What’s next after Ghost Ship trial plea deals tossed
The surprise decision last week by an Alameda County judge to reject a plea agreement in the high-profile Ghost Ship case is unusual but unlikely to result in a trial, legal experts said Monday.
Superior Court Judge James Cramer startled an Oakland courtroom Friday by tossing the plea-agreed sentence for Derick Almena, master tenant of the warehouse where 36 people died in a 2016 fire, saying he wasn’t convinced of Almena’s remorse. Cramer said he thought the deal for co-defendant Max Harris, creative director of the artist collective, was appropriate, but because the plea bargains were made as a “package deal,” Harris’ was set aside, too.
The judge instructed the attorneys to move the case forward to trial, but experts said the chances of such a scenario remain slim.
“This is just a signal, frankly, to the lawyers to go back and renegotiate the deal,” said Rory Little, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. “You don’t want any trial if you can reach the same result without a trial . ... Probably, you will see the lawyers return to the court with a new deal, and you’ll see Almena say something more remorseful.”
Over a two-day sentencing hearing, several dozen friends and relatives of the victims packed the courtroom gallery. Parents brought portraits of their children, and others wore buttons and shirts emblazoned with the faces of victims. One by one at the lectern, they spoke about the last time they saw their loved ones alive and the devastation of their deaths.
“Nobody should go out like that,” said Alberto Vega, whose brother, Alex Vega, died in the fire. Every time he drives past a house with smoke coming from a chimney, Vega said he has to stop, wondering if the people inside need rescuing.
Many told Cramer they felt the plea deal was insufficient compared with the magnitude of the life lost. Some said they wanted a jury trial because it could shed light on new facts.
The plea bargain consisted of a six-year county jail sentence for Harris and nine years for Almena. Each had pleaded no contest to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for creating the dangerous conditions inside the warehouse. With time served and half-time credit for good conduct, Almena could have been released in 3½ years and Harris in under two years.
Judges cannot alter plea agreements made by attorneys and must accept or reject them wholesale. Robert Weisberg of Stanford Law School said the judge “has to leave them guessing about what he will decide.”
“There’s a little Kabuki theater going on here,” Weisberg said. “Everybody wants to hear from the judge, ‘What’s the deal you want and will agree to?’ ... But he can’t get involved in any specific deal. He’d be doing what’s forbidden by due process. He’d be plea-bargaining with the defendants.”
In the judge’s chambers, Cramer told the courtroom, he had questioned the attorneys on how they arrived at six and nine years. His superior, Presiding Judge Morris Jacobson, away on leave last week, had overseen the hearings that culminated in the plea agreement.
Curtis Briggs, an attorney for Harris, said he understood that the deal was never guaranteed.
“We knew when we came back and it was a different judge that we might have been starting over,” Briggs said.
Briggs said he hoped that the plea agreements could be disconnected and that Harris could still get his half of the bargain. He said the sentencing hearing was productive in that it “highlighted the differences” between Harris and Almena and showed the families Harris’ willingness to take responsibility for his actions.
In California, an involuntary-manslaughter charge can lead to a sentence of two to four years in jail. Multiple convictions can be served concurrently or in succession. In announcing the charges more than a year ago, District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said the defendants were facing up to 39 years in prison.
Cramer said the Ghost Ship is “unlike anything I or Alameda County have seen” and does not fit into the typical case analysis. He said he wrestled with his decision all week before making it official on Friday. In finding that Almena had yet to take full responsibility, Cramer relied on a lengthy essay that Almena had submitted to a probation officer in which he called himself a victim and blamed others for the Dec. 2, 2016, fire.
“I had pages and pages of excuses and explanations and apologies and proof and evidence, and it’s insignificant now,” Almena told families from the witness stand. “I’m sorry . ... I should have died that night.”
In addition to weighing the expression of remorse, Cramer was required by law to take into account statements of the victims’ families, Little said. The judge made clear he was moved by those.
In advocating for the families, Deputy District Attorney Autrey James on Friday appeared to dampen enthusiasm for the plea agreement that he and his office had devised.
“Every one of them believed this deal — this amount of time — is not enough,” James told Cramer after talking to the families during a lunch break. “They do not believe that this negotiated disposition is enough.”
Some friends and relatives expressed frustration with not only the plea deal, but also the absence of criminal charges for the property owner, Chor Ng, or any government official.
Little said that seems to be a big problem hanging over the case. Even though the landlord could have a defense of ignorance, and city employees good-faith immunity, Little said, such cases wouldn’t be impossible to prove.
“It’s not just these two guys at the scene who are easy targets,” he said. “It’s a sad example of the entire system breaking down, and we’re determined to hold someone accountable and get a pound of flesh.”