Ghost Ship trial defense opens its case, as its key witness allowed to testify, says group of men were ‘happy’ about fire

A key witness for the defense was allowed to testify Monday, claiming she heard men talk about intentionally setting Ghost Ship fire.

OAKLAND — As the defense opened its case in the monthlong Ghost Ship trial Monday, a woman who said she heard a group of men celebrating that they set the fire at the warehouse in 2016 was allowed to testify.

Attorneys for defendant Max Harris, who is standing trial along with Derick Almena for 36 counts each of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of 36 people who perished in the warehouse fire during a dance party Dec. 2, 2016, brought in Sharon Evans as a witness. She testified last week in a hearing before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson, but outside the presence of a jury, to determine whether she would be allowed to testify. Monday was the start of the defense’s case, after the prosecution rested last week.

Evans was allowed to testify Monday morning, but not directly on what she said she heard a group of 14 to 19 men say that night as the fire was burning on 31st Avenue. She said she had seen the fire on her way back from a church event that night, and circled around the block 20 times to see it. Then she went to a Goodwill parking lot to order food from a taco truck, about a block or two from the fire, where she encountered the group of black-hooded men.

She testified that the group was laughing and happy about the fire.

But questions by Harris’ attorney Tyler Smith about what exactly the men said, were objected to by Assistant District Attorney Casey Bates as hearsay, and not allowed by the judge. Bates also poked holes in her statements she had made. She said for example, that she was at the taco stand around 9:30 p.m. But the Ghost Ship fire didn’t start until just before 11:30 p.m. that night.

Eventually, in cross-examination by Almena’s attorney Tony Serra, Evans was allowed to say one statement of what the men said to each other: “No one is going to make it out of the building alive,” she said.

This was because the prosecution had introduced a statement she had given to an investigator in April 2017 regarding a separate civil case. With this, Serra was able to ask about that interview, where she told the investigator about what the men said. When asked by Serra if the men talked about setting the fire, she said “yes.”

From the defense’s opening statements last month, attorneys said Evans allegedly heard the men say, “The way we put the wood there, they’re never getting out.”

This was significant for the defense, as it could support its claim that the fire was arson, and put reasonable doubt into the minds of the 12 jurors.

Evans said in testimony that she did not immediately go to police with the information because she was afraid of retaliation from the group of men.

Harris’ attorneys also called witness Michael Russell, who was living at the Ghost Ship warehouse the night of the fire. Russell, who previously testified at a preliminary hearing in December 2017, said he witnessed a woman screaming when he was making his escape out of the warehouse that night.

“She was frantically screaming: ‘This is the will of the spirits of the forest. Don’t come downstairs,’ ” Russell said Monday.

He testified that the woman was standing, facing a hallway near the bottom of the front staircase of the warehouse. But in his previous testimony, he said the woman was sitting in a wicker chair, screaming “like a horror movie.”

Russell also said moments before he realized there was a fire, he was in his space, an RV Airstream, and heard a “scuffle” outside, like a group of people fighting. When he went outside his RV to see what was going on, he saw an orange glow coming from the back of the warehouse. He also saw several people running toward the exit, who he said may have been men.

This “scuffle” could also support the defense’s claims that the fire was intentionally set.

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