By STEFANIE DAZIO and AMY TAXIN (Associated Press)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge in Los Angeles has given a scuba dive boat captain a four-year prison term and three years of supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
The The blaze occurred on September 2, 2019. It was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history, leading to changes in maritime regulations, congressional reform, and several ongoing lawsuits.
Captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer last year. The charge is a pre-Civil War statute known as seaman’s manslaughter, designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.
Family members appealed to U.S. District Judge George Wu to give Boylan the maximum 10-year sentence in a passionate hearing. Many cried, and Robert Kurtz, the father of Alexandra Kurtz, the sole deckhand killed, brought a small container to address Boylan and the court.
“This is all I have of my daughter,” he said.
Yadira Alvarez, the mother of 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, who volunteered at an animal shelter and aspired to become a marine biologist, and was the youngest of the 34 victims killed on the boat, said while sobbing in court, “He’s not a victim. He is responsible for my daughter not being here. Can you imagine my pain?”
The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet (30 meters) from shore.
Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped in a bunkroom below deck. Among the dead were the deckhand who had landed her dream job; an environmental scientist who conducted research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting couple; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.
Boylan was the first to abandon ship and jump overboard. Four crew members who joined him also survived. During the hearing, Boylan’s attorney read a statement to the court in which he expressed his condolences and said he has cried every day since the fire.“I wish I could have brought everyone home safe,” the statement said. “I am so sorry.”
In determining a sentence, Wu said he took into account Boylan’s age, health, the unlikelihood of recurrence, and the need for deterrence and punishment.
He said while Boylan’s behavior was reckless, the sentencing guidelines would not warrant a 10-year sentence.
“This is not a situation where the defendant intended to do something bad,” Wu said.
The defense had requested the judge to give Boylan a five-year probationary sentence, with three years to be served under house arrest.
Boylan’s appeal is ongoing.
Hank Garcia, whose son Daniel was among the victims, said he is not seeking revenge but along with other family members, he does not want something like this to happen again.
He told the court that we are stuck with a life sentence because we are missing the people we love.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement that although today’s sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, they hope that their efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.
The sentencing on Thursday was the final step in a difficult prosecution that has lasted almost five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims’ families.
In 2020, a grand jury indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, which could have led to a total of 340 years in prison. However, Boylan’s attorneys argued that the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors obtained a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.
In 2022, Wu dismissed the superseding indictment, stating that it
failed to specify
that Boylan acted with gross negligence. Prosecutors were then required to
go before a grand jury again. Despite the exact cause of the blaze on the Conception not being determined, both the prosecutors and defense tried to assign blame throughout the 10-day trial last year. The government claimed that Boylan failed to fulfill the required roving night watch and never properly trained his crew in firefighting. The absence of the roving watch meant the fire was able to spread undetected across the 75-foot (23-meter) boat. However, Boylan’s attorneys tried to place blame on
Glen Fritzler
, who, along with his wife, owns Truth Aquatics Inc., the operator of the Conception and two other scuba dive boats. They argued that Fritzler was responsible for
failing to train the crew in firefighting and other safety measures, as well as creating a lax seafaring culture they called “the Fritzler way,” in which no captain working for him posted a roving watch.The Fritzlers have not publicly discussed the tragedy since an interview with a local TV station a few days after the fire. Their attorneys have not responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Now, with the conclusion of the criminal case, attention shifts to several ongoing lawsuits. Three days after the fire,
Truth Aquatics filed a lawsuit
under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the value of the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully used by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels and requires the Fritzlers to demonstrate they were not at fault.
That case is pending, along with others filed by victims’ families against the Coast Guard for what they claim was lax enforcement of the roving watch requirement. Following the sentencing on Thursday, Susana Solano, who lost three of her daughters and their father on the boat, said she and the other family members hoped the judge would listen to their pleas. “I’m extremely disappointed,” she said. “It’s just heartwrenching.”
A federal judge in Los Angeles has sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in prison and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel in 2019. The tragedy was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history. Captain Jerry Boylan was sentenced on Thursday. He was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year. The charge is a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seaman’s manslaughter. It was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters. Boylan’s appeal is ongoing.
After the sentencing Thursday, Susana Solano, who lost three of her daughters and their father on the boat, said she and the other family members hoped the judge would listen to their pleas.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” she said. “It’s just heartwrenching.”
