Image Source:
Alexander Home Depot Sunrise Paint
By Simone Aponte and Lisa Fernandez - Derick Almena gets it.
Image Source:
He gets why he’s abaft confined at Santa Rita Jail, finer in aloof confinement, on 36 accuse of automated manslaughter, one calculation for ceremony of the lives absent in the Ghost Ship blaze about one year ago. And he gets why bodies are mad at him, for the blend central the barn and for authoritative antecedent blunders on amusing media afterwards Oakland’s deadliest fire in burghal history.
But in an absolute 90-plus-minute television bastille account aftermost ceremony with KTVU, the artisan and above “master tenant” of the Ghost Ship said that while he feels he bears some of the albatross for the deaths, there are others who should allotment in the blame, too.
And he said absolutely that he should not be put into the aforementioned class as killers “David Koresh, Charles Manson and Jim Jones.”
WATCH more jailhouse interviews on KTVU's YouTube channel
He spoke, generally in meandering statements and alms sometimes ambagious and adverse accounts, in a baby account allowance central the bastille amidst by a reporter, two photographers, two Alameda Canton sheriff's assembly and two lawyers, including high-profile advocate Tony Serra. It appears as admitting he’s acquired at atomic 20 pounds aback his arrest.
On one hand, he acknowledged he is partially to blame. On the added hand, he said doesn't appetite to "blame anybody." And at one point, he additionally declared his innocence. It was additionally accessible to get him to beat off a account of those he believes should additionally buck some of the accountability for the Dec. 2, 2016 blaze at 1305 31st Avenue in the Fruitvale District. But at the aforementioned time, he additionally said he "didn't appetite to accusation anybody."
His account of those who should backpack the accusation includes: The Ng family, who own the Fruitvale District property; PG&E; and the many, abounding guests who fabricated music and art central the collective. Plus, there were added than 20 artists who “inhabited the space,” Almena said, and all of those people should allotment some of the responsibility.
In altered genitalia of the interview, Almena casted fault with groups, and again absolved them. At one point, he said that the badge and firefighters who visited the warehouse, and alike played the pianos and organs inside, should allotment in the blame. Later, he said they shouldn't because they were affable and came to ball there with him and his children.
"They didn't shut us bottomward because we were awesome," he said of the badge and firefighters.
Finally, Almena got a little abstruse about who he believes is best at accountability for the deaths of the 36.
“I accusation God,” he said. “Fire is God. Blaze is life." He drew artwork in bastille to characterize what he means: The chat BLAME is in all basic belletrist aerial over the arrant eye of God.
Then Almena paused.
"But blaming God is ridiculous," he conceded. "It's a joke.”
He additionally acicular out that afterwards all of its investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could not define the account of the fire. So, is there anyone absolutely to accusation at all? he wondered.
I’m in charge?
He did accede why he is in jail.
“But because my name is on the lease, I’m responsible,” Almena said, adage that at the time, the landlords adopted accession earlier than 40 years old assurance the paperwork and he was it.
Then he laughed. Why should he be the alone one in jail, aloof because he active the paperwork?
“I’m in charge?” he asked rhetorically. He said he was too active actuality an artisan and adopting three accouchement with his wife, Micah Allison, to be the distinct administrator abaft the collective. He said he had no duke in throwing the cyberbanking affair on the night of the fire, which is why he took off for a auberge bottomward the artery with his wife and three children.
“I’m a scapegoat,” he said. If anybody who had visited or affected the Ghost Ship “shared in the burden,” of what happened that night, he said, “then that would be the abutting affair to fair.”
In a abstracted account with Almena’s wife, Allison said that it’s additionally absolutely adamantine for her to acknowledgment whether she thinks she and her bedmate are to accusation with his “freedom on the line.”
“Do I feel a faculty of responsibility?” Allison asked, continuing afterwards absolutely answering her own question. “I will backpack this for the blow of my life. I accept they are consistently with us and I accept that there has to be a abundant purpose and a greater reason. Do I feel responsible?”
She sighed and bankrupt her eyes: “I will always backpack a abundant burden.”
Plaintiff’s advocate agrees with him - to a point
Perhaps surprisingly, at atomic one being complex in the web of lawsuits filed afterwards the fire, agrees with Almena.
Mary Alexander, a San Francisco advocate apery 12 of the 31 families who accept sued him because of the baleful fire, sees his point.
“I would accede with him," Alexander said. "The owners accept a non-delegable duty, acceptation that they can’t agent to him to accept a safe building.”
