NORFOLK, Va. — A Navy chief was convicted of attempted espionage last week in a San Diego military court after he was accused of providing classified documents to a foreign contact while stationed in Norfolk and Japan.

Chief Fire Controlman Bryce S. Pedicini was found guilty of attempted espionage, failure to obey a lawful order and attempted violation of a lawful order, according to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The verdict was handed down Friday after a seven-day trial in a general court-martial.

Pedicini is facing up to life in prison and a dishonorable discharge, according to court documents. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 7.

“This guilty verdict holds Mr. Pedicini to account for his betrayal of his country and fellow service members,” Omar Lopez, director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said in a news release.

Pedicini was charged in February with one count of attempted espionage stemming from May 8-17, 2023, while he was stationed at or near Yokosuka, Japan, according to the charge sheet. Pedicini was assigned to the Japan-based guided missile destroyer USS Higgins in April 2023.

He had also faced seven counts of espionage that allegedly occurred at or near Hampton Roads between November 2022 and February 2023, according to a charge sheet signed Jan. 18 by the commander of the Naval Surface Force Pacific Fleet. At the time, Pedicini was assigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in Norfolk.

Investigators had also accused Pedicini of failing to report foreign contacts to his chain of command, failing to report solicitation of classified information, taking a personal device into a secure room and transporting classified information, according to the charge sheet.

Prosecutors argued in a March 15 motion that Pedicini was contacted on Oct. 24, 2022, through Facebook Messenger by someone claiming to be a defense researcher from a Japanese organization. They said the individual offered Pedicini money in exchange for information about U.S. military capabilities and strategies in a region that was redacted from the shared court document.

This kind of solicitation is a tactic used by foreign adversaries to obtain classified and unclassified national defense information, according to NCIS.

Pedicini was accused of sending seven documents to the individual between November 2022 and February 2023 while stationed in Norfolk, according to prosecutors. They said Pedicini, in Japan in May 2023, attempted to send photographs he accessed via a classified defense information systems network.

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