Jury in Kyle Rittenhouse Trial Begins Deliberations Tuesday: Prosecutors Call Him 'Wannabe Soldier'; Defense Says He Was Attacked By 'Mob'

Bruce Vielmetti, Ryan W. Miller and Christal Hayes of USA TODAY wrote:KENOSHA, Wis. – A jury will start deliberating in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial Tuesday morning after a day filled with competing narratives over whether the teen should be held liable for killing two people and injuring a third during protests last year.

The case has riled racial and political tensions across the USA and created several courtroom spectacles since it began, with the presiding judge clashing heatedly with prosecutors.

At the start of the day, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a misdemeanor charge that Rittenhouse was a minor in possession of a firearm illegally. The defense argued the charge couldn't apply because of an exception in the law. The prosecution objected, but the judge sided with the defense's interpretation.

The trial, which began Nov. 1, featured eight days of testimony from about 30 witnesses and more than a dozen videos from the night of Aug. 25, 2020, when then-17-year-old Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, fatally shot two men and wounded a third during a violent protest.

After hearing closing arguments from the prosecutors and defense all day Monday, the 12-member jury panel will deliberate Rittenhouse's future starting Tuesday morning.

The prosecution painted Rittenhouse as a tourist vigilante from Illinois, armed with bad judgment and a rifle he couldn't legally possess, looking for vengeance against anti-police rioters.

His defense attorneys said he was essentially a Kenoshan, driven by a youthful sense of patriotism to protect and defend his community, forced to kill two people and wound a third to save his own life.

The shooting occurred days after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, multiple times in the back, leading to several nights of unrest, looting and arson last year in Kenosha.

In anticipation of a verdict, Gov. Tony Evers said he was sending about 500 Wisconsin National Guard troops to the Kenosha area to be on standby to help "hundreds of officers from volunteering law enforcement agencies" if needed, according to his office.

Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of Anthony Huber, 26; first-degree reckless homicide in the killing of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36; and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz, 28.

He faces two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment for shooting at an unidentified man and in the direction of Richard McGinniss, a videographer who was in the line of fire when Rittenhouse fired four rounds at Rosenbaum in less than a second.

Jury to start deliberating Tuesday

The jury will begin deliberating the case against Rittenhouse and whether the now 18-year-old should spend up to life in prison.

The jury was sent home Monday evening after hearing hours of closing arguments from prosecutors and the defense about the events that led up to Rittenhouse opening fire with an AR-15 styled rifle during violent protests in Wisconsin.

Judge Bruce Schroeder said the panel would reconvene Tuesday at 9 a.m. local time. The jury currently consists of 18 members but that will be whittled down to 12 Tuesday who will decide Rittenhouse's fate.

"Members of the jury, the time has now come with a great burden of reaching a just, fair and conscientious decision in this case will be placed totally with you," Schroeder said. "You will not be swayed by sympathy, passion, prejudice or political beliefs."

Prosecution closing: Rittenhouse had no remorse

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger summarized the case against Rittenhouse as a 17-year-old out after a curfew who did not genuinely want to protect property or help others the night of the shooting. Binger said Rittenhouse had no remorse or concern for those he shot and those he killed, depicting him and others strapped with AR-15-style rifles as "wannabe soldiers acting tough."

"We shouldn't have 17-year-olds running around our streets with AR-15s because this is exactly what happens," Binger said.

Binger repeated that Rittenhouse lied when he told people in the crowd and a member of the media that he was a certified EMT as he carried a medic bag.

Rittenhouse was a member of a cadet program that included firefighter and EMT training. Binger tied Rittenhouse's lies to a claim by witnesses that Rosenbaum threatened Rittenhouse, something he noted wasn't caught on video despite footage chronicling most of the evening.

Binger said that by provoking the attack, Rittenhouse lost his right to self-defense. He said the crowd protesting that night was "full of heroes" who sought to stop what they believed to be an active shooter after Rosenbaum was shot. Binger said they had every right to use force to stop Rittenhouse.

In the killing of Rosenbaum, Binger said, a bullet to the back was the fatal one, but Rittenhouse could have stopped after the first, which hit Rosenbaum's pelvis and caused him to fall, if he truly feared for his life.

"The defendant decided to pull the trigger on his AR-15 four times. That was his decision. And he is responsible for every bullet that comes out of his gun. He doesn't get a pass by pulling the trigger fast," Binger said.

He urged jurors not to think that property damage or looting was justification for the shootings even if they did not agree with such acts.

"What you don't get to do is kill someone on the street for committing arson," Binger said.

Rittenhouse defense: Kyle was there to 'help' community

Rittenhouse's attorneys laid out his self-defense argument in their closing arguments, summarizing the days of testimony to depict the teen as someone who wanted to "help the community" amid the violent protests.

His attorney, Mark Richards, said, the first killing happened with Rosenbaum injured because "he was chasing my client and going to kill him." The subsequent shootings happened as Rittenhouse ran toward police and was attacked by a "mob," having no choice but to defend himself by firing again, Richards said.

