KENOSHA, Wis. — Jurors ended their third day of deliberations Thursday in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager facing charges after shooting three people, killing two, during civil unrest last year in Kenosha.
The jury began deliberations after getting the case Tuesday. Jurors sat through a second full day of deliberations Wednesday, but did not come to a decision on Rittenhouse’s guilt or innocence. He faces several charges, including first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, for the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and the shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.
Update 5:17 p.m. EST Nov. 18: The jurors in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse have ended their third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict.
The 12-member jury will resume deliberations at 10 a.m. EST Friday.
Update 10:40 a.m. EST Nov. 18: Jury deliberations have resumed in Rittenhouse’s trial, CNN reported.
Original report: Central to the case is whether Rittenhouse, then 17, acted in self-defense. Prosecutors sought to portray him as a vigilante who came to Kenosha from outside the community and provoked violence that night. Defense attorneys argued that he did what he had to in order to protect himself during a chaotic night of riots.
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Jury deliberations are expected to resume at 10 a.m. EST.
On Wednesday, jurors reviewed some video evidence shown during the trial, including a recording taken by Grosskreutz after Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum and video of the shooting filmed by a drone.
The latter footage prompted a mistrial request by defense attorneys, who said Wednesday that they were given a lower quality version of the file than the one that was shown in court. The higher quality video had been played on Fox News days after the shootings during an interview with Rittenhouse’s original attorney, though neither prosecutors nor Rittenhouse’s current attorneys were able to track down the video until after his trial began.
>> Related: Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Jurors complete second day of deliberations
Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney James Kraus said prosecutors obtained the video during the trial, after a person who refused to give their name came forward with it. He acknowledged Wednesday that the video file became compressed when it was transferred to defense attorneys, although he insisted the difference was caused by technology issues and was not intentional.
Natalie Wilsco, one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys, said the file defense attorneys received was four megabytes in size, while the one that prosecutors had was 11 megabytes.
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Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said attorneys “would have done this case in a little bit (of a) different manner” if they had access to the higher quality drone video, saying in court that they weren’t able to address the evidence properly because the issue with the video quality wasn’t discovered until after both sides had closed their arguments.
>> Related: Kyle Rittenhouse trial: No verdict after first day of jury deliberations
Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on the request.
Rittenhouse could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him. He testified last week that he acted in self-defense after being chased by Rosenbaum and attacked by Huber. He said he shot Grosskreutz after the older man lunged at him with a pistol pointed at his head.
>> Related: Read more from the closing arguments
The August 2020 shooting exposed bitter divisions nationwide over guns, protests and policing, The Associated Press reported. It happened amid protests nationwide over police violence and racism following the May 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Last week, Gov. Tony Evers activated 500 Wisconsin Army National Guard troops to assist authorities in Kenosha ahead of an expected verdict in the case.
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