A Mercer County grand jury has handed up a 19-count indictment against Cody Casey, the Harrodsburg man accused of steering his boat into a stationary pontoon on Herrington Lake during a Fourth of July weekend gathering, killing one man and leaving another blind in both eyes. The indictment, returned Tuesday, follows a weeks-long investigation involving 13 search warrants and forensic testing of physical evidence recovered from the scene.
Casey is charged with second-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault, 11 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, and charges tied to evading police, tampering with evidence, and failing to report the crash or render aid, according to LEX 18 News. The Mercer County grand jury's indictment follows his arrest by Kentucky Fish and Wildlife game wardens.
The crash happened July 4 on Herrington Lake, where the Svintozelskiy and Fomin families were sitting stationary in a pontoon boat when Casey's 2017 Axis watercraft allegedly struck them head-on, according to the station's report. Casey is accused of driving at excessive speed near other boaters and performing repeated donuts and other erratic maneuvers before the collision. The impact threw occupants into the water and left the pontoon boat with catastrophic damage.
A Family Devastated, A Search for a Missing Man
Twenty-five-year-old Nazar Svintozelskiy was ejected into the water and did not surface. Search and rescue crews searched for him, per the same LEX 18 account.
Aleksander Svintolzelskiy was flown to the University of Kentucky Hospital, according to WKYT. He suffered a profound traumatic brain injury, a subdural hematoma, a cervical fracture, a C4 fracture, a chest fracture, facial bone fractures, respiratory failure, and blindness in both eyes, and the injuries have left him unable to walk. Three other passengers were transported to a regional hospital in Danville. Casey allegedly fled the scene without rendering aid to anyone injured in the collision.
Lawsuit Adds Civil Claims Alongside Criminal Case
Attorneys representing members of the Svintozelskiy and Fomin families filed a civil lawsuit against Casey in Mercer Circuit Court a day before the indictment, pursuing claims of negligence, gross negligence, failure to render aid, and punitive damages. The suit, filed under case number 26-CI-00267, alleges Casey accelerated toward the stationary pontoon boat. Attorney Justin Peterson, who represents the Svintozelskaya family, said the lawsuit does not seek damages related to Nazar Svintozelskiy's death, focusing instead on the injuries suffered by survivors.
Peterson told LEX 18 that the indictment marks only the beginning. “This is the first step in a long journey,” he said, adding that he plans to seek the maximum sentence against Casey. Casey was also charged with fourth-degree assault for injuring Antonina Svintozelskaya, another family member hurt in the crash.
Criminal History Dates Back to 2010
Court records reviewed by LEX 18 show Casey's criminal cases stretch back to 2010, alongside 15 traffic violations spread across Mercer, Anderson, Washington, and Jessamine counties — including 10 in Mercer County alone. In September 2024, he was charged with reckless driving after allegedly nearly hitting an off-duty Lexington police officer, with alcohol reportedly present during that incident per the citation. A theft charge and a repeat felony offender charge against Casey in Russell County were both dismissed in 2014.
Casey was arrested Tuesday evening and held at the Boyle County Detention Center before being moved to Woodford County. His bond was set at $1 million cash, with conditions barring him from operating a vehicle, using alcohol or drugs, contacting the alleged victims or their families, and requiring him to attend all scheduled court appearances without new arrests. He is scheduled to appear in court on September 21.
The Legal Exposure Ahead
Under Kentucky Revised Statute 507.040, second-degree manslaughter is a Class C felony carrying five to 10 years in prison for wantonly causing death through motor-vehicle operation, according to the Baldani Law Group. For second-degree manslaughter, parole is available after 20 percent of the sentence. Separately, Kentucky Revised Statute 235.250 requires any vessel operator involved in a collision to stop, render aid, and exchange contact information, provided doing so does not endanger their own passengers, per the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources — the same statute underpinning both Casey's failure-to-render-aid charges and the civil lawsuit's claims.
A Lake Known for Its Depth and Danger
Herrington Lake, formed in 1925 by damming the Dix River, spans 2,335 acres across Mercer, Garrard, and Boyle counties and is Kentucky's deepest body of water, reaching depths of 249 feet, according to A-Z Animals. The lake was formed in the 1920s by the construction of Dix Dam and the hydroelectric plant on site. Recovery efforts on the lake have taken place in deep water. Conservation officers with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife regularly conduct “Operation Dry Water,” a nationwide Fourth of July enforcement push targeting impaired boaters, and state law allows BUI arrests on probable cause when a crash causes property damage or injury.
National data underscores the stakes of holiday boating enforcement. According to the National Safe Boating Council, U.S. Coast Guard figures from 2024 show alcohol remained the leading known factor in fatal recreational boating accidents nationwide, while 87 percent of drowning victims in known incidents were not wearing life jackets. Nationwide boating incidents caused 556 fatalities that year. Kentucky law also requires anyone born on or after January 1, 1989, to hold a safe boating education card before operating a motorized vessel or personal watercraft on public waters.
