Derick Almena, 48, and Max Harris, 28, two men who were considerable responsible for the safety of the East Oakland warehouse dubbed “Ghost Ship,” where 36 people died during a ghastly December 2, 2016 blaze, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges on Tuesday.
Their sentencing will likely take place in several months.
Almena will reportedly face nine years in prison and Harris will face six years. When the charges were first brought over one year ago, they initially faced 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter and up to 39 years in prison. According to the East Bay Times, the Alameda County Deputy District Attorney said both men would serve time in an Alameda County jail instead of state prison.
Almost all of the victims of the blaze died of smoke inhalation. Firefighters were able to rescue 15 people. The warehouse’s sole exit was an unstable staircase, made of wooden pallets.
The civil case, which reportedly also names the Ghost Ship building’s owners, the Ng family, is expected to begin in October 2019. The families of the victims reportedly want the Ng family to also face criminal charges.
Some of the victims of the blaze texted, “I’m going to die” and “I love you,” to their loved ones. “We have found people that have died in each other’s arms, protecting each other, holding each other,” Sergeant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said at the time.
The night of the fire was supposed to be a celebration, and there was to be a dance party held on the second floor. The warehouse was an artist’s collective, one of many similar warehouses in the Oakland flats where artists lived and worked.
Investigators were never able to determine the cause of the fire, but believe it was started by some sort of electrical problem.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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