As the Kenosha shooter trial was continuing today, the court heard that Kyle Rittenhouse took less than three minutes for two victims to be killed and one injured on August 25, 2020.
Early this morning Judge Bruce Schroeder revealed that the court has been inundated with communications from members of the public during the trial – many in the form of offensive emails, some calling the judge a racist. Also, hateful messages were sent to attorneys.
Judge Schroeder stated that he will deal with such matters before the testimony began, and added, “I would not want to be these people.”
John Black, a former police officer and veteran of the war on terror, was called to testify by the defense. Black is a former officer and veteran. He also has expertise in video and intelligence analysis. Through his testimony, the defense hopes that it will show the jury how fast the prosecution has “stretched out” the events of the evening of August 25, 2020.
Between Rittenhouse shouting “Friendly!” Freundlich! It was friendly! He was friendly!
The furious pace at which the entire episode unfolded, from the first shot to Rittenhouse trying to surrender, was further underlined as the jury heard that the time that elapsed between the first and final shot fired by Rittenhouse at Rosenbaum was just three-quarters of a second.
The state presented Rittenhouse’s shooting four times, as if he had made conscious decisions to continue firing even though he was already dead.
The court today heard that shots were almost instantaneously fired.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s eighth day in trial in Kenosha is now in session.
The judge said this morning that she had received dozens of offensive emails from people calling her racist.
Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36. Rittenhouse, 26, shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26 (right), as he was speeding down the street. He had been following Rosenbaum across a parking lot.
Black declared the time zero of the first shot by telling the court that the time between shot two and one was 0.2633 seconds. Black said that the difference between the first shot and third shot was 0.22 seconds. The interval between third and fourth shots took 0.29 seconds. In total, those shots were fired in 0.739 seconds.
Rittenhouse was armed with his AR-15 and medical bag, as well as a fire extinguisher.
The court then watched footage of the night unfold as Rittenhouse fled and an unknown person ran at him and knocked his hat from his head. Black testified that it was 28 seconds later than he fired the last shot at Rosenbaum.
Richards dismantled the idea that Rittenhouse had shot in calculated manner. He walked his witness through the footage of Rittenhouse being assaulted first by “jump kick men”, at whom Rittenhouse fired two times, and then Antony Huber, at whom Rittenhouse fired one, and Gaige Grosskreutz, at whom Rittenhouse fired once.
These were presented by the state in stills.
Black today told court that the photos shown were a result of an action that lasted for less than half a second.
In fact, all the interaction between jump-kickman and Grosskreutz took just 5.468 seconds. That’s 0.602 seconds that elapsed between two shots at “jump-kickman”.
Rittenhouse shot at Huber just 1.933 second later. Grosskreutz then fired at Rittenhouse as he attacked him 2.933seconds after.
He addressed the jury and explained to them that video had the advantage of helping them objectively see what occurred.
The defense began the day today by calling John Black, a force expert witness to the stand.
Rittenhouse’s actions are contextualized by the defense, which bolsters their self-defense claim. This is done to highlight his speed in making decisions.
Binger raised an objection as Richards methodically interrogated Black about his techniques before getting to the heart of the sequences. Beginning with Rittenhouse’s shout of ‘Friendly! It was good to be friendly Freundlich!
Black could only testify if his testimony did not concern the timing of events. Binger said that this was only about the shot timings.
Kyle Rittenhouse was yesterday called to the stand by the defense and gave his powerful account of how he killed two people and injured another.
Black was ready to testify Wednesday. But the wheels almost fell off with the defense asking for a mistrial and accusing Assistant District attorney Thomas Binger, of “prosecutorial misconduct” and “overreach”.
In the event that Judge Schroeder believes Binger has acted in an unreasonable manner, he can now declare a mistrial.
Defense is making rapid progress towards the end of its case, and it could be over by today. The defense has only three witnesses remaining to call, with the three most likely today. After that, the state will mount a counter-argument.
Mark Richards was Rittenhouse’s attorney and he won the bid to have an expert in use of force testify on October. He also stipulated that his testimony be restricted to the time of events. This includes when Rittenhouse got there, started shooting, surrendered, etc.
