A man whose granddaughter slipped from his hands and plummeted to her death from a cruise ship window this summer blames the cruise line for leaving it open and blamed being colorblind for not being able to tell it wasn’t closed.
"I'm colorblind," Salvatore Anello told CBS News. "I don't know. I just never saw it. … I've been told that that's a reason that it might have happened."
Anello, 50, was charged in October with negligent homicide in the July 7 death of 18-month-old Chloe Wiegand of Granger, Indiana. Medical records confirm his condition, CBS News reported.
"Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever. So I'm like, whatever," Anello told CBS News. "There's nothing worse that they could do to me than what's already happened. Whether, you know, they find me guilty of whatever or not. It's inconsequential because of what has already happened is so horrible."
Chloe and her family were aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas when Anello placed her on a railing by an 11th-floor window, believing glass would be behind her, he told authorities. But the window was open, and Chloe fell through, the Sun Sentinel reported. The girl struck a concrete dock and died, officials said.
"I saw her fall. I saw her fall the whole way down. I saw her fall, and I was just in disbelief. I was like, 'Oh my God,' ... and then I just remember screaming that I thought there was glass," Anello told CBS News.
The Wiegand family's attorney, Michael Winkleman, blasted the charges and said Royal Caribbean should have "followed proper safety guidelines for windows," NBC News reported. Winkleman represents Chloe's family, not Anello.
Anello's next court date is Dec. 17, CBS News reported.
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