She additionally believes that PG&E is at accountability for bartering the electricity and should accept spotted abnormalities with his jerry-rigging, and that the burghal and the canton are additionally at accountability for accepting beatific officials, such as badge and firefighter and adolescent accurate workers, to the barn and who did annihilation to shut him down.
Image Source:
But that’s about all she agrees with.
“I don’t accede that he should get beneath punishment,” she said. “He knows he’s in trouble. He’s aggravating to abrade off his responsibility."
Justin Berton, agent for Oakland Ambassador Libby Schaaf, added that it seems as admitting Almena and his acknowledged aggregation are aggravating adamantine to acrylic a affectionate account of him, admitting the affirmation in advanced of prosecutors.
"For years, Derick Almena and [co-defendant] Max Harris formed adamantine to escape acknowledged analysis and deceive Burghal officials," Berton's account read. "Their accomplishments put abounding innocent bodies in danger. It is the job of their attorneys to abstract the accessible from the misdeeds of their clients; it is the District Attorney’s assignment to authority the accusable accountable. The ambassador is assured the all-embracing bent analysis and consecutive accuse filed adjoin Almena and Harris will do aloof that.”
The Ghost Ship created a new abhorrence of evictions
Almena’s account comes about two weeks afore the one-year ceremony of the Dec. 2, 2016 Ghost Ship fire, an act that not alone took the lives of three dozen people, but afflicted burghal behavior in acceding of permitting, creating a new abhorrence of evictions and cipher administration in the city, which had already consistently accustomed artists communities to exist, afterwards abundant regulation.
The Ghost Ship was an acute abuse of this underground association because Almena, and Max Harris, his co-defendant and above “creative director” of the Ghost Ship, angry this aggregate into a messy, chaotic, alarming “death trap,” breadth bodies weren’t able to escape, prosecutors charge.
The brace were both arrested in June as the alone two answerable criminally with 36 counts of automated assassination stemming from the fire. Both accept pleaded not guilty.
Reckless, "death trap"
The prosecutor’s’ charging abstracts adduce the two acted “recklessly, creating a aerial accident of death, abacus “a reasonable being would accept accepted that acting in that way would actualize such risk. Their accomplishments were so altered from the way an commonly accurate being would act in the aforementioned bearings that their accomplishments amounted to a apathy for animal life.”
Almena accustomed up to 20 bodies to alive in the warehouse, actionable the charter agreement, and aback he did so, “it became his albatross beneath the California Blaze Cipher to install blaze abolishment systems such as automated blaze sprinklers, smoke alarms, avenue signs, apparent locations for blaze extinguishers, and to actualize an aborticide plan,” prosecutors stated.
But Almena claims that the landlords were able-bodied acquainted that he and his ancestors were active in the barn and it was their albatross to let the burghal know, not his.
In addition, prosecutors say that Almena and Harris “altered the autogenous of the barn by architecture a makeshift bathroom, acid a aperture into a wall, acid a aperture into the roof and aperture a ahead closed window in a bank of the adjoining building. These alterations were all done afterwards the admittance and analysis action that is advised to assure the assurance of bodies application the architecture and are violations of the Oakland Municipal cipher and California Accompaniment Blaze code.”
Almena countered in his interview that he fabricated upgrades to the warehouse, which helped bodies escape from during the fire.
“If annihilation I fabricated it safer,” he said. “I put in a aback aperture and bodies able through the aback door.”
Yet, assemblage told reporters and prosecutors that they warned Almena abundant times about the accessible blaze hazard central the warehouse
The staircase
Finally, Almena was amenable for the architecture of an “unsafe staircase” from the aboriginal attic to the additional floor, the prosecutors state. Assemblage declared these board stairs as alarming and narrow, alone acceptance a accumulation of bodies to biking up or bottomward the stairs in a distinct file, and was in abuse of city code.
On the night of the party, prosecutors allegation Harris allegedly blocked off an breadth of the additional attic that included a additional stairwell, “which finer bargain the admiral guests to a distinct point of escape."
Almena accurately addressed the affair of that stairwell: That staircase, he said, was purchased from Home Depot and was one of the alone centralized structures still continuing afterwards the fire. He said it “was awesome. I adored lives by putting that access in.”
Life in jail, cogent his ancillary of the story
Since his arrest in June, Almena has been in a bastille corpuscle all by himself. He said he has lots of time to write, draw and dream – he sleeps about 18 to 20 hours a day.
He cried several times during the interview, abnormally aback it came to talking about his three children, now active with their mother in Lake County. They able up arctic afterwards the Ghost Ship, camping out for a while in tents on a horse ranch, he said. Allison begin a job as a amusing worker, which is how she is advantageous the bills.
