A federal judge on Thursday 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.
The Sept. 2, 2019, blaze was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several ongoing lawsuits.
Captain Jerry Boylan 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.
Family members pleaded with Judge George Wu to give Boylan the maximum 10-year sentence in an impassioned hearing. Many cried, and Robert Kurtz, father of the sole deckhand killed, Alexandra Kurtz, brought a small container with him up to the lectern to address Boylan and the court.
"This is all I have of my daughter," he said.
Yadira Alvarez is the mother of 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, who volunteered at an animal shelter and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, and was the youngest of the 34 victims killed on the boat.
"He's not a victim. He is responsible for my daughter not being here," Alvarez said, while sobbing in court. "Can you imagine my pain?"
During the hearing, Boylan's attorney read a statement aloud 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 behaviour was reckless, the guidelines for sentencing would not warrant a 10-year sentence.
"This is not a situation where the defendant intended to do something bad," Wu said.
The defence had asked the judge to sentence Boylan to 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 a vengeful person but he and other family members don't want something like this to ever happen again.
"We all have a life sentence," he told the court. "We are having a life sentence without these people that we love."
The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles (40 kilometres) 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 metres) 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.
"While today's sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
Thursday's sentencing was the final step in a fraught prosecution that's lasted nearly five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims' families.
A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seaman's manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars. Boylan's attorneys argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.
In 2022, U.S. District Judge George Wu dismissed the superseding indictment, saying it failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence. Prosecutors were then forced to go before a grand jury again.
Although the exact cause of the blaze aboard the Conception remains undetermined, the prosecutors and defence sought to assign blame throughout the 10-day trial last year.
The government said Boylan failed to post the required roving night watch and never properly trained his crew in firefighting. The lack of the roving watch meant the fire was able to spread undetected across the 75-foot (23-metre) boat.
But Boylan's attorneys sought to pin blame on Glen Fritzler, who with his wife owns Truth Aquatics Inc., which operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats, often around the Channel Islands. 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 who worked for him posted a roving watch.
The Fritzlers have not spoken publicly about the tragedy since an interview with a local TV station a few days after the fire. Their attorneys have never responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
With the conclusion of the criminal case, attention now turns to several ongoing lawsuits.
Three days after the fire, Truth Aquatics filed suit 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 manoeuvre has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers to show they were not at fault.
That case is pending, as well as others filed by victims' families against the Coast Guard for what they allege was lax enforcement of the roving watch requirement.
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."
Devastating winds are expected along portions of Florida's west coast within the hurricane warning area, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states.
A Turkish Airlines jetliner headed from Seattle to Istanbul made an emergency landing in New York on Wednesday after the captain died on board, an airline official said.
Hundreds of thousands of vehicles are being recalled in Canada due to a steering-related issue that could increase a driver's risk of crash.
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois says his party 'might play a role' in helping the Liberals get House of Commons business rolling again — after days of Conservative-led debate on a privilege matter — but that his assistance would come at a cost.
Dozens of cars were pulled out of the Detroit River in west Windsor on Tuesday, causing many questions for Windsorites.
A Claude Monet pastel painting stolen by Nazis during World War II, which vanished for decades only to show up with a Louisiana art dealer, was returned Wednesday in New Orleans to the descendants of its original owners.
Two Orange County women are speaking out after they say they were kicked off of a Spirit Airlines flight because of what they were wearing.
A 42-year-old Winnipeg man has been charged with human smuggling following an investigation near a Canada-U.S. border crossing in Manitoba.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump had sent COVID tests to Russia but it denied reports that Trump had spoken at all to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office.
American actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo is weighing in on British Columbia politics, lauding the B.C. Green Party's stance on fossil fuels ahead of the Oct. 19 election.
A B.C. woman who was recorded praising Hamas as 'heroic and brave' can return to protest rallies, authorities confirmed this week.
Saskatchewan's highest court has granted Dillon Whitehawk an appeal and a new trial has been ordered for the 2019 deaths of Jordan Denton and Keenan Toto.
