OAKLAND — It’s taken more than four years since an inferno engulfed the Ghost Ship warehouse, but on Friday the families of the 36 people inside who perished that day finally heard the word they have been waiting for from the person primarily blamed for the tragedy: Guilty.
As part of a controversial plea deal, Derick Almena, 50, pleaded guilty to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of three dozen people killed Dec. 2, 2016, while attending a dance party. Although the deal negotiated by prosecutors and his defense attorneys calls for a prison sentence of 12 years, he isn’t expected to return to Santa Rita Jail or any other prison because of jail time already served and credit for good behavior there.
More likely, Almena will continue to wear an ankle monitor another year and a half in his Lake County home, then go on three years of supervised probation.
But when he reappears in court on March 8 to be formally sentenced, some of the victims’ family members hope they’ll be able to sway Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson to toss the deal just as another judge had done almost three years ago.
That’s when family members will be allowed to tell the court how the deaths of their loved ones impacted their lives. And they’ve already been verbal in expressing their disappointment that Almena won’t serve more time, depicting the plea deal as a slap on the wrist.
Colleen Dolan, mother of Chelsea Faith Dolan, said in an interview last week she was “beyond disappointed” with the sentence Almena is set to receive. Dolan said she feels at this point all she can do is ask the judge to give Almena more jail time.
“We can make our voices heard. All we can do is speak up and represent our children,” Dolan said.
Family members did just that in August 2018. After listening to two days of their heart-wrenching statements, Judge James Cramer rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in lenient statements for Almena and his co-defendant at the time, Max Harris. Contributing to that decision was the judge’s perception that Almena showed no remorse for the tragedy.
Mary Alexander, an attorney who represents most of the victims’ family members in a civil lawsuit, said she doesn’t expect that to happen this time.
“Just the way things are posturing, I would doubt it would change anything,” Alexander said.
She said the families are “gut-wrenched” and “outraged” that Almena could remain free and will convey their pain to Judge Thompson.
“Their children are never coming back … it’s so little time for killing 36 people,” Alexander said. “There’s simply no justice.”
Settlements have been reached between victims’ families and the city of Oakland and PG&E, and one is pending with the warehouse’s owners, the Ng family.
On Friday, Thompson read aloud all 36 counts along with the names of the deceased, then asked Almena, “How do you plead?” His answer to each count: “Guilty.”
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the hearing was mostly conducted electronically. Thompson allowed family members to watch livestream video but restricted the media and other members of the public to audio-only streaming.
Friday’s proceeding, including the judge’s reading of all the names of the three dozen victims who included DJs, artists, sound engineers and friends, took about 10 minutes.
If Almena violates any terms of the plea deal, he can be sentenced to up to 39 years in state prison. He has been out of custody since May after posting a $150,000 bail bond. He was released because his attorney had argued Almena’s condition made him susceptible to COVID-19 and has been confined to his house in Lake County since then; he was first arrested in June 2017.
Almena was supposed to face a retrial this year after a jury deadlocked 10-2 in September 2019 in favor of a conviction following a four-month trial. His co-defendant, Max Harris, was found not guilty.
Almena’s attorney, Tony Serra, made clear after the 2019 trial that his team wanted to go to trial and stated it “will win next time.” Prosecutors also struck a hard line back then, saying that after the botched 2018 plea deal they wouldn’t engage in any more negotiations for a plea deal.
Family members were told of the new plea bargain last week by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office during a Zoom video conference. According to Sami Long Kopelman, the mother of 34-year-old victim Edmond Lapine, prosecutors cited several reasons for agreeing to a plea deal, ranging from the continuing coronavirus pandemic to concerns about finding an impartial jury pool because of the publicity surrounding the case to the public’s general mistrust in government.
Almena signed a lease for the warehouse in 2013 as its master tenant with the understanding it would be used only as an artists collective. But the prosecution alleged he illegally rented out the warehouse as living space to others, allowing it to be turned into a fire trap, crammed with art, furniture, pianos and other items.
The warehouse also was used for dance parties, much like the one that was taking place in 2016 when the fire broke out. The flames spread so quickly that most people on the second floor were trapped. No fire sprinklers had been installed or lighted exit signs put up, and partygoers who tried to flee by descending the narrow, unstable makeshift front stairs from the second floor couldn’t move fast enough to escape the flames and smoke.
Although the cause of the fire was never officially determined, it was suspected as electrical.
In the days after the blaze, city officials discovered that the warehouse had never been inspected — despite multiple complaints over the years and visits from both Oakland firefighters and police who expressed alarm about the potential fire danger.