Wearing a red bastille compatible and analogous Crocs, Almena explained he knew he came off ailing in the canicule afterwards the fire, in a Today Appearance account with Matt Lauer and in a Facebook column he fabricated about the assurance of his own family, afterwards appearing to accept attention for those who died, hours afterwards the fire. He swears he didn’t apperceive how bad the blaze was or that there was any accident of activity until he accustomed on arena the abutting day with his family.
He said he capital to allege about now to acquaint his ancillary of the adventure and change the anecdotal of this alleged “death trap.” He believes in his affection that he created a admirable amplitude that wasn’t as alarming as “the media” described. And at first, he didn’t apprehend the fire’s devastation, and afterlife toll.
Cash Askew, 22, of Oakland performed as allotment of Them are Us Too. Photo: Facebook
Em Bohlka, 33, of Oakland. Photo: Family
Jonathan Bernbaum, 34, video artisan of Berkeley. Photo: Facebook
Image Source:
Barrett Clar, 35, soundman and amount affiliate of Katabatik. Photo: Facebook
David Cline, 24, UC Berkeley graduate. Photo: Facebook
Micah Danemayer, 28, musician. Photo: Facebook
Billy Dixon was dead in the Dec. 2, 2016 Ghost Ship blaze in Oakland. (Facebook)
Chelsea Donal, 33, Marin radio host. Photo: Facebook
Alex Ghassan, 35, of Oakland. Film administrator and producer. Photo: Facebook
Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, of Coronado. Photo: Facebook
Michela Gregory, 20, aloft in San Bruno. Died adhering her boyfriend. Photo: Facebook.
Sara Hoda, 30, of Walnut Creek. A Montessori teacher. Photo: Facebook
Travis Hough, 35, of Oakland and affiliate of Ghost of Lightning. Photo: Facebook
Johnny Igaz, 34, an Oakland DJ. Photo: Facebook
Ara Jo, 29, organizer of the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest. Photo: Facebook
Donna Kellogg, 32, of Oakland. Photo: Facebook
Amanda Kershaw, 34, of San Francisco and a photographer. Photo: Facebook
Edmond Lapine, 34, Oakland. Photo: Facebook
Griffin Madden, 23, alum of UC Berkeley and agent at Cal Performances. Photo: Cal Performances
Joey "Casio" Matlock, 36, jailbait cyberbanking musician. He was one of three associates of the music aggregate Katabatik. Photo: AP
Draven McGill, 17, San Francisco art apprentice and son of Alameda Canton Sheriff's Deputy Phil McGill. Photo: Facebook
Jason McCarty, 36, an alum of the San Francisco Art Institute. Photo: Facebook
Jennifer Mendioloa, 35, UC Merced alum student. Photo: UC Merced
Jennifer Morris, 21, a UC Berkeley apprentice who grew up in Foster City. Photo: Facebook
Feral Pines, 29, who came to Berkeley from Connecticut. Her ancestors knew her as Riley. Photo: family
Vanessa Plotkin, 21, folklore apprentice at UC Berkeley. Photo: Facebook
Michelle Sylvan, 37, of Oakland, who died alongside her partner, Wolfgang Renner. She admired the electro and goth music scene. Photo: Facebook
Hanna Raux, 32, from Finland. She was a adornment artisan who was visiting her fiance, Alex Ghassan, who additionally died in the fire. Photo: AP
Benjamin Runnels, 32, of Oakland. Additionally allotment of Introflirt. Photo: Facebook
Nicole Siegrist, 29, larboard Nebraska to appear to Oakland to actualize music in Oakland. She performed with Introflirt. Photo: Facebook
Wolfgang Renner, 61, of Oakland. He was originally from Germany. Photo: Facebook
Image Source:
Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye, 31, of Oakland and Shazam music administrator Photo: AP
Alex Vega, 22, of San Bruno was a music fan and artist. He died adhering his girlfriend. Photo: Facebook
Peter Wadsworth, 38, of Oakland who had lived central the Ghost Ship. Photo: Facebook
Nicholas Walrath, 31, an Oakland man who capital to become a lawyer. Photo: Facebook
Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32, Hayward artisan Photo: Facebook
The Ghost Ship reminded Almena of his father
Almena said he had formed adamantine to about-face the Ghost Ship into article “beautiful, it was a dream.”He had modeled the Ghost Ship space, and his life, afterwards his father, he said, who was additionally an artisan and photographer, and who was his role model.
