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The great aunt of Anthony Huber, one of the men who was fatally shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, defended her nephew’s actions prior to his death.
According to a criminal complaint, Huber reached for Rittenhouse’s gun with his hand while holding the skateboard in the other.
“There were a couple of other people who did the same thing,” Hughes said. “Nobody was successful. He lost his life. I was asked the other day by one of the media people if I thought Anthony would do the same thing again. And I think he would.”
Some context: Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges.
Kyle Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richards told CNN that “Kyle said, if I had to do it all over again … I wouldn’t do it.”
When asked if Rittenhouse wished he had not gone out that night and if he thinks he did anything wrong, Richards said, “Kyle said, if I had to do it all over again and had any idea something like this could happen, I wouldn’t do it.”
“I want to be clear. That is not regret for what he did that night under those circumstances,” he added.
As for morally, he said, “He wishes he didn’t have to do it.”
After Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges, he said that he believed the jury reached the correct verdict.
Rittenhouse was riding in the back of a vehicle and appeared to be wearing the same outfit he had on when the verdict was read.
“It’s been a rough journey, but we made it through it. We made it to the hard part,” he said.
Mark Richards, an attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, said Friday that he did not approve the Fox film crew that was embedded with the defense team during the trial.
“But the people who were raising the money to pay for the experts and to pay for the attorneys were trying to raise money,” Richards added. “I don’t want to say an evil, but a definite distraction was part of it. And I didn’t approve of it. But I’m not always the boss.”
Some context: Washington Post media reporter Jeremy Barr tweeted a clip of what appears to be a special produced by Fox’s “Tucker Carson Originals.”
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told CNN Friday that the not guilty verdict handed down in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and shot another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was “deeply troubling” and “very scary” for Arbery’s family as closing statements are expected Monday in the trial of three white men charged in Arbery’s killing.
Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges.
Merritt said the US justice system historically doesn’t work well when the assailants are white.
“There’s a long history of racism that exists within our courts. It’s a reality,” Merritt said, “It’s a statistical reality that we see playing itself out.”
Some context: Attorneys in the Arbery murder trial are expected to begin closing arguments Monday after 10 days of court proceedings and testimony from more than 20 witnesses and investigators.
The defense rested its case Thursday, and lawyers and the judge were working in court Friday on what instructions to give to the jury.
Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and shot another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges.
Jury verdict sheets from the trial appear to give some insight into the jury’s process of deliberation.
The sheets were filed with the Kenosha County Clerk of the Circuit Court. They show that the presiding juror in the case signed only two of the five “not guilty” verdicts today. The other three “not guilty” verdict sheets were dated Wednesday and Thursday.
Juror 54, the presiding juror in the case, signed the “not guilty” verdict sheets for counts 1 and 2 today. Rittenhouse faced a charge of first-degree reckless homicide for fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum in count 1. Count 2 stated that Rittenhouse recklessly endangered the safety of Richard McGinnis, who was near Rittenhouse during the first shooting.
The presiding juror in the case, signed the “not guilty” verdict sheet for count 5, on Thursday. Rittenhouse was charged in count 5 with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for shooting Gaige Grosskreutz.
Juror 54 signed the “not guilty” verdict sheets for counts 3 and 4 on Wednesday. Count 4, the most severe charge Rittenhouse faced, was first-degree intentional homicide for the fatal shooting of Anthony Huber. Rittenhouse was charged in count 3 with first-degree recklessly endangering the safety of an unknown man.
The 12-person jury deliberated for more than 25 hours over the course of four days.
Following the verdict in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake, said, “What was done today was heinous.”
Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and shot another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges.
Blake also discussed his nephew’s case, saying he demands the case be reopened.
Remember: A White officer shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, seven times while responding to a domestic incident on Aug. 23, 2020. Blake survived the shooting but was left paralyzed from the waist down.
His shooting sparked unrest in Kenosha.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal on all five counts sets a “dangerous precedent” that may embolden others, warned Jacob Blake’s family attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, responding to the verdict today.
LaMarr pointed to the shooting of Blake last summer, for which the White officer who shot him seven times in the back was never charged, saying the judicial system treats Black and White Americans differently.
“It’s important that we have clear standards in being able to hold individuals accountable for engaging and provoking situations,” he said. “I think that you don’t see the same thing occur when it’s African-Americans.”
“I mean, hey, I hate to make this about race. But it is about race,” he added.
The fiancée of Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men fatally shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, said, “I feel like in this case, the victims’ lives don’t matter.”
Anthony Huber’s girlfriend, Hannah Gittings, called the system “a failure” in remarks she made to the press following Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal on all charges.
Huber was one of the men fatally shot by Rittenhouse.
Some context: Huber, who was in the crowd of protesters with his girlfriend, was killed as Rittenhouse fled the scene of Joseph Rosenbaum’s shooting, according to the complaint.
Huber had turned 26 just four days earlier, according to an obituary.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s family spokesperson told CNN affiliate WBBM that the verdict in the trial was “expected,” adding that Rittenhouse and his family are in an undisclosed location.
Hancock also said he believed that “the jury was thoughtful and they understood the gravity of this decision.”
“Now, the goal is going to be to ensure Kyle’s safety as he moves on as a 18-year-old young man in college studying to be a nurse,” Hancock said. “Those are his plans moving forward.”