A 42-year-old Winnipeg man has been charged with human smuggling following an investigation near a Canada-U.S. border crossing in Manitoba.
A Winnipeg landlord is facing $9,000 in penalties following a mass eviction at a Winnipeg apartment block this summer.
Liberal MP Yvan Baker says there should not have been different punishments doled out to him and to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for comments each of them made in the House of Commons.
Tropical storm-force winds have begun lashing the western coast of Florida as Hurricane Milton draws closer, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory Wednesday.
Ratan Tata, a former chairman of India’s oldest conglomerate Tata Sons, died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday night. He was 86.
Sheriff's deputies in Washington's Kitsap County frequently get calls about animals -- loose livestock, problem dogs. But the 911 call they received recently from a woman being hounded by dozens of raccoons swarming her home near Poulsbo stood out.
An Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese Civil Defence centre Wednesday in the town of Dardghaya in southern Lebanon, killing five members who were stationed there, civil defence spokesperson Elie Khairallah told The Associated Press.
Two Orange County women are speaking out after they say they were kicked off of a Spirit Airlines flight because of what they were wearing.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump had sent COVID tests to Russia but it denied reports that Trump had spoken at all to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office.
Canada is adding another $15 million to its humanitarian aid package for Lebanon after an escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois says his party 'might play a role' in helping the Liberals get House of Commons business rolling again — after days of Conservative-led debate on a privilege matter — but that his assistance would come at a cost.
The national security and intelligence adviser is rejecting the notion there are traitors in the House of Commons, despite an eyebrow-raising report from a spy watchdog that flagged questions about politicians' loyalties.
COVID-19 could be a powerful risk factor for heart attacks and strokes for as long as three years after an infection, a large new study suggests.
The Ontario Ministry of Health says four people have been sickened after consuming beef tongue believed to be contaminated with listeria.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for women in the United States, with 42,000 women dying every year from this cancer.
As if the largest bug to ever live – a monster nearly nine feet long with as many as 64 legs – wasn’t terrifying enough, scientists could only just imagine what the extinct beast’s head looked like.
A severe solar storm is headed to Earth that could stress power grids even more as the U.S. deals with major back-to-back hurricanes, space weather forecasters said Wednesday.
The research that won Geoffrey Hinton a Nobel Prize for physics was the product of plenty of work carried out before artificial intelligence was the buzzword it is today.
Boy band legend Nick Carter made a stop at a local salon on Tuesday to get his hair performance ready.
In "From Here to the Great Unknown," a new memoir by the late Presley, finished by her daughter, Riley Keough, the pair write that Presley kept her son "in the house with us instead of keeping him at the morgue."
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs wants to go to trial on sex trafficking charges next spring, lawyers for the jailed hip-hop mogul told a judge on Wednesday.
Siskinds LLP says a $70.25 million class-action settlement has been reached with TD Asset Management over commissions paid to discount brokers.
A new report says growth in average asking rents across Canada last month slowed to the lowest rate since October 2021, at 2.1 per cent year-over-year.
A new report says condo inventory is on the rise in most major Canadian markets as more sellers are listing their properties in anticipation of growing demand from buyers.
While there's debate among experts about the stages of grief, 'people who are in the pain of grief are just saying, ‘Help me,'' death and grieving expert David Kessler said. Here's what the five stages of grief are, and how you can consider and process them in whichever order you experience them.
An elevator mechanic mistakenly threw out a piece of artwork, made to look like empty beer cans, assuming it was litter, a Dutch museum revealed earlier this month.
Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.
Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz will get the start in place of injured Joseph Woll when the Maple Leafs visit the Montreal Canadiens to open their NHL season on Wednesday night.
Scottie Barnes will return to the Toronto Raptors lineup on Friday.
Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Dozens of cars were pulled out of the Detroit River in west Windsor on Tuesday, causing many questions for Windsorites.
Hundreds of thousands of vehicles are being recalled in Canada due to a steering-related issue that could increase a driver's risk of crash.
