Witness: Group of men ‘ecstatic’ about deadly fire
A witness in the Ghost Ship criminal trial told jurors Monday that she saw several men acting “ecstatic” and congratulating each other just minutes after the deadly Oakland warehouse fire had erupted nearby, providing testimony that defense attorneys see as crucial and that prosecutors had sought to block.
“The men dressed in black were reporting to each other how happy and glad they were about the fire, and how out of hand it had gotten,” Sharon Evans testified in Alameda County Superior Court. “I heard them repeat, ‘No one is going to make it out of the building alive.’ ”
Lawyers for two men charged in the case are seeking to show that arsonists may have started the Dec. 2, 2016, fire that killed 36 people during an electronic music show at an unlicensed livework space in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.
Federal investigators never settled on an official cause, but found no evidence of arson.
Prosecutors had attempted to block much of Evans’ testimony at a hearing Thursday, arguing that it amounted to inadmissible hearsay — a witness’ recounting of someone else’s words. And on Monday, the first day of defense witnesses after the prosecution rested was marked by prosecutors’ objections, many of them sustained by Judge Trina Thompson.
Defendants Derick Almena, 49, and Max Harris, 29, are each charged with three dozen counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count for each person killed in the fire. Almena was the master tenant and Harris the artistic director of the Ghost Ship.
Prosecutors have blamed the men for illegally converting the warehouse into an artists collective that housed as many as 25 people at the time of the blaze and was extremely fire-prone, with stacks of wood and a tangle of electrical cords. Only one victim who died in the fire was a resident of the warehouse, while the others were attending the unsanctioned event.
In addition to the arson theory, the defense has argued that officials failed in their duties to inspect the warehouse and report its hazards.
Evans was the second witness Monday, following Harris’ former mentor and adviser, Nita Sturiale, who spoke as a character witness.
On the night of the fire, Evans said, she and a friend named Diane were headed home from church when Evans wanted to stop for tacos. During the drive to the taco truck, Evans said, she noticed smoke and then fire coming from the Ghost Ship warehouse. She said she circled the block about 20 times and wondered why firefighters were taking so long to arrive.
One of the first responders provided a far different account earlier in the trial, saying the first firefighters to arrive were out their station door in 30 seconds and made it to the scene before a second call was relayed on their radios.
Evans told jurors she had gotten out of the car to walk toward a taco truck about two blocks west of the warehouse, near a Goodwill store, when about 14 to 19 men ran in front of her, happy and laughing.
Prosecutors successfully objected to Evans’ testimony on what the men specifically said. But Almena’s attorney Tony Serra asked if she heard something that shocked her, made her fear for retaliation or indicated to her that they were involved in setting the fire.
“I definitely felt that they were involved, because of what I heard,” Evans said.
Investigators have testified that they found no evidence that anyone intentionally ignited the fire.
Evans described the men she saw as “Spaniards” or “Chicanos” wearing black hoodies, and later clarified that she meant men of Mexican heritage.
During opening statements in the trial, defense attorneys offered a preview of Evans’ account by saying she had witnessed seven to 10 Latino men talking about setting the fire and heard one of them saying, “The way we put that wood in there, they’re never getting out.”
Evans did not testify, either last week or Monday, about hearing the men mention wood, but last week she said she heard the men talking about moving stairs or bleachers.
Prosecutor Casey Bates sought to challenge Evans’ credibility during cross-examination Monday, providing evidence that Evans had given conflicting statements to investigators for the district attorney’s office and in the Ghost Ship civil case regarding where she was going on the night of the fire and which church she had attended that evening.
Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday. A common theme in testimony from witnesses who made it out of the Ghost Ship fire was the lack of time to flee. Tenants and partygoers offered harrowing accounts of the fire’s speed and ferocity, recalling how the blaze needed just seconds to go from smoke to a full-blown inferno.