Captain Of Dive Boat That Caught Fire, Killing 34, Sentenced To 4 Years In Prison

The Department of Justice said that Jerry Boylan of Santa Barbara, the captain of the 75-foot scuba dive boat that reportedly caught fire off the coast of California in 2019, taking the lives of 34 individuals, was sentenced to four years of federal imprisonment on May 2, 2024.

A federal jury concluded that the captain, aged 70, was guilty of seaman’s manslaughter in November last year in connection with the fatal boat fire.

He was employed as the captain of the MV Conception, a boat that caught on fire when it was docked at Platt’s Harbor close to Santa Cruz Island amid a scuba diving excursion in the early morning hours on 2 September 2019 while guests and crew members were asleep.

A crew member and 33 guests lost their lives, while Boylan, along with four other crew members, survived after jumping overboard.

George Wu, the judge of the US District, issued the sentence after hearing over a dozen victims’ impact statements.

The sentence included three years of supervised release, per the ABC Los Angeles station KABC.

KABC reported that a restitution hearing was scheduled for July 11. Boylan had been asked to surrender that day or shortly thereafter to start serving his sentence.

The defendant’s failures and cowardice led to the deaths of 34 individuals, Martin Estrada, the US Attorney, mentioned in a statement following the sentencing.

Estrada added that the victims’ families will be devastated by the tragedy.

While the current sentence cannot completely heal the wounds, he hopes that the efforts to hold the defendant accountable criminally still bring some healing to the loved ones.

A federal grand jury indicted the captain on 34 instances of misconduct or neglect of the ship’s officer — generally referred to as seaman’s manslaughter — in 2020.

He encountered a maximum of 340 years in prison if convicted.

His attorneys asserted that the deaths resulted from a single incident, not individual crimes, and then, he was charged with only one count, which carried a maximum sentence of a decade in prison.

Some of the victims’ loved ones pushed the judge to impose the maximum sentence during the hearing.

Federal prosecutors sought the maximum sentence, arguing through a court document filed last month before the sentencing that the captain set sail with the knowledge of the catastrophic consequences of his reckless behaviour.

He knew that the crew members were inexperienced and that he hadn’t trained them to fight a fire.

The prosecutors wrote that he knew he hadn’t conducted a fire drill with his crew members.

He was aware that he habitually ignored the basic tenets of maritime fire safety and failed to maintain a roving patrol at night.

Prosecutors contended that Boylan had not apologised, much less taken responsibility for the atrocity he induced.

Besides, he did not attempt rescue during the fire and chose to save himself instead.

The prosecutors wrote that he was the first one to abandon the vessel and that he urged his crew members to do the same several times.

In doing so, he left 34 victims on the Conception to die.

Boylan’s attorneys fought for five years of probation with three years of home incarceration, repeatedly citing their client’s age, health issues, and also the profound remorse, grief, and emotional despair he has been experiencing since the accident.

They fought back at the prosecutors’ portrayal of him as uncaring and insensitive.

Ahead of the sentencing, his attorneys elaborated through a court document last month that the insensitive portrayal is based on a cruel caricature.

It does not reflect the actual individual who continues to suffer since the day of the Conception accident in which he almost lost his life.

His attorneys argued that Boylan didn’t “abandon” the vessel but cautioned the Coast Guard, jumped out of the burning wheelhouse at the last second and helped in rescuing the surviving crew members in the ocean, among other actions.

His attorneys cited a National Transportation Safety Board report that specified that the possible cause of the accident was the failure of the Conception’s operator and owner, Truth Aquatics, to share effective oversight of the vessel and crew member operations, including the requirements to make sure that a roving patrol was adequately maintained, which permitted a fire of unspecified cause to thrive, in the near vicinity of the aft salon on the vessel’s main deck.

The NTSB report said that the reason behind the fire could not be determined as the boat was burning and sinking, even though it started in the rear of the back salon, where the guests had plugged in their phones and other devices before they went off to sleep.

Truth Aquatics’ owner, Glen Fritzler, has not shared any comment on Boylan’s case or the NTSB report. In a statement days following the incident, Fritzler said he was “devastated” by this accident.

He said that their lives have been changed irreversibly by the tragedy and the sorrow it has brought. He added that the victim’s loved ones and survivors are forever in their thoughts and prayers.

Reference: CBS, ABC News

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