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. warship last year in San Diego testified that he is certain that he saw the suspect in the area where the flames ignited and another says the suspect mumbled “I’m guilty” on the way to the brig.
The testimony came Tuesday in a military court hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for Ryan Sawyer Mays to face a military trial.
Mays is charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel. The hearing that started Monday is expected to wrap up Wednesday when the defense is expected to call its witnesses to the stand.
On Tuesday, Petty Officer 3rd Class Kenji Velasco said he is now “100 percent” sure that he saw Mays descend to the ship’s lower vehicle storage area on the day of the fire. However, Velasco acknowledged changing some parts of the account he initially gave to investigators.
Mays, 20, 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. It marked one of the worst noncombat warship disasters in recent memory. The amphibious assault ship was damaged so badly that it had to be scuttled.
Mays, 20, was a seaman apprentice at the time and has since been promoted to seaman.
On Tuesday Carissa Tubman, a sailor who was assigned to escorting Mays to the brig on Aug. 20, 2020, testified that she heard a stunned Mays mumble to himself: “I’m guilty, I guess. I did it.” Then she said he mumbled some more before she heard him say: “It had to be done.”
Defense attorneys said he was joking and speaking sarcastically after being surprised that he was being locked up.
The defense has challenged several of the government’s witnesses about their accounts given to investigators a year ago, after several of them recalled details differently or not at all during the hearing.
About 160 sailors and officers were on board when the fire started on the 840-foot (256-meter) vessel, which had been docked at Naval Base San Diego while undergoing a two-year, $250 million upgrade.
More than 60 sailors and civilians were treated for minor injuries, heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation.
Investigators concluded that cardboard boxes in the lower vehicle storage were ignited, and the blaze rapidly spread in the area cluttered with forklifts, hoses, pallets, and other equipment used by contractors.
Officials assessing the ship’s damage found three of four fire stations on the ship had evidence of tampering: Fire hoses had been disconnected and one was cut, according to court documents.
Defense attorney Gary Barthel said thousands of contractors were coming and going from the ship at the time. Some were caught smoking on board in violation of the rules, and there was a problem with brass parts being stolen, and contractors cutting hoses.
Barthel said there was a roster with 12,000 contractors but “there was no way to monitor who went on and off the ship.”
Navy prosecutors have alleged that Mays did it because he was “disgruntled” after dropping out of Navy SEAL training on the fifth day and being assigned to the ship’s deck duty, which largely involved cleaning the vessel.
Velasco and two other sailors, including his superior, testified Tuesday that Mays was combative, disrespectful and had a poor attitude.
Mays’ lawyers grilled Velasco about not naming Mays as the person he saw until more than a week after the fire. Initially, Velasco told investigators he did not recognize the person he saw that morning and said whoever did it did not belong to his deck department, which Mays did.
Velasco also contradicted himself about whether he saw Mays directly or from the side and about what time he saw Mays descend to the area.
He agreed with a defense attorney that he was told by investigators at one point “you just keep flip flopping around” so they did not know what had happened.
But Velasco said things became more clear in his mind after he thought about them more.
“I just wanted to make sure it was him that I saw,” Velasco said.
Mays has insisted he was on the ship’s hangar bay when the fire started. Mays attorneys said no physical evidence ties Mays to the crime.