MA skipper pleads guilty in boat crash

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) - A Gloucester power boat operator has pleaded guilty to negligent operation of a vessel in a 2008 boat crash that killed a Dartmouth sailor.

Fred Bevins entered his plea Thursday to New Bedford District Judge Thomas Kirkman and was given a one-year suspended sentence and 10 years probation.

Prosecutors have said the 61-year-old Bevins was skippering a 63-foot power boat that struck a 35-foot-sailboat on Buzzards Bay last July, killing David Walsh of Dartmouth. Walsh's sailing partner was hurt.

Bevins has said he was resetting his global positioning system just before the crash. But investigators determined that Walsh's boat had the right of way under international navigation rules.