Mercedes-Benz has partnered up with the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) and the provincial government to launch a new “incubator program”. One of the first three locations is Windsor, with the other two going to Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo.
Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.
A B.C. couple is getting desperate – and creative – in their search for their missing dog.
Videos of a meteor streaking across the skies of southern Ontario have surfaced and small bits of the outer space rock may have made it to land, one astronomy professor says.
A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.
Bernie Hicks, known as the ‘Batman of Amherst,’ always wanted to sit in a Batmobile until a kind stranger made it happen.
Bubi’s Awesome Eats, located on University Ave West took to social media to announce the closure on Friday.
Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.
Manitobans are in cleanup mode after intense winds barreled through southern parts of the province this weekend.
During the campaign, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad has repeatedly said people are "dying on the streets" in the province – and on Tuesday he claimed to have witnessed that very thing in downtown Vancouver while he was on his way to the leaders' debate.
American actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo is weighing in on British Columbia politics, lauding the B.C. Green Party's stance on fossil fuels ahead of the Oct. 19 election.
British Columbia New Democrat Leader David Eby says he was "wired" and had trouble falling asleep after the televised election debate, adding that he would see his performance as successful if those watching at home felt he was focused on their priorities.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is expressing regret for not attending a massive vigil held earlier this week where the city’s Jewish community commemorated one year since the October 7 terrorist attack. But her explanation isn’t adding up, event organizers say.
A woman is in critical and life-threatening condition after being struck by a bus in Toronto’s east end Wednesday afternoon.
Hurricane Milton is about to hit Florida and Toronto Pearson International Airport says several flights to the state have been cancelled as a result.
Calgary police are appealing to the public for help as they work to identify a suspect accused of stalking and harassing the residents of two Cranston homes.
A new art exhibit at The Confluence is giving a digital twist to a showcase of the work of Indigenous artists.
A Lethbridge man who discovered he won $500,000 in a Lotto Max draw knows how it feels to be a big winner, because it’s his second time getting lotto lucky.
The City of Cornwall says it has “parted ways” with Mathieu Fleury as the city's chief administrative officer, though the details of his departure are unclear.
As the LRT's new north-south line prepares to open, many Barrhaven transit users will still have to use buses and transfer to commute downtown.
As one of the most powerful hurricanes threatens to make landfall in Tampa Bay, residents brace for the impact.
Three young people aged 17, 19 and 20 were arrested after shots were fired late on Tuesday near Old Montreal.
Canada's official languages commissioner is expressing concern over Quebec's decision to cap the number of students who can enrol in the province's English-language junior colleges.
The Legault government has officially entrusted the Caisse de dépôt et placement with the design and construction of phase one of the Quebec City tramway project.
On Wednesday, Edmonton police posted video of a large encampment found excavated under the High Level Bridge in August.
Jennifer Johnson, Lacombe-Ponoka legislature member, has been welcomed back into the United Conservative Party (UCP).
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has cleared several Mounties who shot at and killed a man in northern Alberta in 2021.
Premier Tim Houston said he was notified on Monday morning that funds had been allegedly stolen from the Pictou East Riding Association.
Former CTV Atlantic employee Eric Bungay who now works for a CBS affiliate in Tampa Bay is bracing for Hurricane Milton's arrival.
Devastating winds are expected along portions of Florida's west coast within the hurricane warning area, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states.
A 42-year-old Winnipeg man has been charged with human smuggling following an investigation near a Canada-U.S. border crossing in Manitoba.
A bill restricting the sale of long-bladed weapons was introduced in Manitoba Wednesday by Justice Minister Matt Wiebe.
A Winnipeg landlord is facing $9,000 in penalties following a mass eviction at a Winnipeg apartment block this summer.
Saskatchewan's highest court has granted Dillon Whitehawk an appeal and a new trial has been ordered for the 2019 deaths of Jordan Denton and Keenan Toto.
The Saskatchewan New Democrats are touring the Parkland region, vowing to end rural emergency room disruptions if they form government this fall.
Those who are interested in running for mayor, city council or school board in Regina's upcoming civic election have until 4 p.m. this afternoon to submit their paperwork.
