Mass. man charged with drunken boating for fatal RI accident; owner called it a joy ride

Mass. man charged in RI nighttime boating deaths

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Massachusetts man has been charged with five felonies, including being drunk behind the wheel of a boat, in a crash that killed two women in Rhode Island.

Twenty-seven-year-old Matthew Fortin, of New Bedford, was arraigned in Newport on Wednesday. He did not enter a plea.

Fortin is charged with two counts of operating a watercraft under the influence and three counts of reckless operation. He’s also charged with refusing a chemical test.

Alesia Ann DeSa, of Dighton, Mass., and Kaylee Therrien, of Freetown, Mass., both 23 years old, were killed when the boat crashed into a rocky Narragansett Bay outcropping known as Despair Island early on May 16.

The man who owned the boat has said two of his employees had taken the boat out on an unauthorized “midnight joyride.”