As for the Rittenhouse family, Hancock said, “They are doing well right now. they’re in an undisclosed location and they are, they are a family and everybody is just ecstatic.”
Asked about the call for protests following today’s verdict, Hancock said, “The family calls for calm. Calls for calm. I mean, this was not an injustice.”
“What I would say is, this is an inflection point, I think, for the country to look at the way things have been handled. Things have gone off the rails in relation to who Kyle is and why he was down here. It’s never been about politics. It’s not about race. This is about a young man who fled and felt as if his life was in danger and defended himself,” he added.
Kimberley Motley and Milo Schwab, attorneys for Gaige Grosskreutz and the estate of Joseph Rosenbaum, asked for “peace from everyone hurting” following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rosenbaum was killed and Grosskreutz was injured in the August 2020 shooting.
“Today we grieve for the families of those slain by Kyle Rittenhouse,” Motley and Schwab said in a statement.
Here’s the full statement:
Mark Richards, an attorney on Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense team, dismissed criticism over Judge Bruce Schroeder’s courtroom style, saying he believed the judge delivered a fair trial.
“I’ve never seen so much made of so little,” he said of criticism of Schroeder’s sometimes abrasive manner.
During the trial, Schroeder, who has a reputation as a tough jurist, had some heated exchanges with prosecutor Thomas Binger for his line of questioning as Rittenhouse testified.
Richards said that he had confidence in his self-defense case and believed that Schroeder had created an environment where his client could receive justice.
“I thought he gave us a fair trial,” he added. “…So I think it’s a good system. You know, I’ve got a trial in front of him, you know, a big case, and maybe in that one, I’ll think he’s unfair, but he’s a fair judge.”
Rittenhouse was acquitted on all five counts against him earlier today.
Following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, the lead prosecutor in this case, said in a statement that “while we are disappointed with the verdict, it must be respected.”
President Biden said he did not watch the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, but he stands by the verdict and the judicial system.
He made the comments upon returning to the White House after his routine physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
“I just heard a moment ago,” Biden said, when asked about Rittenhouse being found not guilty on all counts. “I didn’t watch the trial.”
Asked if he stood by his past comments equating Rittenhouse to a white supremacist, Biden didn’t directly answer.
In a statement released by the White House later Friday afternoon, Biden acknowledged that the verdict “will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included,” adding that everyone “must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.”
Biden said he “ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial has “reopened wounds that have not yet fully healed” and called for peace in Kenosha following the teen’s acquittal.
Evers urged Wisconsinites to move forward and said “any efforts or actions aimed at sowing division are unwelcome in our state as they will only hinder that healing.”
Mark Richards, Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense attorney, said his client is eager to get on with his life and is feeling a great sense of relief following his acquittal on all five counts against him today.
Richards said Rittenhouse has had 24-hour security and does not anticipate that he will continue to live in the area.
“I think eventually some anonymity will come back to it,” he said, adding Rittenhouse has ambitions to become a nurse.
Richards reiterated the defense’s argument that Rittenhouse was not responsible for the violence that occurred that night in Kenosha.
“As he said when he testified, he did not start this and we’re thankful, in more ways than one, that the jury finally got to hear the true story,” he said.
Mark Richards, one of the defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse, said it “wasn’t a close call” to put him on the stand.
“Had to put on him. It wasn’t a close call,” Richards said in an exchange with reporters after the verdict was read on Friday.
“At certain points we wondered whether we would put him on. We had a mock jury and we did two different jurors, one with him testifying and one without him testifying and it was substantially better when he testified,” he added.
Laura Coates, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, said she was not surprised the jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges because of the jury instructions and the execution of the prosecution’s argument.
The prosecutors were trying to make a case about an active shooter, arguing that everyone else who responded to Rittenhouse’s actions that night were actually the one’s acting in self-defense. Coates said, in the end, it wasn’t compelling.
She said the jury instruction said jurors had to look at the case through the eyes of then 17-year-old Rittenhouse, not in hindsight. The jurors had to access the reasonableness of Rittenhouse’s actions and decide whether it was his belief that he had to use self-defense.
“When you saw him take the stand and explain why he himself thought he was in lethal danger at that point, that probably was the one that tipped the needle,” Coates said.
“He believed that it was reasonable to do so and now the burden went back to the prosecution where it always should stay to say, hey, we have proven that he was not reasonable in his belief, that he was in a kill or be killed scenario,” she added.
Wisconsin law requires that when a self-defense claim is raised, prosecutors must disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, not the other way around as it is in other jurisdictions, Coates explained.
In order for the prosecution to successfully make its active shooter argument, attorneys would have had to present evidence that disproves Wisconsin’s self-defense threshold, according to Coates.
“Of course, the two people who were killed might have been in a position to do so, but they couldn’t testify, they were dead,” she said, adding that the third person who was shot, Gaige Grosskreutz testified that Rittenhouse fired when Grosskreutz aimed his gun at him.
As the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict was read Friday afternoon, “some jurors looked fatigued in the jury box,” according to a pool reporter in court.
“The jury forewoman, in a jean jacket and wearing a face mask, handed the verdicts to a court official, who passed them to the judge for review,” the reporter said.
“Some with their hands on their chins or rubbing their eyes. Others appeared ill-at-ease, shifting in their chairs or folding their arms across their chests,” the reporter added.
Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of killing two people and shooting another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer was found not guilty on all five charges against him.
