California boat captain gets prison term for fire deaths of 34 people

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for his conviction on a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter. Jerry Boylan was found guilty by a U.S. District Court jury in November on a single count of "misconduct or neglect of a ship officer" under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents of the early 1800s.

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for his conviction on a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter.

Jerry Boylan was found guilty by a U.S. District Court jury in November on a single count of "misconduct or neglect of a ship officer" under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents of the early 1800s. The felony conviction, capping a 10-day trial, had carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, according to Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

Boylan was captain of the 75-foot dive boat Conception when the vessel went up in flames in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2019, while anchored in Platt's Harbor near Santa Cruz Island, off the Santa Barbara coast, during a sport diving trip.

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