Kyle Rittenhouse’s Trial Concludes With Him a Free Man

Kyle Rittenhouse is found not guilty on November 20 on all his charges, who he had killed two people and injuring a person. 

All of his charges were read as not guilty, making Rittenhouse a free man. Rittenhouse was previously charged with 1^st degree reckless homicide, 1^st degree reckless endangering safety, 1^st degree intentional homicide, and attempt 1^st-degree intentional homicide, possessing a weapon under eighteen, this count was thrown out, and failing to comply with emergency management order of state or local government. 

One of the unforgettable scenes of the trial is of Rittenhouse crying when he testified for the double homicide. He was telling the story of the attack of the three men.  

“Once I take that step back, I look over my shoulder and Mr. Rosenbaum was now running from my right side and I was cornered from in front of me with Mr. Ziminski.”  

These were his words before he could not contain his traumatic experience and cried. Judge Bruce E. Schroeder, the one taking charge of this trial, called for a short break. 

There is already a lot of heart-wrenching tension in the room with Kyle Rittenhouse’s attorneys and himself. Rittenhouse had testified on his part of what happened on the day of the shooting and killing. 

Rittenhouse testified that him shooting the three men was for defense. In his defense he said this, but for the video evidence, it was reviewed by the juries and Schroeder.  

The Rittenhouse trial began on November 1. Rittenhouse was involved in killing two people and injuring one with an AR-15 in the Kenosha County.  

He had killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, who was armed. Huber had a skateboard at the scene, and the state had found this to be a deadly weapon. 

Prosecutor Thomas Binger says that in the two days of the protest, things were destroyed, but Rittenhouse was the only one to kill someone. 

The event before this trial happened on August 25, 2020, where a protest had occurred. The protest had been about the shooting of Jacob Blake and went on for two days. 

Rittenhouse had taken an AR-15 from Dominick Black, his friend, from his stepfather’s house without permission to use on the event. Black says his step-father had taken many guns out, fearing that the protestors would break into their house. 

On November 17, there was a problem with the video evidence for the incident. From the video evidence, it shows the chasing and shooting from Rittenhouse and the three men chasing after him. 

Prosecutor James Kraus says, “I think it is fair to this jury and fair to the process and frankly fair to the defendant if they’re able to see the videos as they see fit.” 

Kraus appears alongside Binger and talks about what happened with the video evidence. The video was shared with one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys, Natalie Wisco. 

The video Wisco had received was a different video that Kraus and others who had the video shared with them. With little knowledge of how to change the file of the video and the software on the phone, Kraus says that he and others who have seen the video cannot be held responsible for this. 

Kraus says that there is no way that they would tamper or compress the video. He says there is no way they would have known that the video would look different on Wisco’s phone. 

“So to somehow now accuse us of compressing a file and somehow be able to do this technical wizardry, to somehow sabotage the defense is preposterous.” 

Kraus says the big television that was brought in was to make him and his group look bad. He says that it was to showcase the wrongly sent video to Wisco.  

Wisco says after Kraus is she had received the video at 10:33 am. She says that she has never opened it on her cell phone. 

 Wisco downloaded it on the Lenovo laptop that is used for this case. For the big television that was brought into the court, she says it was for John Black’s testimony.  

Wisco says that any evidence is sent to her and anyone in the state is through dropbox. Kraus had emailed the video to her, instead of using the dropbox. 

The video’s name was also different for Wisco compared to the state crime lab. Kraus says the video he sent to the state crime lab was from his personal Gmail account. 

The conclusion of a verdict for Rittenhouse went in motion, making this trial over. The first charge for Rittenhouse was not found guilty and he was shaking and crying of relief. There was comfort from Rittenhouse’s attorneys.  

Schroeder near the end of the trial, says, “at the beginning of the trial, there was some concern about information and your safety, and I assure you, that we will take every measure to assure that that your concerns are addressed and respected.”