned the wheel of his 30-ft. Doral 300 over to Eddie Denkha as they headed east toward the Outer Harbour marina.
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MANDEL: 'I'm not the captain anymore,' says man who denies being at wheel during fatal boat crash Back to video
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“I go downstairs because now I’m not operating the boat. He’s fine; he knows where to go,” he testified on Tuesday at his judge-alone trial.
“I’m not the captain anymore.”
Grkovski has pleaded not guilty to eight charges including two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two of impaired operation causing death stemming from the horrific pleasure boat crash on May 31, 2022. Megan Wu, 24, and Julio Abrantes, 34, drowned while eight others survived.
Just about every witness has testified Grkovski and his girlfriend Vanessa were continuously fighting throughout the day and night on the lake. Some said that’s why they left so much later from the tie-up than expected.
Not at all, he told his lawyer Alan Gold. Their argument had ended “long before” they left.
Denkha testified Grkovski asked him to take over because he’d been summoned below to try and calm his upset girlfriend and when he returned to the deck, he was so furious, he took back the controls and “floored” it. Minutes later, he said they crashed them into a rock breakwall near Tommy Thompson Park and flipped over.
Witnesses from the boat said everyone was drinking, including Grkovski; several mentioned that people were doing cocaine, including their captain.
Through the wonders of social media, videos taken that day show it was quite the party on the water; even though no alcohol is supposed to be consumed, the booze was obviously flowing, with at least two bottles of vodka and one of tequila seen aboard.
But Grkovski maintained he had four drinks before 8 p.m. and nothing but half of another drink after that. He also said he hadn’t done coke since at least 36 hours earlier and “there was no cocaine on the boat.”
During cross-examination, Crown attorney Jackson Foreman questioned whether he could be mistaken about his alcohol consumption considering a toxicologist testified that at the time of the crash, he would have had a blood alcohol reading of between 85 and 159 gm of alcohol in 100 ml of blood. “I don’t think so,” he replied.
“I’m going to suggest you had more to drink than usual because you were fighting with Vanessa that day. And I’m also going to suggest that it was also the fight with Vanessa that led you to actually do cocaine that day.”
Grkovski disagreed with both suggestions.
By his account, he turned the helm over to Denkha because his girlfriend wanted to talk. No, he wasn’t concerned about giving him the wheel despite never seeing him operate a boat.
“He said he has a boat, he’s buying a boat,” Grkovski explained. “He’s the boat guy.”
He also wasn’t worried Denkha may be intoxicated even though he was the one who brought the two bottles of vodka. “I knew he wasn’t drinking,” he said.
When Grkovski returned to the deck, he said Denkha was driving too fast and he had to lower the speed. He testified that he then showed him the route back to the marina through the channel and returned downstairs, leaving him to it.
That didn’t make much sense to the prosecutor.
“The only time you have watched Eddie operate that boat, what he did was speed up and go fast enough that you were concerned and you had to slow him down, right? And despite that, you figured ‘I can leave him alone with this boat?'” he asked incredulously.
Foreman suggested Grkovski was actually the one driving. But he warned that even if Denkha was at the wheel when they crashed, he was still the one responsible for his boat and his passengers.
“The Crown’s view of this case is that you giving control of this boat to Eddie in these circumstances was criminally negligent. Does hearing that change your evidence at all about where you were at the time of that crash?”
“No,” Grkovski replied. “It doesn’t change.”
Closing submissions are expected Wednesday.
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