Nearly five years after 34 people died in a fire onboard his vessel, the Conception, off the California coast, the captain of a scuba diving boat received a four-year prison sentence for criminal negligence.
In 2023, a ship officer found Jerry Boylan guilty of seaman’s manslaughter for his part in the unintentional deaths of 33 passengers and one crew member.
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One of the deadliest marine incidents in recent US history is believed to have occurred.
His sailboat, the Conception, caught fire early on September 2, 2019, with 39 passengers on board, the majority of whom were sleeping below deck.
Prosecutors claim Boylan did not use the boat’s public address system to notify passengers of the fire or assist them in escaping, instead escaping alone with four staff members.
Prosecutors also said Boylan made no attempt to combat the fire with onboard extinguishers and was generally negligent in his duty as captain.
“The key issue here is the defendant’s duties as captain,” according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
According to CBS News, defense lawyers claimed Boylan stayed on board long enough to place a Mayday call to the US Coast Guard and only escaped the Conception when he was certain he would not live.
All six crew members were asleep at the time of the incident, forcing prosecutors to point out that Boylan failed to post a night watchman, allowing the fire to spread unnoticed throughout the vessel. Survivors claimed the boat’s smoke detectors never went off, according to court filings.
“The defendant has never apologized, much less taken any responsibility for the atrocity he caused,” the prosecution’s sentence documents state.
Rescue workers arrived an hour after the initial distress call, but they were unable to pinpoint the cause of the fire on the Conception. All 34 people had died.
Court documents suggested that lithium-ion batteries may have started the fire.
