OAKLAND, California (AP) – Derick Almena, the master tenant of a warehouse in the San Francisco Bay Area that caught fire during a music event and killed 36 people, was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison, though he probably did not more time will not spend in jail.
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Almena is already under house arrest after being released from prison last year due to concerns about the coronavirus, and has been ordered to serve the rest of his term under electronic monitoring, followed by a three-year probation period.
“I know no family member will find it acceptable in any way, and I accept the responsibility,” Judge Trina Thompson, Alameda County Supreme Court judge, said at the end of an emotionally charged case that was first derailed by a pending jury. is, thereafter the pandemic. .
Many of the family members urged Thompson to reject a plea agreement Almena had concluded with prosecutors to avoid a second trial and call it too lenient.
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Almena, 50, pleaded guilty in January to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a 12-year sentence.
FILE – In this June 5, 2017 photo, issued by the Sheriff of Alameda County, for Derick Almena in the Santa Rita Prison in Alameda County, California. Family members of the 36 people who died when a fire broke out during a warehouse in San Francisco a music event prompted a judge on Monday, March 8, 2021, to impose the most severe sentence on Derick Almena, the master tenant of the building, or to reject a plea agreement with prosecutors to avoid a second trial. (Sheriff at Alameda County via AP, File)
Because he got credit for time he spent behind bars while awaiting trial and for good behavior, he will spend the next year and a half at home with a single monitor. He was also ordered to pay restitution which is later determined by the court.
“This lenient sentence with a slap on the wrist is very inappropriate for the crimes committed by Derick Almena,” the family of fire victim Sarah Hoda said in a statement read out to the court by teleconference. “Maintaining the DA’s irresponsible plea recommendation would shortfall 36 victims and their families.”
Thompson and prosecutors said they are considering the challenges of retrialing the case, given the challenges of electing jurors during a pandemic, calling witnesses to court over travel bans, and the publicity the first trial received.
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Prosecutors said Almena was criminally negligent when he illegally converted the industrial warehouse in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland into a residence and event space for artists called the “Ghost Ship,” which filled the building with flammable materials and extension cords. It had no smoke detectors or nozzles.
On December 2, 2016, hell broke out during an electronic music event at the warehouse, trapping victims on the illegally built second floor. Prosecutors said the victims received no warning and that they had little chance of escaping in a narrow, steep staircase.
Family and friends of the victims filled Thompson’s courtroom for months in 2019 and became confidential faces before the judge, only to see a jury divorce or Almena, who rented the building, be found guilty. In the same trial, the jury also found the co-accused Max Harris, who was the Ghost Ship’s “creative director” and hired collector, not guilty.