SAN DIEGO — Nobody disputes that the Navy shares blame for the lack of the USS Bonhomme Richard, the $1.2 billion amphibious assault ship that was consumed by flames in San Diego in July 2020 as officers failed to reply shortly and its crew struggled with damaged tools.
However none of that may have ever occurred, in accordance with the prosecution’s closing arguments Thursday, with out Ryan Sawyer Mays.
Prosecutors say the sailor, who was 19 on the time, was indignant and vengeful about failing to develop into a Navy SEAL and being assigned to deck obligation, so he ignited the ship to ship a message.
Protection attorneys mentioned of their closing statements that the Navy was decided to pin the worst noncombat Navy catastrophe in current reminiscence on somebody — and the sailor they picked, Mays, could be the improper man who now’s going through a doable life sentence. There is no such thing as a bodily proof tying the fireplace to Mays.
It’s now as much as the lone Navy decide, who presided over the nine-day trial at Naval Base San Diego, to resolve.
Mays, who was charged with arson and the willful hazarding of a ship, says he’s harmless.
The prosecution says Mays ignited cardboard bins early that Sunday morning in a decrease car storage space on the vessel — which was docked whereas present process $250 million in upkeep work — to drive house his textual content earlier to his division officer that the ship was so cluttered with contractors’ stuff it was “hazardous as (expletive).”
The prosecutor, Capt. Jason Jones, acknowledged in court docket a Navy report final yr that concluded that the inferno was preventable and unacceptable, and that there have been lapses in coaching, coordination, communications, fireplace preparedness, tools upkeep and general command and management. The failure to extinguish or comprise the fireplace led to temperatures exceeding 1,200 levels (649 Celsius) in some areas, melting sections of the ship into molten metallic that flowed into different elements of the ship. Navy leaders disciplined greater than 20 senior officers and sailors.
Jones advised the decide there is no such thing as a doubt the Navy “loses the ship” that morning, however Mays is guilty for igniting it.
“That sucker punch from behind, that is what the Navy might have by no means prevented,” he mentioned.
Mays thought he can be leaping out of helicopters on missions with the SEALs, however as a substitute he was chipping paint on the deck of a ship, and he hated the Navy for that, Jones mentioned.
“When on deck, you might be about as distant from the SEALs as you might be ever going to be,” Jones mentioned.
Protection attorneys say the trial solely uncovered a shoddy probe by authorities investigators who rushed to judgement and failed to gather proof displaying that the perpetrator additionally might have been lithium ion batteries or a sparking forklift as a substitute of arson. The investigators took no notes, no images of both of these different potential causes, they are saying.
“Seaman Mays identified that there have been fireplace hazards on this ship, and now he is going through a court-martial for arson,” Lt. Cmdr. Jordi Torres, the lead protection legal professional, mentioned.
Torres mentioned the prosecution tried to color a very assured, “cheery confronted, goofy sailor” as a prison mastermind. The truth is, he mentioned Mays had motive to behave. He mentioned Mays believed he nonetheless had an opportunity to attempt once more to develop into a SEAL, had been figuring out incessantly within the fitness center and even requested one of many investigators, who was a former SEAL, if he would give him a suggestion so he might attempt once more to hitch the elite power.
Torres mentioned the Navy case hinges on the testimony of 1 sailor, Seaman Kenji Velasco, who has modified his account over time.
The day of the fireplace, Velasco advised nobody that he noticed anybody go down under, even in case a fellow shipmate’s life could be in peril with the blaze roaring up from the ship’s stomach on the time, the protection identified.
It wasn’t till days later that he advised investigators he noticed somebody he did not acknowledge in coveralls and carrying a bucket go to the world. Then he mentioned he thought it was Mays and he heard him say sarcastically “I like deck.” Then he later mentioned he was “100%” certain it was Mays.
In the meantime, investigators discounted one other sailor’s account, Torres mentioned. She testified on the trial that she noticed one other shipmate run out of the decrease car storage space that morning after the fireplace began, the protection mentioned.
In keeping with the protection, that sailor was additionally disgruntled and had Googled details about warmth scales associated to fires. A navy handwriting examiner additionally matched the sailor’s script to graffiti on a port-a-potty wall that learn: “I did it. I set the ship on fireplace,” with a drawing of a ship in flames.
Prosecutors mentioned he confirmed proof he researched the fireplace info for a novel he was writing a couple of dragon, and so they say cellphone monitoring and different proof confirmed he was off the ship earlier than the fireplace began.
The prosecution additionally mentioned investigators discovered no scientific knowledge to again the idea that batteries or a forklift malfunction sparked the inferno, whereas testimony from fellow shipmates bolstered the case towards Mays alongside along with his personal phrases when he was being escorted in handcuffs and blurted out, in accordance with the sailor escorting him to the brig: “It needed to be carried out. I did it.”
The protection mentioned Mays, recognized for being flippant, was being sarcastic after denying doing it greater than 150 occasions throughout 10 hours of questioning by investigators.
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