Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense has filed a mistrial alleging prosecutors withheld evidence. The jury has resumed deliberations Wednesday morning for a second day.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys Mark Richards and Corey Chirafisi filed a motion for a mistrial with prejudice.
Attorneys said in the motion that prosecutors questioned Rittenhouse’s Fifth Amendment right during the trial, causing the judge to excuse the jury and warn the prosecution.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys also allege that prosecutors provided them with a compressed low-quality drone video but played a higher-quality one at trial.
Attorneys called prosecutors’ conduct “clearly intentional” and said it was grounds for a mistrial.
Rittenhouse, 18, is facing charges of first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree reckless homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Juror numbers 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52 were dismissed Tuesday morning, leaving 12 jurors to begin deliberations.
“You’ve been wonderful jurors,” Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder told the six jurors that were dismissed but will still be alternates. “We couldn’t of asked for a higher quality jury, better jurors, more attentive jurors, more prompt jurors.”
The jury began deliberations Tuesday morning around 9:15 a.m. following two weeks of trial proceedings.
The jury was released for the day around 5:50 p.m. Tuesday after approximately seven and a half hours of deliberations, not including their hour lunch break.
The jury reconvened for day two of deliberations Wednesday morning at an unspecified time, according to the judge’s courtroom reporter.
On Monday, Rittenhouseโs defense team requested Schroeder dismiss count 6, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.
Prosecutors objected to the request and Schroeder granted the dismissal of the charge due to state law that says people ages 16 and 17 can carry long-barreled rifles, but not short-barreled rifles.
Earlier in the trial, Schroeder dismissed Rittenhouseโs count 7, failure to comply with an emergency management order.
Prosecutors and the defense finished closing arguments on Monday.
Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger criticized Rittenhouse for falsely claiming to be an EMT and called him an “active shooter” and a “fraud.”
Binger said Rittenhouse provoked the shootings by threatening others.
โIf youโre the one whoโs threatening others, you lose the right to claim self-defense,โ Binger said.
Mark Richards, Rittenhouse’s lead attorney, said Rittenhouse acted in self-defense against a “mob.”
โEvery person who was shot was attacking Kyle. One with a skateboard, one with his hands, one with his feet, one with his gun,” Richards said.