Kyle Rittenhouse acquitted of intentional homicide and four other felonies in Kenosha shootings

Kyle Rittenhouse listens as the attorneys and the judge talk about jury instructions at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)

(CNN) — [Breaking news update, published at 1:17 p.m. ET]

Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges in connection to the fatal shooting of two people and wounding of another during last year’s unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

[Original story, published at 12:08 a.m. ET]

The jury in Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial entered its fourth day of deliberations Friday on five felony charges related to the fatal shooting of two people and the wounding of another during last year’s unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The 12-person jury, made up of five men and seven women, has deliberated for more than 24 hours total on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and early Friday. They have asked the court a handful of questions so far, including requests Wednesday to rewatch much of the video evidence of the shootings.

One of those videos, a drone video showing Rittenhouse shooting Joseph Rosenbaum, is at the heart of a defense request for a mistrial in the case. Rittenhouse’s defense team said the prosecution sent a compressed, lower-quality version of the video during the trial, which the prosecution described as a technical glitch. The defense realized the discrepancy after testimony had ended and so asked the judge to declare a mistrial.

The defense has also filed a motion for mistrial with prejudice — meaning the state would not be able to retry Rittenhouse — for intentional “prosecutorial overreach” related to the prosecution’s line of questioning during Rittenhouse’s testimony last week.

Judge Bruce Schroeder has not ruled on either motion.

On Thursday, Schroeder banned MSNBC from the courtroom for allegedly following a jury bus.

The judge said a man was driving about a block behind the jury bus on Wednesday evening and went through a red light. The man was pulled over by police and told them he worked for NBC News and had been instructed to follow the bus, according to the judge.

An NBC News spokesperson told CNN the producer was a freelancer and never intended to contact or photograph jurors.

Schroeder, as he was dismissing the panel for the day later Thursday, agreed to a juror’s request to take the jury instructions home. “No notes to go home, but they may take their instructions,” Schroeder said.

The deliberations come after a two-week trial highlighted by emotional and compelling testimony from Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old at the center of debates around self-defense, gun ownership and Black Lives Matter demonstrations. On the stand, he told jurors — and the viewing public — that he acted in self-defense.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I defended myself,” he testified.

Rittenhouse is charged with five felonies: first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. Jurors are also able to consider lesser offenses for two of the five counts. If convicted on the most serious charge, Rittenhouse could face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Schroeder dismissed a misdemeanor weapons possession charge and a non-criminal curfew violation prior to deliberations.

The charges stem from the chaotic unrest last year in the wake of the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man. After instances of rioting and fiery destruction, Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, took a medical kit and an AR-15-style rifle and joined up with a group of other armed people in Kenosha on August 25, 2020.

There, Rittenhouse fatally shot Rosenbaum — who was chasing the teenager and threw a bag at him — and then tried to flee. A crowd of people pursued the teenager, and Rittenhouse shot at an unidentified man who kicked him; fatally shot Anthony Huber, who had hit him with a skateboard; and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, who was armed with a pistol.

What happened in the trial

Prosecutors called 22 witnesses over the course of six days as they sought to show Rittenhouse acted recklessly that night and provoked Rosenbaum by pointing the rifle at him, setting off the ensuing series of events.

“That is what provokes this entire incident,” Binger said in closing arguments. “When the defendant provokes this incident, he loses the right to self-defense. You cannot claim self-defense against a danger you create.”

The prosecution portrayed the three other people who confronted the teen as “heroes” trying to stop what they believed to be an active shooting. Binger also questioned the teenager’s decision to take a gun into the city in the first place, calling him a “chaos tourist.”

However, on the stand, Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense when he shot four times at Rosenbaum, who he said had threatened him earlier, chased him, thrown a bag at him and lunged for his gun. Rittenhouse also referred to the three other people he shot at as part of a “mob” chasing him.

He became emotional and broke down into tears during his testimony as he began to recount the initial shooting, leading to a break in the case.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Mark Richards said Rittenhouse feared for his life when he opened fire.

“Every person who was shot was attacking Kyle. One with a skateboard, one with his hands, and one with his feet, one with a gun,” Richards said. “Hands and feet can cause great bodily harm.”

The trial featured more than a dozen videos from the night that showed what happened before, during and after the shootings. Most of the facts of what happened that night were not up for debate — rather, at the heart of the trial was the analysis of Rittenhouse’s actions and whether they can be considered “reasonable.”

The prosecution faced an uphill challenge in the case because Wisconsin law requires the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rittenhouse did not act in self-defense. But there are limits to a self-defense claim.

“The defendant may intentionally use force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm only if the defendant reasonably believed that the force used was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself,” the jury instructions explain.

The-CNN-Wire

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