A young man who fatally struck a paddleboarding 12-year-old girl with a jet ski in Mission Bay last year was sentenced Friday to 230 days in custody and two years of probation.
Arsanyous Refat Ghaly, 20, pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for the July 29, 2023, watercraft crash that killed Savannah Peterson.
The victim was on a paddle board in the De Anza Cove area when she was struck by the jet ski around 2 p.m. She was taken to a hospital, where she died of her injuries. Ghaly, who was 18 years old at the time, was arrested last November in connection with the fatality.
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Prosecutors allege the crash occurred within an area where watercraft operators are required to stay below 5 miles per hour. At a preliminary hearing earlier this year, a police officer testified that data pulled from the jet ski indicated it was traveling between 47-53 mph at the time of the collision. Other testimony indicated that prior to the fatality, Ghaly was warned by a lifeguard that he was going too fast on the jet ski.
Ghaly's defense attorney, Hakim George Hakim, called the crash "a tragic accident" and argued at the hearing that his client was operating the watercraft more than 100 feet from shore, where it was permitted to pilot watercraft at higher speeds.
The original stipulated sentence reached between the parties involved six months in county jail and 50 days in the work furlough program, but Ghaly was denied a spot in the work furlough program. A review hearing was scheduled for March to see if he might be accepted into work furlough then.
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At Friday's sentencing hearing, San Diego Superior Court Judge Polly Shamoon chided Ghaly, who has been out of custody throughout most of the case, for arriving about 45 minutes late to the hearing. She also took issue with statements he made during his interview with a probation officer, in which she said he laid blame on the victim and expressed undue concerns regarding the consequences of his plea, such as whether his driver's license would be suspended.
Shamoon said she would honor the plea agreement, but told Ghaly she felt "maybe you're still not taking this seriously."
Ghaly apologized to the girl's family and Shamoon for being late, stating he "was too worried and anxious to come in today."
He also said, "I wanted to give my condolences before [to the victim's family], but I didn't know how or when it was appropriate. I never meant for any of this to happen."
Among the girl's loved ones who spoke in court were her parents, Ashley and Mark Peterson, who said the family had moved to San Diego about two months prior to Savannah's death.
Ashley Peterson said her daughter was "kind, witty and driven," and had laid out a plan for college and beyond that included playing professional soccer and later, a career teaching high school theater and coaching soccer.
"I sincerely hope that the defendant has learned something from this and will do better and be better," Peterson said.
Mark Peterson was deployed overseas with the Navy when he received the news that his daughter would not survive her injuries. He rushed to make it back to San Diego for a last goodbye but didn't arrive in time. Instead, his last moments with his daughter, whom he also called "my best friend," had taken place six weeks earlier when he tucked her into bed before heading out on his deployment.
The grieving father called the crash "the result of sheer and unchecked stupidity, and disregard by the defendant and many others for the lives of people in the bay [and] for the life of my daughter. My daughter was killed by the defendant and if he did not kill her, he would have killed someone else."
The girl's family has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming Ghaly, the city and county of San Diego, and several others as defendants.
The lawsuit faults the city for allegedly failing to prevent Ghaly and other "untrained, incompetent, dangerous, illegal operators" from speeding on watercraft in Mission Bay. Others named as defendants include two people who allegedly rented out the jet ski to Ghaly and his friends despite the young men lacking California Boater's cards, which are required for people operating motorized vessels in the water, as well as the app OfferUp, which was allegedly used to advertise and facilitate the jet ski rental.
