Three months after prosecutors moved to revoke his probation for possessing bows and arrows and a single bullet, former Ghost Ship warehouse master tenant Derick Almena has been absolved.
On Friday morning, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy found Almena’s possession of the items did not constitute a violation of his probation condition against possessing weapons. Almena has been out of jail since the Aug. 25 probation search of his Ukiah home where the items were found.
Almena’s lawyer, the famed criminal defense attorney Tony Serra, argued that the items weren’t weapons, as prosecutors contended. The arrows were stubbed and intended for target practice, while the bullet was part of a shrine Almena’s wife erected to memorialize gun violence victims, Serra said.
Almena has been a controversial figure in the East Bay since the December 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland claimed 36 lives, mostly attendees of a dance party. Almena, who was at a hotel with his family during the blaze, was largely blamed for unsafe conditions, including a wooden staircase leading up to the dance floor, no fire exit signs, RVs parked on the first floor and numerous pianos, organs and other flammable material packed inside the maze-like, 10,000-square-foot property in the Fruitvale District.
In January 2021, Almena pleaded no contest to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each person killed in the fire. He was sentenced two months later, with barely a year left on his 12-year sentence, which was reduced due to time served and good behavior in jail.
Source: www.mercurynews.com