An Italian speedboat captain has been sentenced for a crash that killed a Bloomsbury USA publishing executive.
Elio Perisco, 32, was sentenced on Friday to four years and nine months in jail by an Italian court. He was facing manslaughter and negligent injury charges after he piloted his speedboat while drunk and high on cocaine.
Adrienne Vaughan, the President of Bloomsbury USA, was on Perisco's boat, sunbathing on its front deck, when the sailor smashed it into a larger ship in August 2023. Bloomsbury USA is the company that published the Harry Potter novels.
Vaughan, 45, was tossed from the front of the ship and was then hit by the speedboat's propeller, which killed her. Her daughter was also thrown into the water, but she did not sustain any injuries, according to PEOPLE.
"The vessel was going straight, and so was the hull,” Pietro Iuzzolino, a bartender aboard the ship that Perisco hit, told Italian newspaper Corriere del Mezzogiorno at the time. “Then suddenly it turned 180 degrees: there was a collision, and I heard a very loud bang. I saw the woman in the water, supported by her children and husband ... It was terrible."
Iuzzolino told the paper he believed Perisco was drunk after watching the captain vomit following the crash.
A passenger on the larger ship — the Tortuga — were filming an on-board wedding part when the crash occurred. As partiers were dancing to a Backstreet Boys song, the video records the sound of an impact in the distance.
In the footage, a woman asks what happened, after which a man says a boat had collided with the Tortuga.
Vaughan was pulled from the water and pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Associated Press. Perisco sustained injuries to his ribs and pelvis. A drug test after the crash revealed that he had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of the crash.
Authorities did not reveal Perisco's level of intoxication.
Mike White, Vaughan's husband, was also on the boat and sustained an injury that required collarbone surgery. He told the Italian paper Il Messaggero that Perisco was constantly distracted by his phone during their outing.
“He was always on the phone,” White said.
The boat was scheduled to visit Positano on the day of the crash, but never made it to the island. Vaughan and her family were in Italy on a family vacation.
None of the passengers on the Tortuga were injured
Bloomsbury's leadership issued a press statement at the time of the incident confirming Vaughan's death and praising her work, calling her “a leader of dazzling talent and infectious passion"
“[Vaughan] had a deep commitment to authors and readers," the statement said. "Most of all she was an extraordinary human being, and those of us who had the opportunity to work with her will be forever fortunate.”
White told the New York Post that losing Vaughan has "devastated" his family.
“Adrienne’s death has devastated our family. She was a beloved mother, wife, daughter, sister, niece, and dear friend and colleague to many,” he told the paper. “Her absence from our lives and the terrible circumstances of her death are impossible to comprehend.”
