Defense rests in Rittenhouse trial; closing arguments Monday

KENOSHA, Wis. — The defense rested its case Thursday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, setting the stage for closing arguments Monday in the shootings that left Americans divided over whether he was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.

Rittenhouse’s lawyers put on about 2 1/2 days of testimony to the prosecution’s five, with the most riveting moment coming when the 18-year-old took the stand to say he was defending himself from attack and had no choice when he used his rifle to kill two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020.

Prosecutors have sought to portray Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, which took place during a tumultuous night of protests against racial injustice.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him. Prosecutors said they will ask Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to allow the jury to consider possible lesser charges.

The protests in Kenosha were set off by the wounding of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Rittenhouse, then 17, went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Ill., with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.

At one point Wednesday, his lawyers angrily demanded the judge declare mistrial and bar Rittenhouse from being retried — essentially asking that the whole case be thrown out. They accused the chief prosecutor of asking Rittenhouse out-of-bounds questions. The judge lambasted the prosecutor but pressed on with the case.