Plea deals ruled out in deadly 2016 fire
SAN FRANCISCO — A Northern California district attorney has reversed course and says she will no longer consider plea deals to resolve the only criminal case filed in a 2016 warehouse fire that killed 36 people, according to a court document.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley informed the judge presiding over the case that she now wants the two men charged in the case to face trial as soon as possible.
Derick Almena and Max Harris are scheduled to appear in court today for the first time since Judge James Cramer rejected a plea deal negotiated by O’Malley’s office and their attorneys. Each is charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The negotiated settlement, brokered by another judge who accepted the men’s no-contest pleas in July, called for Almena to accept a nine-year prison sentence and Harris to receive a six-year term. Both men likely would have been released after serving half their terms with time off for good behavior.
Both men have been in jail since June 2017. Under terms of the deal, it was likely that Almena would have been released from prison by late 2022 or early 2023. Harris would have probably been released in 2021.
But Cramer last Friday rejected the plea deal after listening to grieving relatives of victims testify for two days about their losses and their unhappiness with the proposed sentences. Cramer also said Almena failed to adequately express remorse.