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A jury in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, has found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts in the shooting deaths of two men and the injuring of another during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake last summer.
“We’re very happy with the verdict,” lead defense attorney Mark Richards said Friday afternoon. “We’re happy the jury took the time (and) put in an incredible amount of effort.”
The jury deliberated for about three and a half days after receiving the case Tuesday morning. Both the prosecution and defense spent several hours Monday laying out their closing arguments.
Prosecutors argued Rittenhouse was the one to provoke the violence that night by bringing his AR-15 and pointing it at other people. Rittenhouse testified on the witness stand during the trial that he feared for his life and was acting in self-defense when he killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz.
Rittenhouse claimed in his testimony that Rosenbaum tried to grab the gun from him, that Huber hit him with a skateboard, and that Grosskreutz had a gun of his own.
“Mr. Rosenbaum was shot because he was chasing my client and going to kill him, take his gun and carry out the threats he made,” Richards argued for the defense during the trial.
“Every person who was shot was attacking Kyle,” Richards also argued. “One with a skateboard, one with his hands, and one with his feet, one with a gun. Hands and feet can cause great bodily harm.”
“You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one who brought the gun, when you are the one creating the danger, when you’re the one provoking other people,” prosecutor Thomas Binger said during his closing argument.
The defense made several motions for a mistrial before the verdict, including some “with prejudice,” meaning Rittenhouse could not be retried. Another motion for a mistrial made Wednesday afternoon was without prejudice, meaning Rittenhouse could be put on trial again.
The mistrial motions became moot when the not guilty verdict came in, and the court accepted the jury’s verdict with prejudice, meaning he can not be tried again.
