KETCHIKAN -- A commercial fisherman found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a Kansas diver who drowned while harvesting sea cucumbers was sentenced to three years in prison.
The Ketchikan Daily News reports a judge on Monday suspended two years of the sentence for 33-year-old Joshua Wodyga of Ketchikan. A jury in January convicted him on the lesser charge but found him not guilty of manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued that Wodyga's negligence in maintaining an air compressor and air filter led to the death of 32-year-old Levi Adams, of Leawood, Kansas. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning and drowning while he and Wodyga were diving in October 2013 in waters off Mountain Point.
Wodyga's public defender, Mark Osterman, said he plans to appeal the sentence.