The murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse began last week, throwing the politically fraught case into the national spotlight again as the teen awaits his fate for shooting and killing two men and injuring another during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer.
The trial has had no shortage of passionate moments so far. The judge and the prosecution have clashed repeatedly, and Rittenhouse broke down in tears when he took the stand on Wednesday. When graphic footage of the shootings was played for jurors, several appeared visibly upset.
Meanwhile, the muddied facts of the case have become gradually clearer, relieving the case of some of the rumors that have plagued it for more than a year.
Rittenhouse was charged with five felony charges and one misdemeanor charge. The most serious charge is intentional homicide, Wisconsin’s top murder charge, while the others are reckless homicide, attempted homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment, and being a minor illegally in possession of a firearm. He was also charged with violating curfew, but that charge was dismissed by the judge on Tuesday. He has pled not guilty to all charges.
Rittenhouse, who is now 18, lives in Antioch, a northern suburb of Chicago about 15 miles from Kenosha. Rittenhouse’s lawyers have pointed out that his father lived in Kenosha and he worked in Kenosha County as a lifeguard. On August 25 of last year when he was 17, Rittenhouse decided to patrol the downtown Kenosha area alongside other armed men in order to protect a used car dealership from looting and vandalism. The city had devolved into rioting over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.
Rittenhouse armed himself with a Smith & Wesson M&P15, which is an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle that police say his friend, Dominick Black, illegally bought for him, as well as a medical kit. The gun was reportedly kept in a safe at Black’s stepfather’s house in Kenosha, and prosecutors acknowledged during the trial that Rittenhouse had not crossed state lines with the gun.
Shortly before midnight, Rittenhouse was accosted by protesters including Joseph Rosenbaum, who threw a plastic bag at him and who Rittenhouse says tried to grab his rifle. At that point, Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum four times, killing him.
The first shooting riled protesters, who chased Rittenhouse until he tripped and fell. A still unidentified man kicked Rittenhouse in the head, and Rittenhouse fired at him twice but missed. Seconds later, another man, Anthony Huber, tried to hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard and grab his gun. Rittenhouse fired at Huber and fatally shot him. At that point, Gaige Grosskreutz approached Rittenhouse with his handgun pointed in the direction of Rittenhouse’s head, and Rittenhouse shot him too, injuring his right bicep, but not killing him.
Rittenhouse was arrested and charged the day after the shootings. His friend, Black, was also arrested and charged with illegally supplying a minor with a firearm.
Legal experts say Rittenhouse’s self-defense case is strong, but if he loses, the judge in his case, Judge Bruce Schroeder, has a reputation for harsh sentences. However, Schroeder is also known for giving defendants a lot of leeway to make their case beforehand.
Friction between the defense, the prosecution, and the judge appeared even before the trial began.
A week prior to the trial, prosecutors tried to bar the defense from referring to the men Rittenhouse shot as quote “rioters, looters, or arsonists,” but the judge denied that request, saying that the defense may refer to them that way if they provide evidence to support it. The judge also told prosecutors they cannot refer to the men shot as quote “victims.”
The trial began on Monday of last week, and a total of twenty jurors were seated the first day. The twelve jurors who will decide a verdict will be revealed later, the judge said.
“No one wants to be here,” one potential juror told the court as jury selection was ongoing. “It’s scary. You’re scared to go to your car, scared to go home.”
The prosecution called a total of 22 witnesses, some of whom appeared to actually bolster the defense’s case.
Black, Rittenhouse’s friend, was the state’s first witness and testified that he bought Rittenhouse the gun he used in the shootings. He told the court that Rittenhouse had stayed at his house the night before the shootings and that he and Rittenhouse had cleaned up graffiti earlier in the day before the deadly incident. Black also said he saw Rittenhouse provide first aid to someone with a big gash on their hand. After the shootings, Black said he got Rittenhouse to turn himself into police.
Another witness for the state, Ryan Balch, an Army veteran who was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and patrolling the downtown area with Rittenhouse, testified that Rosenbaum was “hyperaggressive and acting out in a violent manner.” Balch said Rosenbaum tried to start a fire and yelled at Balch, “If I catch any of you guys alone tonight I’m going to f—- kill you!”
A key detail the defense emphasized last week was that Rittenhouse was not the one who fired the very first shot. A man named Joshua Ziminski fired one shot about 2.5 seconds before Rittenhouse fatally shot Rosenbaum, Kenosha Police Detective Martin Howard testified last week. Howard is one of the lead police investigators on Rittenhouse’s case.
Richard McGinnis, a video editor for the Daily Caller, took the stand last week as well. Before the shootings, McGinnis interviewed Rittenhouse and trailed him and several other armed men. After Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum, McGinnis rushed to try to save him before he died.
