Cocaine-Fueled Trip Lead To Captains Arrest
It looks like a Florida charter boat captain never got the memo that if you’re planning on getting drunk and doing cocaine in front of your passengers, you probably shouldn’t go out that day or… it will turn into a nightmare fishing trip for everyone.
Mark Baily, 36, was arrested after passengers contacted the Coast Guard with claims the captain of the “Double Marker” was heavily inebriated and had been snorting cocaine.
“We were definitely all in fear for our lives,” passenger Carlo Lopeparo told the police.
Bailey had taken five passengers out on the Sarasota Bay, along with Devin Kissell, his first mate, for what should’ve been a 12-hour fishing trip.
Chris Giuffre, 53, chartered the boat, along with his son, Chris Giuffre Jr., 23; and their friends Lopeparo, 35, along with Lopeparo’s brother, Jason Rialmo, 39, and his son, Jason Rialmo Jr., 15.
It’s Downhill From Here
Bailey drank several beers at the beginning of the trip, according to all of the passengers and Kissell.
At one point, Lopeparo asked his nephew, Rialmo Jr., to get him a beer from the top deck where Bailey was. The captain told him he couldn’t have it, which Rialmo Jr. thought was a joke and grabbed it anyway.
That wasn’t the case.
“The captain bumped shoulders with the young man and grabbed him around the neck and clasped on to the young man’s chain and ripped it off,” Giuffre told police.
“It was like a movie, unbelievable,” he continued.
An argument followed, which resulted in the captain moving back to the upper deck where he started downing rum, smoking weed and doing cocaine, according to passengers.
Bailey later told Giuffre Jr., “It would be nothing to pop a bullet in each one of us and dump our bodies overboard,” according to his statement to police.
“He also stated he has his buddies at the dock for us when we get back. He then proceeded to say he wanted to help to kill n——,” wrote Giuffre Jr.
After making his threats, Bailey fired between four and eight gunshots from the upper deck.
Time To Go Home
They immediately asked to go back to shore, but Bailey started driving around in circles instead. The passengers were able to realize this by checking the compass app on their cellphones.
“Every time we went to speak with him, he was more and more inebriated and high,” Giuffre wrote. “I became very unsettled, and the situation became very sketchy. We had no control and no way to get back. I believe he didn’t want to dock completely wasted, and was buying time.”
The group called the Coast Guard and the Sarasota police department as soon as they had signal on their phones.
Bailey was stumbling and had slurred speech along with “a strong odor of alcoholic beverage was emanating from his person,” according to the arrest report.
The captain refused the breathalyzer and kicked at the door to prevent it from being closed while being arrested by the police.
“I just expected to take my family and friends out like I do every year on June 1,” Lopeparo said. “I wasn’t planning on being in fear for my life for 17 hours.”
Lopeparo had reportedly used Bailey before without any issues. But this time it was truly a nightmare fishing trip.
Bailey faces separate charges of resisting an officer in May and was arrested last year for trespassing.
