OAKLAND, California – The main tenant of a warehouse in the San Francisco Bay area, where 36 people died when a fire broke out during a 2016 dance party, pleaded guilty on Friday to the deaths, avoiding a second trial after the first it ended in a stuck jury.
Derick Almena, 50, pleaded guilty to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a 12-year sentence. Already on bail, Almena is unlikely to return to prison because of the nearly three years she has spent behind bars and credit for good behavior.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson read each count with the victim’s name. When she asked Almena her plea for each charge, he replied “guilty”, but her silent responses were sometimes inaudible through an online broadcast of the hearing held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Thompson scheduled the sentence for March 8, when it will determine whether he will pay the refund, continue to be monitored electronically at his home in rural Northern California and will be subject to supervised probation. At that time, the victims’ families will be able to make statements about the victim’s impact.
Prosecutors say Almena was criminally negligent when she illegally converted the Oakland industrial warehouse into a residence and event space for artists dubbed the “Ghost Ship”, filling the two-story building with flammable materials and extension cables. It had no smoke detectors or sprinklers.
On December 2, 2016, a warehouse fire broke out during an electronic music and dance party, moving so quickly that the victims were trapped on the second floor built illegally. Prosecutors said the victims were not warned and had little chance of escaping by a narrow, dilapidated staircase.
The affair was emotionally painful for the victims’ family and friends. Many of them filled a court for months in 2019, only to see a jury split over Almena’s conviction, who rented the building. The jury also found co-defendant Max Harris, who was the Ghost Ship’s “creative director” and rental collector, innocent in the same trial.
Zita Gregory, the grandmother of victim Michela Gregory, said Almena’s punishment could never be compared to the pain and suffering her family has endured for the past four years. She said her husband, already sick with cancer, died a year after Michela.
“His condition has worsened. He used to say, ‘Why didn’t God take me instead?’ ”Said Gregory in a tearful interview.
Another granddaughter who was born on December 2 no longer celebrates her birthday on that solemn date, said Gregory.
“The fire destroyed our family – we were never the same,” she said. “There will never be a fair punishment for what all the victims have lost.”
Almena had been in prison since 2017 until he was released in May because of concerns about the coronavirus and after paying $ 150,000 bail. He is under house arrest with an ankle monitor in the town of Upper Lake, where he lives with his wife and children.