US Sailor Charged With Warship Fire Found Not Guilty

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2022) American Sailor Ryan Sawyer Mays was found not guilty of setting fire to the USS Bonhomme Richard in 2020, which resulted in $1.2 billion in damage, according to a Navy judge's ruling.

"Seaman Recruit Mays was found not guilty on the charges of willful hazarding of a vessel and aggravated arson. The Navy is committed to upholding the principles of due process and a fair trial," Spokesman for US 3rd Fleet, Lt. Samuel R. Boyle, said on Friday, as quoted by CBS news.

Prosecutors had accused then-19-year-old Mays of igniting cardboard boxes in a lower vehicle storage area, but there is no physical evidence tying the sailor to the fire, CBS specified.

Mays' nine-day trial at Naval Base San Diego concluded on Friday.

In July 2020, a fire believed to have begun in a storage area on the Bonhomme Richard raged for four days as the ship lay anchored off of San Diego. The fire injured at least 63 people and caused extensive damage to the warship, which was finishing up two years of updates that would have enabled it to carry the advanced F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. Those upgrades cost the Navy $250 million.

Following the fire, the $1.2 billion amphibious assault ship was decommissioned, after the US Navy decided that making Bonhomme Richard seaworthy again would have been too costly.