Jerry Boylan, captain of the Conception dive boat, where 34 people died amidst smoke and flame over the Labor Day weekend in 2019, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday for negligence that contributed to the disaster.
U.S. District Judge George Wu said he found Boylan to be “incredibly remorseful” and that he “did not intend to do anything bad.”
The judge called it “one of the toughest sentences ever” and said he was taking into account Boylan, 70,’s age and health, as well as the likelihood that he would reoffend.
The judge also rejected the prosecution’s claim that Boylan had abandoned ship.
Hearing those words, Boylan began to tremble and wipe away tears. A conviction on what is colloquially known as sailor manslaughter could have sent him to up to 10 years in federal prison.
The light sentence – and the fact that the judge is allowing Boylan to remain free until after a restitution hearing – enraged many of the victims’ family members.
“There is no justice,” said Robert Kurtz, the father of one of the victims. “He is not even being taken on remand. He is still free.”
After two weeks of testing, a federal jury Boylan was found in November to have been grossly negligent in the deaths of 33 passengers and one crew member who were trapped in windowless bunk rooms when the boat caught fire before dawn on September 2, 2019, near Santa Cruz Island .
Boylan was captain for 34 years but failed to be appointed overnight surveillanceHanging in your own wheel is ignoring inspection certificate requirements.
Nor did they establish adequate fire safety practices. Prosecutors argued that this left his poorly trained, nervous crew effectively useless under fire. probably originated In the trash any time after 2:35 am
As the flames spread, blocking exit for those crowded into the bunk room below, a member of Boylan’s crew ran twice over a 50-foot fire hose. Boylan himself made the call at 3:14 a.m. on May Day and jumped overboard, which prosecutors described as abandoning ship.
But Boylan’s lawyers with the federal public defender’s office called it “an unstoppable hell” and said there was nothing he could do after waking up amid the flames. His attorneys also argued that Boylan, in failing to use overnight surveillance, was following the customs of the company that owned the boat, Truth Aquatics, and did not know he was endangering passengers. I was putting it in. Prosecutors called it the “blame your boss” defense.
Families of fire victims packed the ninth-floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. Many people came with posters of their loved ones, and some wore shirts that read “34 Fearless Divers” and “Forever Remembered.” For nearly two hours, the families read victim impact statements to the judge.
Yadira Alvarez said her 16-year-old daughter, Berenice Felipe, who died on the boat, was in her last year of high school.
“His wings were clipped,” Alvarez said. As she displayed photos of her daughter on the screen, Boylan bowed her head. He called for the maximum sentence of 10 years for Boylan, even though “10 years is nothing for him,” adding: “He is not a victim.”
During the trial, families gave graphic testimony about attempting to retrieve bodies from the burned boat 56 feet below the surface. They watched a 24-second video, found on an iPhone recovered from the debris, recording the victims’ last moments alive.
on tape, voices can be heard saying, “There has to be a way!” and “There should be more sprinklers!” and “We’re gonna die…!”
Boylan did not testify and has remained free since his conviction. Prosecutors said he was guilty of manslaughter if his negligence caused even one of the 34 deaths.
Boylan’s lawyers and his supporters appealed for leniency before sentencing.
Defense lawyer Georgina Wakefield said, “There is no way to undo this tragedy.” “Mr. Boylan is not a bad man. He wishes every day he could go back in time and change what happened. … I have never represented anyone who was so grieving.”
Defense attorneys argued that none of the Truth Aquatics boats, nor any other boats in Santa Barbara waters, used rotating night monitors at the time, and “punishing him for the failures of the entire industry.” It was inappropriate.”
Attorneys argued that giving Boylan a stiff prison sentence would not help prevent further such disasters, as the dive boat industry had already implemented safety improvements as a result of the Conception fire.
Defense attorneys asked the judge to sentence Boylan to home arrest and community service, describing him as a man with “almost no family” whose “job was his life.” According to a pre-sentencing defense memorandum, he was now an isolated 70-year-old man who sleeps an hour and a half most nights, rarely leaves the house and “wracked with pain and guilt in the years following the accident.” Has become crippled”.
The memo says Boylan, who was earning a salary of about $44,000 after working as a boat captain for decades, now survives on Social Security and can’t make payments on the trailer where he lives.
Baron Kelly, who served on Boylan’s crew and considered him a guru in seamanship, described him as “the most conservative” of the Truth Aquatics captains, a captain who taught his crew how to deal with dive-related emergencies. Trained for.
“I have spoken to Jerry several times since the accident and his grief is immense,” Kelly wrote in a letter to the judge. “At one point he told me he was sleeping in his living room because his bedroom didn’t have enough emergency exits. Within a few days, when I would contact him, he would be so overcome with grief that he would not be able to say anything.”
One of Boylan’s former crew members, Shannon Johnson, described him as “one of the company’s most reliable and responsible captains.”
“Jerry is a good guy. He did his best and then some,” Johnson wrote the judge. “Yet that night the recklessness was believing that what had been safe and successful for 30 years suddenly wasn’t.”
