Grandfather who dropped toddler to her death from Royal Caribbean ship window asks for bench trial

The grandfather accused of dropping Indiana toddler Chloe Wiegand to her death from a cruise ship window will stand trial in April.

Salvatore ‘Sam’ Anello faces a charge of negligent homicide over the little girl’s fatal plunge from the 11th deck of the Freedom of the Seas as it docked in Puerto Rico last July.

Anello was in court on Monday in San Juan to say he wants a bench trial in front of a judge rather than a jury.

Wearing a black suit, white shirt and patterned blue tie, Anello listened carefully to the Spanish-language proceedings via an interpreter before his lawyer José Guillermo Perez Ortiz relayed his request.

‘Yes, yes, I understand,’ Anello repeated in English, when judge Gisela Alfonso Fernandez asked him to confirm he did not want a jury.

The judge gave Perez Ortiz more time to prepare a defense for the elderly IT worker, but said the trial will proceed on April 2 and run for four days.

The elderly IT worker has consistently protested his innocence over 18-month-old Chloe’s fatal plunge from the 11th deck of the Freedom of the Seas as it docked there last July. He is pictured at court on Monday 

Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor but can be punished with a three-year prison sentence under the Puerto Rican criminal code.

But if Anello is found guilty, prosecutors will likely recommend a period of probation that can be completed in his native Indiana, DailyMail.com has learned.

Chloe’s parents Alan and Kimberly Wiegand have pleaded with Puerto Rican authorities to halt the prosecution, instead blaming cruise operator Royal Caribbean for their 18-month-old daughter’s death.

The grieving couple from South Bend, Indiana are suing the company in a separate civil lawsuit, arguing there were no signs or notices to warn Anello that the ‘wall of glass’ he held Chloe against contained windows that could be slid open.

When the silver-haired grandpa lifted the little girl up to let her bang on the glass as she loved to do at her brother’s ice hockey games, Chloe tumbled overboard and died instantly as she landed 150ft below on the Pan American Pier 2.

Despite the windows having handles and a blue-green tint, the suit says it was harder for Anello to distinguish between a glass pane and thin air because he is color blind. 

 Pictured: The tragic last photo of Chloe before she fell 150ft to her death from her grandfather’s arms 

Video footage shows the moment Anello dropped Chloe, 18 months, from the cruise ship. He slumps to the ground in shock and horror as he watches Chloe fall to her death after lifting her up to see out a window. Royal Caribbean says Anello would only have had to use his ‘basic senses’ to appreciate the danger this posed to Chloe

Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor but can be punished with a three-year prison sentence under the Puerto Rican criminal code. But if Anello is found guilty, prosecutors will likely recommend a period of probation that can be completed in his native Indiana, DailyMail.com has learned

Police officer Alan, 41, and his attorney wife Kimberly, 37, could claim ‘unlimited’ damages for pain and mental suffering if their suit, filed in Miami federal court, succeeds.

However they say their sole motivation is to force Royal Caribbean to make their windows safer on the Freedom of the Seas so Chloe’s fatal fall is never repeated.

Royal Caribbean has tried unsuccessfully to have the case thrown out, presenting harrowing video footage of Chloe’s last moments to argue that Anello poked his head through the window and ‘unquestionably’ knew it was open.

The company denies breaching industry safety standards, insisting Anello would only have had to rely on his ‘basic senses’ to realize he was endangering his beloved granddaughter.

Angelic Chloe and her granddad were about to embark on a seven-night Caribbean cruise with her parents, older brother, fraternal grandparents and Anello’s wife Patricia, when the tragedy unfolded on July 7 last year. 

Their vacation was supposed to take in the sun-drenched sights of San Juan, St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados but it ended in horror before the $800m vessel had even set sail. 

Haunting on-board camera footage of the incident shows Anello alone on deck with Chloe, who leads her grandfather away from the H20 zone splash pool towards the glass sides of the ship. 

Royal Caribbean has tried unsuccessfully to have the case thrown out, presenting harrowing video footage of Chloe’s last moments to argue that Anello poked his head through the window and ‘unquestionably’ knew it was open 

Meanwhile, Chloe’s parents Alan and Kimberly Wiegand (pictured) have stood by Anello and still hold the belief that Royal Caribbean is ultimately responsible for her death 

He lifts the toddler up and sits her down on a wooden handrail but suddenly she tumbles forwards and disappears from view.

The little girl was dead by the time the ship’s doctor, Marcel Alexander Armand Van Drunick, found her on the dock with multiple traumatic injuries.

‘About halfway down the pier we saw the body of a baby lying on the pier. It was a female, 18 month baby lying face down with multiple traumatic injuries. There was no life,’ Van Drunick told police in a statement that will likely feature in Anello’s trial.

‘Her one pink shoe and the white hat was lying on the pier not far from the deceased. I immediately shouted for a sheet to cover the body.’ Van Drunick said he heard screams coming from the 11th deck of the ship and was confronted by a scene of ‘chaos.’ ‘The grandfather collapsed on his hands and knees in the corner of the elevator. He was distraught sobbing, crying, saying: ‘I dropped my baby, I dropped my baby.’ ‘I bent down and asked him what happened. While he was crying he just said: ‘I thought the window was closed’.’

The doctor’s account is consistent with the only media interview Anello has given.

‘All I know is I was trying to reach the glass and I know that we leaned over to try to have her reach the glass, at that point she slipped,’ he told CBS.

‘Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever so I’m like, whatever, you know. There’s nothing worse that they could do to me than what’s already happened.’