The sailor who was accused of torching the USS Bonhomme Richard, Ryan Sawyer Mays, was acquitted of the crime by a military judge on Friday. He swore up and down all along that he didn’t do it. His attorneys convinced the court he was right.
Sailor set free by judge
On Friday, a military judge set accused sailor Ryan Sawyer Mays free, after acquitting him of the arson charges. He may have been disgruntled but the Navy didn’t prove he set the fire.
On the other hand, the defense put out a whole lot of evidence that the ship was a firetrap. Just because Mays warned ahead of time that a fire could happen didn’t mean that he set it.
The 21-year-old sailor was relieved to learn his fate after a grueling nine-day trial in San Diego. The Bonhomme Richard was a billion-dollar amphibious assault ship before it was completely destroyed.
Sailor Accused of Torching Bonhomme Richard Acquitted by Judge https://t.co/haFE1XTuNp
— Military.com (@Militarydotcom) September 30, 2022
“I can say that the past two years have been the hardest two years of my entire life as a young man,” he declared from outside the courthouse. “I’ve lost time with friends. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost time with family, and my entire Navy career was ruined. I am looking forward to starting over.”
Military prosecutors had everyone but the judge convinced that Mays “lit cardboard boxes on fire in a lower vehicle storage area.” The vessel was docked for maintenance in San Diego.
The whole prosecution was centered around the concept of an angry and vengeful sailor. They tried to paint him as “angry and vengeful about failing to become a Navy SEAL and being assigned to deck duty, prompting him to ignite the cardboard boxes on July 12, 2020.”
Hazardous as …
The kicker, prosecutors argued, is a text message the sailor sent to his division officer. It warned that “the ship was so cluttered with contractors’ material it was ‘hazardous as f—.‘” What better way to prove his point than burn the ship down.
As eloquent as their argument was, they didn’t back it up with any hard evidence. “Meanwhile, defense attorney’s sowed doubt in the creditability of Seaman Kenji Velasco, a key witness for the prosecution who changed his account over time.” Lawyers are good at that.
Whether the accused sailor set the fire or not, it’s pretty clear that the whole ship was a deadly firetrap. The Navy’s prosecutor, Captain Jason Jones, admitted in court that “a Navy report last year that concluded the inferno was preventable.”
He acknowledges that what happened before the incident is “unacceptable and that there were lapses in training, coordination, communications, fire preparedness, equipment maintenance and overall command and control.”
Mays really was disappointed that he wouldn’t be jumping out of helicopters with the SEALS. He really did hate chipping paint on the deck. The sailor says he didn’t hate the Navy enough to light his ship on fire.
His lawyers did back up the sailor’s side of it. “The government rushed to judgment and failed to collect evidence showing lithium-ion batteries or a sparking forklift could have started the fire.” That is what’s known in the industry as “reasonable doubt.“
