
Prosecutors finished presenting their case on Tuesday in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and Rittenhouse’s defense team began presenting their side.
As the trial resumed Tuesday morning, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said that someone was caught filming the jurors as they arrived in the courtroom on Monday.
Deputies forced the person to delete the video. Schroeder said “we’re very sensitive to this entire issue” and told the jury they were changing protocols to make sure it did not happen again.
James Armstrong, a senior forensic imaging specialist, was called to the stand to discuss drone footage taken when the shooting occurred.
Dr. Doug Kelley, the pathologist who conducted the autopsies on Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, was the prosecution’s final witness to be called to the stand.
Graphic images of the two deceased men were shown to the jury.
Kelley testified that Rosenbaum was shot a “few feet” away and had soot injuries on his hand, indicating Rosenbaum had his hand on or very close to Rittenhouse’s rifle when he was shot.
“There’s a fair amount of soot to the, like I said, the palmer surface of that hand. So clearly, this wound represents something closer to what I’d call a close-range gunshot wound,” Kelley said.
“So that hand was over the barrel of Mr. Rittenhouse’s gun when his hand was shot,” said Mark Richards, one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys. “That makes sense,” Kelley replied.
Before the lunch break, Rittenhouse’s lawyers pointed out how prosecutors never entered a lawful order about the curfew on August 25, 2020.
Schroeder granted the defense’s request to dismiss Rittenhouse’s charge of failing to comply with an emergency management order, which was count 7.
Six other charges remain, including first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Rittenhouse’s lawyers once again asked Schroeder to dismiss count 6, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, but Schroeder denied the request.
Prosecutors rested their case around 12:45 p.m. and the defense called their first witness, Nicholas Smith, to the stand.
Smith, who worked at Car Source from 2018 to 2019, has known the owners for about a decade.
Smith said on August 24, 2020, he received a phone call from Anmol “Sam” Khindri, who works at Car Source, which his father owns, asking Smith and another individual if they could “do anything about the fires” at Car Doctors, which is also owned by Khindri’s family.
Smith said he and others helped put out the fire at Car Doctors.
On the morning of August 25, Khindri called Smith and asked him to protect his businesses.
Smith reached out to Dominick Black later in the day and Rittenhouse offered Smith body armor for protection.
In the evening, Smith said Khindri gave him a hug and thanked him for coming. Khindri never told Smith to get off the property.
“He was very grateful for our presence,” Smith said.
Smith and others, including Rittenhouse, helped protect the business.
After the shootings later that night, Smith described Rittenhouse as “sweating” and “pale.” He said Rittenhouse kept repeating “I just shot someone” and “I had to shoot someone.”
Smith advised Rittenhouse to turn himself in to the police. Smith then left the location.
“And at that point, I had left the location because I was in fear that the protesters were going to come to that location,” Smith testified.
JoAnn Fiedler, who started a “patriot group” to show support for first responders, was called to the stand.
Fiedler came to Kenosha to help protect businesses and met others that were protecting property.
She testified that Khindri never told her to leave nor that she was trespassing.
Fiedler said Rittenhouse was offering medical aid to others.
“He was offering medic services. We had a girl walk up that, I don’t know if she broke her ankle or twisted her ankle, that he actually helped bandage her up so she could walk out cause her boyfriend kind of had to carry her,” Fiedler said.
Fiedler said Rosenbaum shouted at her group that “he was going to kill us motherf—ing n—-rs and cut our hearts out.”
Fiedler said she did not see Rittenhouse threaten or point his rifle at anyone. After the shootings, Fiedler described Rittenhouse as “pale” and “shaking.”
Nathan DeBruin, a freelance photojournalist, was called to the stand afterward.
DeBruin took photos of the events surrounding the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake on August 23, 2020, including the unrest on August 25.
Many of DeBruin’s photos included Rosenbaum and were turned over to law enforcement.
DeBruin heard several phrases from Rosenbaum on the night of August 25.
After a dumpster fire was extinguished with a fire extinguisher, DeBruin said Rosenbaum was “very agitated.”
“He was yelling ‘f–k the police’ over and over and over, ‘I’m not afraid to go back to jail,’ and ‘shoot me n-word, shoot me n-word,'” DeBruin said.
DeBruin witnessed Rittenhouse running away and the subsequent shootings of Huber and Grosskreutz.
“I observed two gentlemen run up to Kyle. One, it looked like, was trying to hop on top of him and take his gun and the other was hesitant of approaching him, but then Kyle Rittenhouse fired a shot and it hit Anthony Huber.”
DeBruin said Grosskreutz’s gun was pointing at Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse was within three feet of Grosskreutz when he shot him, DeBruin testified.
Lucas Zanim was the last witness to be called to the stand for the day. Zanim and his stepdaughter witnessed people destroying cars at Car Source.
Zanim’s stepdaughter was recording the incident at the other side of the car dealership when Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum.
Jurors were released at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday. The trial continues at 9 a.m. Wednesday.