Kyle Rittenhouse broke down in tears and hugged his defense attorney after he was found NOT GUILTY of all charges by a Kenosha County jury.
The jury of seven women and five men acquitted Rittenhouse of every charge against him. Their verdict came on the fourth day of testimony.
Homicide – not guilty. Attempted homicide – not guilty. Recklessly endangering safety – not guilty. He was acquitted on all of it. The judge had previously tossed out an illegal firearm charge because it didn’t meet state law. Rittenhouse is free.
Watch Rittenhouse learning about the verdict here:
The verdict came after a bizarre trial in which prosecution after prosecution witness provided testimony that bolstered the defense’s self-defense case. The case was also built on voluminous video from independent journalists; video showed Joseph Rosenbaum chasing down Rittenhouse before Rittenhouse shot him at close range; and another video showed Anthony Huber hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard and grabbing his gun when Rittenhouse fell in the street. The video also showed Gaige Grosskreutz, the only person who survived being shot, advancing toward Rittenhouse with a gun. Grosskreutz testified that he had pointed his gun at Rittenhouse at close range when Rittenhouse opened fire.
Watch defense attorney Mark Richards comments after the verdict:
Kenosha County DA Michael Graveley chose not to prosecute the case, handing it off to assistant DAs, Thomas Binger and Jim Kraus. The behavior of the prosecutors was a continuous issue in court, and the defense had filed a motion for a mistrial with prejudice accusing them of intentionally doing things like giving the defense a worse quality video of the Rosenbaum shooting.
Wisconsin Right Now broke the news there was a verdict, learning from a credible source that the Kenosha police sent out an email indicating a verdict was reached in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
Daniel S. Banda of Kenosha police sent that email to many people at 10:55 a.m. We deleted identifying information to protect our source, but we obtained the email. This is the key part of it.
The source told WRN around 11:25 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2021, that this information would be announced around noon. Then, the county clerk told the media that a verdict was reached. Then, it was announced. Not guilty on everything.
The jury reached the verdict in its 4th day of deliberations. They sent several notes to the judge but asked to go home early on Thursday. They were quiet on Friday and there were no major developments reported by the pool. Until the big news: Not guilty.
