Sailor found Not Guilty on charges he started fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard. Seaman Recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays, 21, had been charged with arson and willful hazarding of a vessel, but he denied any involvement in the fire.
SAN DIEGO – A young Navy sailor who was accused of setting fire to the USS Bonhomme Richard was acquitted Friday by a military judge of charges stemming from the July 2020 blaze that burned for several days while the ship was docked at Naval Base San Diego.
Capt. Jay Jones, for the prosecution, argued Mays joined the Navy “for a very specific reason” and when that didn’t materialize, he found himself in the Bonhomme Richard’s Deck Department, which Jones described as “about as far away as you’re ever going to be from the SEALs.” Lt. Cmdr. Jordi Torres, one of Mays’ defense attorneys, said Velasco’s statements were the only thing the prosecution had tying Mays to the fire.
Throughout the trial, defense attorneys pointed to other potential, inadvertent sources of ignition, such as lithium ion batteries and forklifts that may have sparked in the Lower V, or cigarettes and other smoking materials. “No one can reasonably say how this fire started,” Torres said in his closing argument. “But the evidence at this court-martial shows that this sailor didn’t do it.”
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