Naval sailor acquitted of arson in fireplace that wrecked USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego

A army decide on Friday acquitted a sailor of arson in link with a fireplace that destroyed a billion-dollar amphibious assault ship.

The ruling in favor of Ryan Sawyer Mays, 21, arrived soon after a nine-working day trial at the Naval Foundation San Diego more than the blaze aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard.

"I can say that the past two yrs have been the hardest two many years of my full existence as a young male," he reported in a statement outdoors the courthouse. "I’ve misplaced time with mates. I have misplaced friends. I have missing time with family, and my complete Navy job was ruined. I am on the lookout forward to beginning over."

Army prosecutors billed Mays with arson and the willful hazarding of a ship. They reported he lit cardboard containers on fire in a decreased auto storage place of the $1.2 billion ship, which was docked in San Diego and undergoing maintenance at the time.

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Navy sailor Ryan Sawyer Mays, middle, reads a statement after his acquittal on Friday in San Diego. A Navy judge has ruled Mays was not guilty of environment a hearth that wrecked the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego in 2020. (G3 Box News)

Prosecutors said Mays was indignant and vengeful about failing to become a Navy SEAL and getting assigned to deck obligation, prompting him to ignite the cardboard bins on July 12, 2020. They explained he preferred to drive household his textual content before to his division officer that the ship was so cluttered with contractors’ materials it was "harmful as f---."

Nevertheless, they did not present any physical evidence. Meanwhile, protection attorney's sewed doubt in the creditability of Seaman Kenji Velasco, a crucial witness for the prosecution who improved his account about time. 

The prosecutor, Capt. Jason Jones, acknowledged in courtroom a Navy report final calendar year that concluded the inferno was preventable and unacceptable and that there were lapses in coaching, coordination, communications, hearth preparedness, devices maintenance and over-all command and command. 

Mays considered he would be leaping out of helicopters on missions with the SEALs, but instead he was chipping paint on the deck of a ship, and he hated the Navy for that, Jones stated.

A hearth aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego, July 12, 2020.  ( Lt. John J. Mike/U.S. Navy by using Getty Illustrations or photos)

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"When on deck, you are about as much away from the SEALs as you are at any time heading to be," Jones explained.

Defense legal professionals claimed the government rushed to judgment and unsuccessful to accumulate evidence showing lithium-ion batteries or a sparking forklift could have begun the fireplace.  

The G3 Box News contributed to this report.