The hearing that started Monday is expected to wrap up Wednesday when the defense is expected to call its witnesses to the stand. Mays is charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel. The amphibious assault ship was damaged so badly that it had to be scuttled. It marked one of the worst noncombat warship disasters in recent memory. Mays has denied igniting the blaze that burned for nearly five days on the USS Bonhomme Richard in July 2020, injuring dozens of personnel aboard and sending acrid smoke wafting over San Diego. I did it.” Then she said he mumbled some more before she heard him say: “It had to be done.”ĭefense attorneys said he was joking and speaking sarcastically after being surprised that he was being locked up. 20, 2020, testified that she heard a stunned Mays mumble to himself: “I’m guilty, I guess. Mays, 20, was a seaman apprentice at the time and has since been promoted to seaman.Īnother sailor, Carissa Tubman, who was assigned to escorting Mays to the brig on Aug. Petty Officer 3rd Class Kenji Velasco blamed his nervousness for the changes to his story and said in military court during a preliminary hearing that he was now “100 percent” sure that he saw the suspect, Ryan Sawyer Mays, descend to the ship’s lower vehicle storage area on the day of the fire. warship last year testified Tuesday that he is certain that he saw the suspect in the area where the flames ignited, but acknowledged changing the account he initially told investigators.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A key witness in the Navy’s case against a junior sailor accused of setting the fire that destroyed a U.S.

After effects apprentice short courses