After five days of testimony in a Naval Base San Diego courtroom, prosecutors rested their case Friday
Navy prosecutors rested their case Friday against the 21-year-old sailor accused of starting the devastating fire on the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, just 1,000 feet from where the $1.2 billion warship burned more than two years ago.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenji Velasco, who was also a deck seaman at the time, is the only witness placing Mays at the scene near when investigators say the fire began. He said he saw a person he believes to be Mays, wearing a face mask, hat and “boot camp” coveralls. Velasco said the person was the same build as Mays and that Mays stood out among Deck Department sailors for wearing that type of coverall, as most wore a different, flame-resistant coverall uniform on board.
Later on the day after the fire, Velasco said, he told Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Matthew Betz about the person he saw the morning of the fire going into the lower V. Velasco said Betz told him Mays wore boot camp coveralls upon hearing that detail.Investigators interviewed Velasco several times after the fire. However, he did not give them Mays’ name at first and initially told agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service he could not identify the sailor he saw.
Prosecutors allege this was Mays’ motive in starting the fire — that he hated being a deck seaman on a ship and was looking for a way back to BUD/S.
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