Within the days that adopted the devastating blaze that destroyed the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, brokers started investigating a suspect who was seen working from the scene simply earlier than sailors noticed smoke, an agent testified Tuesday.
The investigation discovered that the suspect, a sailor, had searched Google for the phrases “warmth scale” and “hearth colour warmth scale” lower than an hour earlier than the blaze started, in accordance with testimony. Investigators additionally discovered graffiti inside a close-by moveable rest room that learn “I did it” and “I set the ship on hearth” — messages {that a} handwriting knowledgeable testified have been seemingly written by that very same sailor.
Nonetheless, that sailor was not Ryan Sawyer Mays, the 21-year-old on trial charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel.
On Tuesday, the Naval Felony Investigation Service agent who headed the investigation into the fireplace testified that she stopped pursing the opposite suspect within the spring of 2021 when he was administratively discharged from the Navy. The investigation then turned full bore on Mays, who denies beginning the blaze. He faces life in jail if convicted.
The testimony got here throughout the second day of the protection’s presentation of the case and provided another narrative to the one introduced final week by the prosecution.
Investigators say the fireplace started July 12, 2020, round 8 a.m. within the ship’s decrease car storage space, or “decrease V.”
Miya Polion, a former petty officer third class on the Bonhomme Richard, testified Tuesday she noticed a tall, dark-skinned sailor in blue coveralls working from the decrease V ramp, throughout the higher car storage space and up the ramp to the ship’s hangar bay simply after 8 a.m. Mays is White.
“I by no means stopped him as a result of it was type of bizarre to be working on the ship,” Polion mentioned throughout testimony Tuesday. She reported this to NCIS when investigators started trying to find witnesses, she mentioned.
Polion was new to the ship and didn’t acknowledge the sailor, who was additionally carrying a masks, she mentioned. She recognized the sailor later when NCIS organized for her to see a number of Engineering Division sailors are available in for a type of lineup, she mentioned. Brokers additionally walked the ship with Polion as she confirmed them her location relative to the sailor, video of the walk-through performed at trial confirmed.
The Union-Tribune just isn’t naming the sailor Polion mentioned she noticed as a result of he has not been charged with a criminal offense.
Mays, who was arrested Aug. 20, 2020, and positioned in confinement, was launched from the brig in October 2020 as NCIS pivoted to this second suspect, in accordance with Gary Barthel, who was Mays’ civilian legal professional on the time.
NCIS Particular Agent Maya Kamat investigated the opposite sailor till he left he Navy within the spring of 2021, she mentioned, which is when investigators re-focused on Mays.
Throughout questioning, Kamat mentioned the sailor defined the Google searches discovered on his cellphone have been associated to a novel he was writing with a second man a few dragon residing on a ship. Kamat mentioned she noticed the manuscript for the novel and a dialog in regards to the story on the messaging app Discord with the sailor’s writing companion.
She additionally mentioned the sailor declined to place investigators in contact along with his writing companion and they didn’t pursue the difficulty additional.
Kamat testified that she stopped investigating the opposite suspect “as a result of he was separating from the Navy” and was now not topic to navy legislation. On cross-examination by prosecutors, she agreed that the proof in opposition to the second sailor wasn’t robust as a result of Polion was “too distant” — at a distance of 115 toes — to determine him.
The protection is predicted to relaxation its case on Wednesday.
This story initially appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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