Ghost Ship fire defendants, Derick Almena and Max Harris, who were facing numerous manslaughter charges for the 2016 Oakland fire that killed 36 people, pleaded no contest after reaching a deal with prosecutors, CNN reports.
On Tuesday, Almena, the leaseholder of the warehouse, and Harris, a tenant who served as the creative director for the warehouse and helped collect rent, were found guilty of all 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter. As a result of the plea deal, Almena and Harris will not go on trial and will face sentencing August 9.
ABC7 News reports the two men were charged after a fire broke out during a show on December 2, 2016, in Oakland’s Fruitvale District killing 36 people who were unable to escape the warehouse. Authorities later confirmed one of the exits had been blocked and the building was in violation of numerous safety codes.
Harris is expected to receive a 10-year sentence–six years will be served in custody and four will be on supervised release. Almena’s plea deal calls for a 12-year sentence—nine in custody and three on supervised release.
Almena’s defense attorney, Tony Serra, discussed the deal with reporters. “This was not a plea entered into because of legal necessity. This is a plea that’s been entered into as a moral imperative to eliminate all the trauma and pain and suffering that everyone who touches this case endures. It was an act of ethics and morality from my client and not from a concept of culpability”
David Gregory, whose daughter Michela died in the fire, told reporters, “To hear them plead guilty basically was what we wanted to hear, but the sentencing part of it, that’s questionable. We just wanted some justice, just not to be two years or four years with time served… We don’t feel that in our opinion, that was fair justice,” he said.
The deadly fire has subsequently raised questions concerning the future of live-work spaces in an increasingly hostile environment for artists and marginalized populations.
According to mxdwn, Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf resolved to protect these spaces with Executive Order 2017-1 which is designed to help people living in illegal spaces gain compliance with safety standards without eviction.
In most cases, however, landlords would prefer to evict tenants rather than pay for expensive repairs to achieve safety compliance. A former tenant of the art space Bell Foundry in Baltimore, who was evicted following a crackdown on art spaces after the Oakland fire, spoke about the crisis, saying, “We don’t want to be unsafe…the reason we were occupying these spaces is because we have nowhere else to go.”
Photo Credit: Kellie MacDougall
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