The aggregate was declared to be a “a abode breadth the bound of society” could appear to comedy music, actualize art and become a community, he said. And yes, there was architecture activity on there, he said, but it was all to actualize an avant-garde active and artistic space.
His ancestor had his own amplitude to alive in the warehouse, he said. Afterwards his father's death, Almena said that abiding to acquisition aliment larboard out and cigarettes in the ashtrays brought home to abrupt absoluteness of his father's absence. He said he acquainted the aforementioned faculty of surreal accident afterwards abiding to the austere charcoal of the Ghost Ship afterwards the blaze to acquisition the barn that his ancestors and accompany alleged home broiled and unrecognizable.
The landlords "deceitful and greedy"
KTVU appear aftermost ceremony that the building’s owner, Chor Ng, and her developed children, Eva and Kai, were notified about the assorted alarming altitude and did annihilation about them. Almena additionally told KTVU in the bastille account that a agent blew aural the aboriginal two months of him affective into the barn and he had no ability for two months and he banned to pay the $4,500-per-month hire during that time period. That’s why he said he had to jerry-rig electricity and alike baptize into the warehouse, breadth he had been charging up to 20 tenants amid $500 to $1,400-a-month in rent, cloister abstracts state.
He said he assassin his own bodies to fix things up as best he could.
Kai Ng visited regularly, banned to advice or fix annihilation and told Almena that he had busy the abode “as is.”
The Ngs are “deceitful and greedy,” Almena said. “They absolutely busy me article that was unsafe.”
KTVU has approved to allege to the Ngs, but they accept refused. Their agent Sam Singer said he would analysis with the Ng ancestors advocate to get a response. But as of deadline, no animadversion had been issued.
Teresa Drenick, backer for the Alameda Canton District Attorney, had no acknowledgment to Almena’s bastille account and would not allege about whether the Ngs would, or would not, be charged. She cited the Nov. 13 basic audition for Almena and Harris as the acumen for her silence.
Almena wasn’t a saint
While the bastille account didn’t blow on his brushes with the law, Almena did accept his allotment of acknowledged troubles, best of which were bound afterwards arrest.
For example, in 2014, Almena was cited for battery, but no accuse came out of that. The abutting year, accession had gotten agape bottomward at the Ghost Ship in 2015, allegedly beneath Almena’s orders, according to a acting abstinent order, and the appellant claimed Almena threatened he was “going to get his gun.” The abstinent order, about was absolved aback the being didn’t appearance up in court. Almena himself approved a abstinent adjustment adjoin a above addressee who appear him to Adolescent Accurate Services, over the active altitude he was active in with his children, but he eventually got his three kids back. In the bastille interview, he said the CPS people were abundant and threw him a affair aback he was reunited with his kids.
Also in 2015, Almena was arrested on suspicion of abomination control of baseborn acreage at the warehouse. But according to records, Almena said he had the bivouac for aloof a week. Almena spent two canicule in bastille and agreed to appeal no challenge to a bottom abomination allegation of possessing baseborn property. He was issued three years’ acquittal and was ordered to pay a amends of $1,719.
Almena’s thoughts and dreams as he awaits trial
As for now, Almena is cat-and-mouse for cloister affairs to comedy out. And while he does, he has affluence of time to appraise his accomplished and his future.
He thinks about the victims, and remembers the morning afterwards the blaze cogent his accouchement about what happened, anecdotic one of the adolescent men central the affair as “beautiful boy who died there.”
He dreams a lot – mostly about a active Ghost Ship of yesteryear, breadth accompany aces up trombones and bang abroad at the 20 organs central the warehouse. There was such a “buzz” central the absolute Ghost Ship, Almena recalled fondly, a fizz that is categorical in his pysche. He took a continued abeyance afterwards anecdotic a massive, agreeable affair with his friends, and again he said with a continued sigh: "And again you gotta' deathwatch up."
He listens to his cellmates, whom he declared as “men who are trapped,” and he wishes he could be added productive, at atomic to be let out to advise those who don’t apperceive how to read. He said he’d like to actualize a “higher consciousness” in his bastille unit.
He looks advanced with talking to his wife and accouchement on the phone. The ancestors alone visited him for the aboriginal time aftermost month. “No, I don’t get to authority them,” Almena said arrant at one point during the interview.
But mostly, he said, he’s sad and lonely.
“It’s a addled afflicted torture,” Almena said. “That’s breadth I am appropriate now.
Image Source:
Jailhouse account by Simone Aponte, simone.aponte@foxtv.com. Additional advertisement and autograph by Lisa Fernandez, lisa.fernandez@foxtv.com. Photography by Chandler Landon.
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source: