Attorneys battled on Monday over US Navy Seaman Apprentice Ryan Sawyer Mays and the role he allegedly played in the 2020 burning of the USS Bonhomme Richard.
The sailor is currently undergoing an Article 32 hearing, which is a preliminary hearing in the US military justice system. If he is convicted, he could be subject to court martial and face up to life in prison or even the death penalty.
Mr Mays's defence team maintains that the sailor had nothing to do with the blaze, and pointed to the lack of physical evidence connecting him to the fire as proof.
The prosecutors painted a different picture of Mr Mays; a "disgruntled" young sailor who left SEAL training after five days and was reassigned with a chip on his shoulder and a disdain for authority.
Prosecutors alleged that Mr Mays lied to his family and friends about his SEAL training, and that he developed a deep resentment for the Navy after he was reassigned to deck work - cleaning duties - on the USS Richard Bonhomme.
Mr Mays has denied any involvement in the fire, and his defence team pushed back against the allegations that he hated the Navy any more than any other sailor who was told to clean decks.
The fire burned for nearly five days, becoming the worst non-combat blaze on a Navy warship in the modern era. The ship was undergoing a $250m upgrade at the shipyards in San Diego, California when the fire broke out, scattering the 160 sailors and officers who were working on the ship at the time.
More than 60 sailors and civilians suffered minor injuries as well as heat exhaustion and complications from smoke inhalation. The damage was so extensive that the Navy eventually decided to scrap the ship.
Investigators found that five fire stations on the ship had been tampered with prior to the fire, according to court documents. The ATF, which investigated the claims, determined that the fire began in a section of the ship known as Lower V. They discovered a container which had held a petroleum distillate, which is believed to have been used to start the fire.
Officials within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service began looking into sailors with connections to Lower V, which led them to Mr Mays.
Prosecutors showed an Instagram post made by Mr Mays about a month before the fire showing him standing shirtless inside a Navy vessel, along with the caption "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning," a reference to Francis Ford Coppola's film about the Vietnam War, Apocalypse Now.
Another sailor, Seaman Kenji Velasco, also told NCIS agents that he had seen another sailor wearing a mask and carrying a bucket down to Lower V just before the fire. Mr Velasco reportedly told investigators he believed the masked sailor was Mr Mays.
Mr Mays was charged with aggravated arson and the wilful hazarding of a vessel.
Mr Mays’ defence attorney, Gary Barthel, argued that there was insufficient DNA evidence to link Mr Mays to the fire, claiming his client was targeted by prosecutors because he owned a lighter.
"Were there other individuals on the ship with lighters?" he asked rhetorically.
Mr Mays denies his involvement, claiming he was in the hangar bay when he learned the fire had broken out. He also recounted helping firefighters battle the fire.
Navy prosecutors pushed back on the argument, claiming they had amassed some 28,000 pages of materials and hours of video to back their case against Mr Mays.
