when will the verdict be released for kyle rittenhouse? Bruce Schroeder

Kyle Rittenhouse: Jury to decide fate of US teen gunman

A jury has been sent to deliberate in the case of a teen who shot three men amid civil unrest last year, in one of the most high-profile trials in the US.

Wrapping up, prosecutors said Kyle Rittenhouse walked off like a “hero in a Western” after opening fire on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Mr Rittenhouse‘s lawyer said his client feared his own gun would be used on him after a “crazy person” ambushed him.

The 18-year-old killed two men and injured a third on 25 August 2020.

The Rittenhouse case was instantly politically divisive and its result is being closely watched across the nation.

The defendant is white, as are the three men he shot.

But the shooting happened amid sometimes violent protests that followed the police murder of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis, and the case has been held up on the left as raising questions about racial justice and perceived white privilege.

On the right, the cause celebre is seen as an important test case for gun rights and self-defence.

Ahead of a verdict, 500 National Guard troops have been placed on standby in the Midwestern state.

In a statement, Governor Tony Evers urged people to “respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there” in response to the verdict.

How did the defence wrap up?

Mark Richards, an attorney for Mr Rittenhouse, accused the state of running “a shoddy investigation” that played “fast and loose with the facts” and used “hocus pocus out-of-focus evidence”.

“This case is not a game. It is my client’s life,” he said. “Kyle was a 17 year old trying to help this community. He reacted to people attacking him.”

He added “we can take politics out of it, but the district attorney’s office is marching forward with this case because they need somebody to be responsible”.

Running through testimony from witnesses, Mr Richards argued “there was nothing reckless” about his client’s actions and he had the right to be in Kenosha that night.

How did the prosecution wrap up?

Lead prosecutor Thomas Binger told the court on Monday in his closing statement: “You cannot claim self-defence against a danger that you create.”

Mr Binger – the assistant district attorney for Kenosha – questioned why Mr Rittenhouse broke curfew in a city he did not live in and “pretended to guard” people and property he was not familiar with.

Rittenhouse trial: Jury deliberations to begin Tuesday morning

Judge Bruce Schroeder ordered the jurors to assemble at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning for deliberations following two weeks of testimony from about 30 witnesses.

Rittenhouse is facing charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

Some protesters stayed outside Kenosha County Courthouse on Monday evening after the jury was dismissed for the day

The prosecution painted Kyle Rittenhouse as a “chaos tourist” who went to Kenosha last August looking for trouble during closing arguments on Monday, while his defense attorney argued that the then-17-year-old was just trying to protect businesses when a “crazy person” ambushed him and forced Rittenhouse to defend himself.

Judge Bruce Schroeder ordered the jurors to assemble on Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. for deliberations after two weeks of testimony from about 30 witnesses.

The judge tossed one charge of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18 on Monday after Rittenhouse’s defense team argued that a subsection of the law concerning short-barreled rifles was grounds for dismissal

Important Takeaways from Kyle Rittenhouse trial closings

Attorneys in Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial sparred for the last time Monday during closing arguments, with prosecutors painting Rittenhouse as an inexperienced instigator and defense lawyers insisting the Illinois man fired in self-defense.

Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz during street unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. He has claimed self-defense, while prosecutors have argued he was an inexperienced and overmatched teen who provoked violence by showing up with a rifle.

Here are some takeaways from Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger and defense attorney Mark Richards’ closings:

“QUACK DOCTOR”

Binger painted Rittenhouse as a fraud. He said Rittenhouse told people at the protest that he was an emergency medical technician when he was really just a lifeguard.

ACTIVE SHOOTER

Binger also portrayed Rittenhouse as an active shooter and said people in the crowd had a right to stop him. He said Rittenhouse denied shooting Rosenbaum when Grosskreutz and another man, Jason Lackowski, asked him what happened immediately after the shots were fired.

OUTSIDER

Binger tried to get jurors to see Rittenhouse, who lived in nearby Antioch, Illinois, as one of a horde of outsiders who came to Kenosha to play soldier during the protest, ignoring roadblocks, curfew orders and closed interstate exits.

Richards countered that Rittenhouse came to the city to help, noting that he helped clean graffiti off a high school before the shootings.

“Kyle feels for this community,” he said.

NAPOLEON COMPLEX

Binger focused largely on Rosenbaum’s actions, trying to counter Rittenhouse’s assertions that Rosenbaum was causing trouble all night, swinging a chain, demanding people shoot him, spewing racial slurs and setting fires. Binger described Rosenbaum as a small man — he stood at 5 feet 4 — with a “Napoleon complex” but he was harmless.

Kyle Rittenhouse trial – closing arguments

Why Kyle Rittenhouse No Longer Faces a Gun Possession Charge

The barrel of Mr. Rittenhouse’s rifle was too long, defense lawyers argued, to be in violation of a Wisconsin statute that says minors can’t possess dangerous weapons. His age was also a factor.

The judge in Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial on Monday dismissed the misdemeanor gun possession charge the teenager faced after defense lawyers argued that he did not violate the state statute in question because of his age and the length of the barrel of his semiautomatic rifle.

Judge Bruce Schroeder’s ruling, delivered shortly before closing statements, resolved a byzantine legal debate over a Wisconsin statute that began after Mr. Rittenhouse was charged last year with fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during chaotic demonstrations in Kenosha.

Mr. Rittenhouse still faces five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a potential life sentence. The jury will begin deliberating on Tuesday morning.

The defense had long argued that the gun possession charge was invalid, saying that Wisconsin law did not bar Mr. Rittenhouse from carrying the military-style semiautomatic rifle on Aug. 25, 2020. Its successful argument hinged in part on the fact that the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 he had strapped around his shoulder has a 16-inch-long barrel.

Rittenhouse prosecutor Binger led ‘clown show’ of firearm fallacies: Dana Loesch

Loesch compared prosecutors to ne’er-do-well siblings from the movie ‘Step Brothers’

Kenosha County attorneys Thomas Binger and James Kraus were figures in a “clown show” of a prosecution against defendant Kyle Rittenhouse, most notably with their overt lack of basic understanding of firearms, gun rights advocate and radio host Dana Loesch said Monday.

Loesch, a former spokesperson for the Virginia-based National Rifle Association, told “Fox News Primetime” that Binger proved his need for basic firearms training when he flagged the entire courtroom by mishandling an Armalite-style rifle – with his finger on the trigger and the stock not shouldered properly.

She went on to compare Binger and Kraus to Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s ne’er-do-well characters in the 2008 film “Step Brothers”:

“After some of the arguments that I have heard from what I’m calling ‘Brennan & Dale of the Step Brothers law firm’ – [Binger] flags the entire courtroom and jury – and to be honest I’m surprised that a bailiff or … a state trooper in the courtroom didn’t intervene,” she said.