Fate of men accused in 36 deaths in jury’s hands
A jury of nine women and three men on Wednesday began weighing three months of testimony, evidence and arguments in the Ghost Ship criminal trial, and they must now decide whether two men should be held responsible for the 36 lives lost in a horrific Oakland warehouse fire.
Deliberations started shortly after the prosecution’s final remarks in an Alameda County courtroom, where families of the victims wept as Autrey James displayed photos of their sons and daughters one last time before the case was handed to jurors.
“If this place was safe, why aren’t those 36 people here with us today?” James said, turning to the photos. “Because it was a death trap to 36 people.”
Derick Almena, 49, and Max Harris, 29, are each charged with three dozen counts of involuntary manslaughter, and each faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted. Almena, the master tenant of the Ghost
Ship warehouse and artists’ collective, is accused of illegally converting a storage area to living quarters, as well as ignoring fire codes and warnings that the space was hazardous. Harris, a tenant prosecutors describe as Almena’s righthand man, is accused of helping to plan a Dec. 2, 2016, electronic music party in the warehouse in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Together, prosecutors alleged, the two men knowingly packed dozens of people into a tinderbox.
Jurors started deliberations Wednesday afternoon, and the earliest a verdict can be returned is Thursday morning.
James used his final comments to poke holes in the defense’s closing arguments from Tuesday, at times with a style uncharacteristically theatrical for the normally composed prosecutor.
At one point, James asked jurors to review evidence backing the defense’s theory that arsonists ignited the blaze. He then displayed a blank screen.
James also replayed a clip of Almena speaking to a local television reporter prior to the trial, offering Almena’s own words as testimony against the defendant.
In the video, Almena tells the reporter that the whole structure of his defense is pointing the finger and blaming others. “But it doesn’t discount the fact that I was there,” he said.
Almena’s lead defense attorney, Tony Serra, addressed reporters Wednesday and took aim at James’ attempt to appeal to jurors’ emotions.
“This emotional tirade is the last refuge of a dying cause,” Serra said, adding that it was meant to inflame the jury.
Tyler Smith, an attorney for Harris, also took issue with the blank screen and said the jury heard multiple witnesses testify about the possibility of arson.
“The jury all saw it,” Smith said.
Colleen Dolan, the mother of victim Chelsea Faith Dolan, said the victims’ families have no idea what jurors will do.
“What I do have is a renewed sense of faith in the process, watching those jurors taking notes and paying attention,” she said. “I trust they will take everything into consideration.”
One of the defense team’s core strategies has been pointing out the many police, fire and childservices officials who toured the facility and failed to redtag it or express concerns about safety hazards to the tenants. Almena said he took these visits as an implicit stamp of approval.
James said this was simply a tactic of passing blame. “This whole thing, ‘I relied on the government,’ no, no, no, no. Cast that aside, ladies and gentlemen.”
The defendants can be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter only if jurors find that the pair exhibited criminal negligence, and that a reasonable person would have known these actions could cause great bodily injury or death.
In their closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorneys Serra and Curtis Briggs, who represents Harris, said their clients were scapegoats for a city potentially staring down millions of dollars in damages in the Ghost Ship civil suit.
Briggs pointed out that several police and fire officials testified that they saw no cause for concern in the warehouse, and these individuals were clearly better trained to spot hazards than the artists.
Defense attorneys had also introduced witnesses who suggested the blaze might have been ignited by arsonists. Witness Sharon Evans told jurors she ran into a group of men celebrating the fire while it was still tearing through the building.
Prosecutors dismissed this suggestion, and throughout the trial they argued that the space was a death trap crammed with motor homes, antiques and artwork, where rooms were partitioned with flammable materials like tapestries, pianos and old windows. A makeshift staircase fashioned out of old wood and pallets made up the main entrance to the second floor, where partygoers formed a bottleneck as they attempted to flee the flames.
Additionally, few safety features were installed. Witnesses in the trial testified that there were no sprinklers, no smoke or fire alarms, and no exit signs. The fire extinguishers inside the warehouse proved futile.
Survivors testified that mere seconds passed from the time they noticed smoke until flames were ripping through the space. Many narrowly survived, choking as they fled through black smoke and darkness in search of a single exit.