One person was struck by a GO train, near the Kitchener station, on Wednesday morning.
At around 3:30 p.m., emergency services and an Ornge air ambulance responded to a report of a three-vehicle crash at the intersection of Gore Road and Wellington Road 35.
According to police, staff had been watching a woman and three children – estimated to be between 10 and 15 years of age – as they made their way around the store placing more than $1,000 in product into a cart.
Dozens of people gathered at Saskatoon city hall Tuesday to voice their concerns about the growing issue of homelessness in our city, and to offer their own solutions.
Police are investigating three separate incidents involving assaults with a hammer and golf club on Tuesday night in Saskatoon.
The Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) is renewing public calls for help catching Timloh "Butchang" Nkem, a man deemed the city's most wanted man.
Devastating winds are expected along portions of Florida's west coast within the hurricane warning area, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states.
Hundreds of thousands of vehicles are being recalled in Canada due to a steering-related issue that could increase a driver's risk of crash.
An annual international mining conference is underway in Greater Sudbury, Ont., marking the first time the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Conference of Mining Regions and Cities has been held in North America.
This latest crash was the second fatal and third serious accident at this intersection in the past couple of months - when asked, locals said that the intersection is 'kind of blind.'
Sarnia police attended the scene of a vehicle collision at the intersection of George Street and Christina Street North Wednesday morning.
For more than 25 years, the Boys and Girls Club (BGC) of London has assisted thousands of people through the Koats for Kids campaign.
The jury reached a verdict on Wednesday in the 1994 Katherine Janeiro murder case, finding her former boyfriend, Bruce Ellis, not guilty.
Provincial police are investigating reports of an armed robbery in Amaranth Township that sent one person to the hospital in critical condition.
Residents in Barrie turned their eyes to the skies on Wednesday as the roar of two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets flew over the city.
Dozens of cars were pulled out of the Detroit River in west Windsor on Tuesday, causing many questions for Windsorites.
Former NHL goaltender, Corey Hirsch, has spoken to thousands of Canadians about his struggles with mental health.
The Windsor Police Service (WPS) has arrested one suspect in connection to a child exploitation investigation.
During the campaign, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad has repeatedly said people are "dying on the streets" in the province – and on Tuesday he claimed to have witnessed that very thing in downtown Vancouver while he was on his way to the leaders' debate.
American actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo is weighing in on British Columbia politics, lauding the B.C. Green Party's stance on fossil fuels ahead of the Oct. 19 election.
British Columbia New Democrat Leader David Eby says he was "wired" and had trouble falling asleep after the televised election debate, adding that he would see his performance as successful if those watching at home felt he was focused on their priorities.
A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.
Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.
NDP Leader David Eby is promising to offer a $75-million loan forgiveness program to entice doctors, nurses and heath professionals to expand health-care services in rural British Columbia.
Alberta's police watchdog says the Medicine Hat police officers who were involved in an in-custody death in August 2023 acted reasonably and with appropriate force in dealing with a suspect armed with a machete.
Charges have been laid against a 44-year-old man following a traffic stop in Brocket, Piikani Nation RCMP said Tuesday.
A metal fabrication company west of Medicine Hat has been fined by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) following a workplace fatality in 2023.
An annual international mining conference is underway in Greater Sudbury, Ont., marking the first time the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Conference of Mining Regions and Cities has been held in North America.
Jeff Warner from Aidie Creek Gardens in the northern Ontario community of Englehart has a passion for growing big pumpkins and his effort is paying off in more ways than one.
A woman in Greater Sudbury, Ont., said "It doesn't get more Canadian than this" when she spotted a black bear dumpster diving at a Tim Hortons last month.
A Conservative MP from Newfoundland and Labrador says some small towns in his rural riding are overrun with crime, but police say they haven't received reports to that effect.
As millions in federal funding flow into a Labrador group whose claims of Inuit identity have been rejected by Indigenous organizations across Canada, a national Inuit leader worries the Liberal government is putting the rights of Indigenous Peoples at risk.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.
