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Guilty verdict in deadly boating accident

Posted at 5:40 PM, Nov 14, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-14 17:41:12-05

An Erie County Grand Jury has found 51-year-old Timothy Wisniewski guilty on all five counts in the boating death of 16-year-old Avery Gardner.

Wisniewski owned and was in the boat that Gardner was riding in when she stood up and hit her head on a bridge on Ellicott Creek in the Town of Tonawanda in June, 2015,  leading to her death.
 
The Grand Jury found Wisniewski had supplied an excess of alcohol and marijuana to Gardner and her 17-year-old boyfriend Gregory Green who was driving the boat. 
 
Prosecutors say the boat was being driven an extremely high rate of speed in an area where only kayaks and paddle boats are usually found.
 
Green pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in criminally negligent homicide back in May.
 
Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Flaherty says this was an awful case and says the jury got it right.
 
He says Gardner put her trust in the adult on the boat, Wisniewski,  and he failed her.
 
Wisniewski  remains in jail, and will be sentenced in January. He faces up to four years behind bars.