"Kyle was not an active shooter. That is a buzzword that the state wants to latch on to because it excuses the actions of that mob," Richards said. "He reacted to people attacking him."

Richards argued the crowd aimed to get "their licks in on" Rittenhouse because he was "somebody from the other side who has been putting out their fires, causing problems for them, stopping them from wreaking havoc in Kenosha."

He cast the case against Rittenhouse as a "rush to judgment" with "shoddy" police work.

"This is a political case," Richards said. "We can take politics out of it as in Democrat and Republican, but the District Attorney's Office is marching forward with this case because they need somebody to be responsible."

Richards said Rittenhouse not only had the right to open fire on the first of the three people shot that evening, but he was grateful for Rittenhouse's actions.

"Kyle shot Joseph Rosenbaum to stop a threat to his person," Richards told the jury.

"And I'm glad he shot him because if Joseph Rosenbaum had got that gun I don't for a minute believe he wouldn't have used it against somebody else. He was irrational and crazy."

Judge reads jury instructions, dismisses misdemeanor weapon charge

Schroeder instructed the jury Monday about the elements of the various offenses charged and options to find Rittenhouse guilty of lesser versions of the crimes.

Schroeder paused the instructions at least twice, once for an extended period to confer with the attorneys and send the jury out of the room. Schroeder said he was worried the instructions didn't make clear when the jury should consider the lesser charges. He brought the jurors back and continued reading the instructions.

Since Rittenhouse raised self-defense, the critical question jurors will decide is whether his decision to use deadly force was reasonable.

The misdemeanor gun charge appeared likely to lead to a conviction, given Rittenhouse's age. But his lawyers argued Wisconsin law includes an exception for rifles or shotguns that are not short-barreled. Prosecutors said they believed the charge was still applicable, but they conceded the gun used was not short-barreled, which led to Schroeder dismissing the charge.

What happened the night of the shootings?

Rittenhouse lived in Antioch, Illinois, about 20 miles from Kenosha. He and Dominick Black, a close friend who lived in the city, went downtown the morning of Aug. 25 to view the damage done during demonstrations the previous two nights. Rittenhouse said he met the owners of a car business that had been destroyed by arson.

That day, the owners asked Nicholas Smith, a former employee who lived nearby, if he could help watch over the business's two other locations that night.

Smith asked Black and Rittenhouse if they'd like to help, and they returned that night, armed with AR-15-style rifles. Black had bought Rittenhouse's for him in May because Rittenhouse was underage. They kept the rifle at Black's house in Kenosha.

The trio and about five others spent most of the night at a repair shop.

Later in the evening when he was separated from the group, Rittenhouse encountered Rosenbaum, seen by many witnesses acting aggressively toward armed people trying to put out fires and stop property damage.

After running briefly from Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse turned and shot him. As angry onlookers converged, Rittenhouse ran away. About halfway back to a police line, he stumbled and fell to the street.

He fired four more shots – two at a man who kicked him in the face; one at Huber who had struck him with his skateboard and tried to take his gun; and one at Grosskreutz, a volunteer medic at protests who ran up on Rittenhouse while holding a pistol.

Brad Brooks of REUTERS wrote:

(Reuters) - The dismissal of a misdemeanor weapons charge against high-profile murder defendant Kyle Rittenhouse is likely to ignite a statehouse debate over how to fix what the judge in the case called unclear and two legal experts called poorly worded Wisconsin legislation.

Defense attorneys in July filed a motion to dismiss the underage firearms possession charge against Rittenhouse, who was 17 when he shot three people, killing two of them, during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Judge Bruce Schroeder, who earlier denied the request, granted it shortly before closing arguments started on Monday in the murder trial for Rittenhouse.

"This is going to touch a nerve for some people," said John Gross, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin. "But this is not an unreasonable reading of this statute by this judge."

Gross said the Wisconsin law concerning underage possession of a dangerous weapon - which covers everything from guns to brass knuckles - is written in a way that it seems to apply restrictions on gun possession only when the person is carrying a short-barreled weapon such as a sawed-off shotgun, less than 12 inches. That is what Rittenhouse's lawyers argued.

The .223 caliber Smith & Wesson rifle Rittenhouse used in the shootings has a 16-inch barrel.

What the legislature did in its writing of the law was to "accidentally carve out a rule that says somebody under the age of 18 can legally have a rifle or shotgun as long as the barrel is of sufficient length," Gross said. "It's just a legislative blunder and it should be fixed."

Tom Grieve, an attorney who specializes in defending gun cases and is a former Wisconsin state prosecutor, said a trial judge's decision set no legally binding precedent. But it may lead other judges to think again about their interpretation of the underage possession law as it now stands.

Grieve, who oversees what he said was the largest criminal defense firm in the state, said he had never before seen anyone charged with the underage illegal possession count Rittenhouse had faced, so he does not think the judge's decision would necessarily have a big impact in courtrooms.

That might be different in political circles.

"This could absolutely be something that the legislature takes a look at," Grieve said.

Rittenhouse's trial has been closely watched by some who favor expansive gun rights and by others who see American gun culture as out of control.