The prosecution suggested to McGinnis that his interpretation of what Rosenbaum was trying to do when he reached for Rittenhouse’s gun was “complete guesswork.”
“Well, he said ‘f*** you’ and then he reached for the weapon,” McGinnis responded.
Another controversial factor that has been brought up in the trial is the backgrounds and criminal records of the men Rittenhouse shot. All three had criminal records. Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men who Rittenhouse killed, was a registered sex offender convicted of felony child sex abuse and was accused of molesting or raping five different boys between the ages of 9 and 11. Rittenhouse’s lawyers wanted to argue that Rosenbaum tried to steal Rittenhouse’s gun because as a sex offender Rosenbaum couldn’t legally possess a gun himself.
Anthony Huber, the second man Rittenhouse killed, also had a violent criminal history, defense lawyer Corey Chirafisi told the court. The 26-year-old once “told his brother that if he didn’t start cleaning a room in his house he was going to gut him like a pig,” Chirafisi said, adding that Huber also held a six-inch knife to his brother’s stomach and choked him.
Another detail that attracted attention but was not brought up in the trial is a video of Rittenhouse appearing to punch a teenage girl who was fighting with his younger sister a couple of months before the shootings.
Prosecutors also wanted to show a video from a few weeks before the shootings in which Rittenhouse is heard saying he wished he had his gun to shoot some hooded people seen in the video running out of a CVS Pharmacy clutching items.
The prosecution has also tried to brand Rittenhouse a racist and tie him to the Proud Boys, a right-wing men’s group, but his lawyers deny that Rittenhouse is a member.
Last Thursday, a juror in the trial was dismissed for telling a joke to a deputy at the courthouse a day earlier.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger told the court that his understanding of the joke was that it went something like, “Why did the Kenosha police shoot Jacob Blake seven times? Because they ran out of bullets.” Blake was left paralyzed after he was shot by the Kenosha police officer.
Besides listening to witness testimony, jurors watched more than a dozen videos of the shootings and surrounding events.
Last week, prosecutors wanted to present as evidence surveillance video taken from an FBI airplane above where the riots were occurring.
Prosecutors said the fuzzy, black-and-white infrared video taken nearly 9,000 feet above the ground would show that Rittenhouse chased Rosenbaum before they switched places and Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse. However, Detective Howard testified that it appears Rosenbaum emerged from behind a car to intercept Rittenhouse and appeared to be gaining ground on him.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but this looks like the classic ambush,” Rittenhouse’s lead defense attorney Mark Richards said. The prosecution objected to that remark, and it was struck from the record.
Prosecutors also wanted to show footage to jurors of an armed Rittenhouse shortly before the shooting from Milwaukee-based outlet TheRundownLive.
The defense objected to the audio of the footage, saying the person who shot the video was “editorializing” in his narration, making it “hearsay” and therefore unacceptable. The video’s narrator repeatedly referred to Rittenhouse and the other armed men near him as a “militia.”
The prosecution argued that the narration accompanying the video helped to illustrate Rittenhouse’s “state of mind” at the time, a suggestion that prompted scoffs from the defense.
“Unless this un-subpoenaed person can read minds, that’s a ridiculous argument. This narrator is going to prove my client’s state of mind? That’s absurd,” Richards said.
Wednesday marked the most dramatic day of the trial so far, with Rittenhouse himself taking the stand.
Binger began quizzing Rittenhouse about his decision to remain silent after the shootings but before the trial, at which Richards objected. Judge Schroeder sent the jury out of the room and raised his voice at Binger as he reprimanded him, telling him that Rittenhouse’s silence is quote, “basic law.”
“I was astonished when you began your examination by commenting on the defendant’s post-arrest silence,” Schroeder said, raising his voice. “That’s basic law. It’s been basic law in this country for 40 or 50 years … I don’t know what you’re up to.”
The judge also admonished Binger for bringing up a piece of video evidence that the judge had banned from the trial. Binger had tried to question Rittenhouse about the video in which Rittenhouse talks about shooting the people he thought were shoplifting from a CVS.
“Don’t get brazen with me!” the judge shouted at Binger. “I don’t want to have another issue as long as this case continues. Is that clear?”
The judge has also not been thrilled with media coverage of the trial and warned jurors on the first day of the trial that some coverage may be quote, “irresponsible” or “deliberately biased.”
Rittenhouse defended his actions from the witness stand, breaking down at one point and sobbing as he attempted to describe the moments leading up to the first shooting. The judge called a break to allow him to collect himself.
“I intended to stop the people who were attacking me,” he told the court. “I did what I had to do to stop them from attacking me.”
The defense began making its case on Wednesday after the prosecution rested its case a day earlier. The trial is expected to last until at least the end of this week.