KETCHIKAN -- The trial of a 33-year-old Ketchikan commercial fisherman charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide has begun in Ketchikan.
Joshua Wodyga is charged in the death on Oct. 8, 2013, of 32-year-old Levi Adams, of Leawood, Kansas, a diver attempting to harvest sea cucumbers.
An air compressor supplying air to breathing hoses used by Adams and another diver malfunctioned and both were injured. The other diver was resuscitated.
Prosecutors charged Wodyga after concluding the air compressor on Wodyga's boat was marked as not for human use. They also said Wodyga had not properly maintained the air compressor.
A defense attorney at Wodyga's arraignment said the Coast Guard had concluded the death was accidental.