Max Harris found not guilty, hung jury on charges against Derick Almena for deadly warehouse fire

UPDATE 9/5/2019 2:50 p.m. After deliberating for weeks, on Thursday a jury found creative director Max Harris not guilty and the jury was hung on charges against master tenant Derick Almena in connection to the 2016 Oakland Ghost Ship fire.

The jury began deliberating on July 31, but three jurors were dismissed for alleged misconduct on Aug, 19. They were replaced with alternates and the panel had to deliberate from scratch.

The Trial began on April 30. Alameda County prosecutors said Almena and Harris were criminally liable for a fire in the “Ghost Ship” warehouse during a party on Dec. 2, 2016. Prosecutors presented evidence that the victims were trapped on the second floor and unable to escape because the warehouse did not have fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and exit signs.

PREVIOUS STORY: A jury has decided the fate of two men charged with involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors say they turned a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse into a cluttered maze that trapped 36 partygoers during a fast-moving fire.

The verdicts for Derick Almena and Max Harris will be announced Thursday afternoon after a three-month trial that drew family and friends of the victims to a packed courtroom, said Almena’s attorney, Brian Getz. They face up to 39 years in prison if convicted.

The Dec. 2, 2016, fire broke out during an electronic music party at a warehouse in Oakland called the Ghost Ship. The building was packed with furniture, extension cords and other flammable material but had only two exits and no smoke detectors, fire alarms or sprinklers, prosecutors say.

The blaze killed 36, many of them young people trapped on the building’s illegally constructed second floor. Prosecutors said the victims received no warning and had little chance to escape down a narrow, ramshackle staircase.

Setbacks have riddled the criminal case against Almena and Harris.

The men were set to be sentenced last year to nine and six years in prison, respectively, after pleading no contest to manslaughter. But a judge threw out their pleas after many of the victims’ families objected, saying the proposed sentences were too lenient.

Last month, Judge Trina Thompson booted three jurors for misconduct and ordered the new jury to restart deliberations and disregard all past discussions. She reminded them they cannot talk to others about the case or seek outside information about it. The new jury has been deliberating since Aug. 26.

In closing arguments, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Autrey James said the men didn’t obtain permits because they didn’t want inspections and they violated the fire code by refusing to install safety devices.

Almena, 49, was the master tenant and Harris, 29, acted like a manager by collecting rent and settling household disputes, the prosecutor said.

James told jurors that to find the men guilty of involuntary manslaughter, they must agree that their actions were criminally negligent. “Is failure to get a permit criminally negligent? Absolutely,” he said.

The defendants argued that city workers were to blame for not raising concerns about fire hazards and said the fire was arson. Investigators have never found what caused the fire, meaning arson cannot be ruled out.

Almena’s attorney, Tony Serra, repeatedly brought up instances in which fire, police and other officials toured the two-story building and never said anything about it posing a danger.

Almena cried on his first day on the witness stand, saying that he felt remorse and sorrow for having fostered a space for artists. He said he would never have let his wife and three children live somewhere considered unsafe.

“I built something. I dreamed something, I invited, I attracted beautiful people into my space, and I’m responsible for having this idea,” Almena said.

Harris’ attorney, Curtis Briggs, argued that his client had no leadership role at the warehouse and that he had not even been there when Almena signed the lease in 2013.

Harris testified that he performed menial tasks such as cleaning the communal space and pooling the monthly rent to reduce his rent. He described a free-floating space where every tenant built on or furnished the building as they saw fit and rejected prosecutors’ characterization that the warehouse was a “death trap.”

“I would have made sure my friends were not buried there,” Harris said.