After the jury was sent out, the prosecutor again clashed against the judge.
Binger was told by Judge Schroeder that he intended to talk about the whole episode’s video.
Binger pulled the face, which drew Judge Schroeder irritated to ask: ‘Is it something I’m stating that draws that face?’
Binger responded, “Yesterday you made me the object of your fury for not following your orders.” Today’s defense involves disregarding your orders.
Binger was unconvinced by Judge Schroeder and he retorted, “Yesterday I was subject to the court’s ire.” If the court is holding me to comply with its orders, I ask that the defense be heard. [the same standard]
Binger once again crossed the boundary of what was acceptable for the judge. Judge Schroeder interrupted him. “I am going to allow you to talk. But I was speaking yesterday about the Constitution of the United States, and the way the Supreme Court has been interpreting it for fifty years.
“That is not the topic we are discussing today.
Judge Schroeder only accepted one objection from Binger, that Black’s expert reports were ‘conclusory’.
Binger gave an example of a point made by Black on the video pin-pointed as “JR” [Jospeh Rosenbaum] Change in elevation-lunge decision point.’
He agreed with the judge that it would be necessary to use a different language to convey his time point.
Judge Schroeder can now declare a mistrial if he feels Prosecutor Thomas Binger overstepped.
Ed Lasiowski protests at the Kenosha Country Courthouse in opposition to Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial.
Prosecutors failed to call an eyewitness they knew who witnessed Rosenbaum charging Kyle Rittenhouse from the behind and then ‘lunging towards him very clearly’, before Rittenhouse killed him.
Frank Andrew Hernandez, a videographer, is today the final witness. He testified that he witnessed the events using his own eyes and also recorded the footage with both body-cameras and cell phones.
Kyle Rittenhouse shot Gaige Grosskreutz on August 25, 2020. His right bicep was nearly completely blown out. Grosskreutz was Monday’s state star witness.
The defendant stated to the court that he had given between 80 and 100 videotapes to the prosecution as well as the defense. He was not called as a witness or reached out by the prosecution.
Hernandez said that he’d seen Rittenhouse and Rosenbaum during the night of August 25, 2021, as footage was displayed to the court.
“The first time that I ever saw him actually de-escalating was when he said this. [a]Situation
Hernandez stated to the court that Rittenhouse was pacifying a group ‘rioters who started conflict’ outside the Car Source property, which he was guarding.
Contrary to his previous impression, he said that Rosenbaum had ‘push a flaming container on fire into human beings and police officers’ the first time he met him.
He said that Rosenbaum became irritated and physical aggressive towards anyone trying to extinguish the flames.
Later, he said that he watched Rosenbaum lead the charge into Ultimate Gas Station. He then attempted to get involved in altercations.
Rosenbaum is seen in additional video trying to fire a trashcan on the court.
Corey Chirafisi, in the background, pointed out, “This person is holding a fire extinguisher.” [who]He has purple gloves in his hands.
Rittenhouse was seen walking Rosenbaum at first, but Chirafisi later pointed out that he appeared to be following him.
Hernandez testified that he heard somebody say ‘F*** you’ though did not know who. He then testified, ‘I was at the corner of Car Source, Rosenbaum was charging Kyle Rittenhouse and as he’s charging him a firearm goes off.
He added, “As Rosenbaum’s firearm comes off Rosenbaum has already charged Kyle from the behind. Kyle, who is standing at his corner, attempts to throw the bag at him. Rosenbaum appears to be moving towards him as he turns.
Frank Andrew Hernandez, a videographer, is today the final witness. He testified that he witnessed the events through his eyes and also recorded the footage using both body-camera footage and cell phone footage.
Hernandez claimed that Hernandez videoed as well as’saw it’ with him [own]Eyes.
Binger, who was standing to cross-examine Hernandez, attempted to discredit Hernandez by suggesting that Hernandez was biased. Hernandez answered questions about his work place and said he worked as a commentator on the right-wing website Real America’s Voice.
Chirafisi was furious and Binger once more drew Schroeder’s anger. He said, ‘This isn’t a political trial. I don’t know how to isolate someone’s particular politics and decide that this person will evaluate the evidence in one way or another.