A crewmember of the MSC Ravenna has pleaded guilty to stabbing and killing a crewmate while under way in the Pacific, in 2020.
To remind, in September 2020, the crew member allegedly used two knives to stab a crewmate on the MSC Ravenna while the vessel was en route to the Port of Los Angeles. The victim died from the stab wounds. Witnesses to the attack reported that the two men had an argument about crew change shortly before the incident.
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The investigators’ report stated that the victim was stabbed about 17 times, and he had defensive wounds on his hands. The attacker told investigators that the victim, believed to be the bosun, his supervisor, was following him around the ship, accessing his Facebook account and interfering with his phone calls.
Yesterday, the crewmember pleaded guilty to a federal charge that carries a potential life sentence. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he entered a plea to committing an act of violence against someone aboard a ship that is likely to endanger the vessel’s safe navigation. The sentence is scheduled for September 2022.
The crewmember was working on the MSC Ravenna on a two-week run from Shanghai to Los Angeles when he stabbed the man as the vessel was about 92 miles (148 kilometers) off the Southern California coast, according to his plea agreement. As informed, the ship’s captain, chief mate and chief engineer arrived and the captain finally convinced him to get off the victim, who died on the ship. The crewmember was arrested a week later when the ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles.
[he] admitted that he only stopped stabbing the victim when he became too tired to continue
…a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
