Not-guilty pleas by Ghost Ship defendants
Two men charged in a deadly blaze that broke out during an underground music event at Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 36 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, paving the way for a preliminary hearing of the evidence in the case.
The defendants, Derick Almena, 47, and Max Harris, 27, briefly appeared in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland to enter their pleas. They remain in custody at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on $750,000 bond and face up to 39 years in prison each if convicted.
A preliminary hearing, in which a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to send the case to a jury trial, was set for Nov. 13.
Almena and Harris appeared in red jail-issued clothing before Judge Yolanda Northridge, as the small courtroom gallery filled with members of the victims’ families. Outside court, defense attorneys criticized the charges, casting blame on others for the Dec. 2 fire that left 36 people dead from smoke inhalation inside the live-work artist collective that was powered by extension cords and propane tanks.
The city hadn’t sanctioned the building on 31st Avenue in the Fruitvale neighborhood to be used as a residence, nor had it issued permits for the electronic music event. Almena was the master tenant and the visionary behind the jury-rigged artist space. His righthand man, Harris, was the Ghost Ship’s creative director for some two years before the catastrophic fire, and prepared the building for the event.
Prosecutors called the men’s actions before the fire “reckless.”
Defense lawyers have blamed the city of Oakland for its high rents, the Fire Department for its response to the blaze, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for its role in allowing the building to have electricity, among other claimed causes. On Wednesday, Harris’ attorneys attacked building owner Chor Ng, who was not charged in the fire, saying she “basically lined the Ghost Ship with highly flammable wood.”
Attorney Curtis Briggs said Ng “became a triple millionaire overnight over these deaths” for accepting a reported insurance settlement after the fire.
Ng’s daughter, Eva Ng, has said her mother was unaware that anyone was living in the warehouse.
“The prosecution has chosen to indict, and charge, two young men, who are artists, who are poor, who have no money,” Briggs said. “Trying to hang responsibility over what was a deficient structure — the owner’s responsibility — on Max Harris and Derick Almena, that’s unfair.”
Almena and Harris were arrested in June, capping a six-month investigation. Most of the victims were trapped among the ramshackle assembly of wood, tapestries and other flammable materials on the second floor, as flames and smoke engulfed the building.
Investigators have not determined a cause for the fire but have pointed to fire hazards, including a makeshift stairway made of wooden pallets leading to the second floor. Electricity was piped into the building through a single power source in a neighboring building that split into a tangled mess of serpentine wires.
While he prepared the warehouse for the Dec. 2 event, prosecutors said, Harris blocked off a second stairwell, leaving only one point of escape. Almena is accused with Harris of deceiving police and firefighters about the warehouse, where they allegedly did construction that was unpermitted and uninspected.
The district attorney’s office said actions by Almena and Harris created “a high risk of death.”