Kyle Rittenhouse to face November trial for fatally shooting two men and wounding another at Kenosha protest
Kyle Rittenhouse is tentatively set to stand trial in Wisconsin in November for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during protests in Kenosha last summer.
Prosecutors and Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, agreed at a brief online hearing Wednesday morning they could not go forward with the trial on a murder charge and other counts on the original date of March 29. Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger cited ongoing DNA testing and “logistics with regard to the eventual jury,” among other issues.
Judge Bruce Schroeder set a new trial date of Nov. 1. Trials, however, are routinely delayed and it’s not clear whether the case will go forward then. The judge set a May 17 hearing on the status of preparations.
Schroeder asked Rittenhouse, 18, if he objected to the delay. The teen, appearing by video next to his attorney, removed his mask to say, “No, your honor.”
Rittenhouse, formerly of Antioch, remains free on $2 million bail.
The teen’s pretrial freedom has sparked repeated controversies. Most recently, prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to persuade the judge to issue an arrest warrant and increase the teen’s bond amount because he had failed to inform the courts of where he’s living as he awaits trial.
That came weeks after prosecutors took issue with Rittenhouse visiting a southern Wisconsin bar immediately after his arraignment in a T-shirt reading “Free as (expletive).” Cameras captured the teen flashing hand signs appropriated by white supremacist groups, and a group of men serenaded Rittenhouse with a song purportedly favored by the Proud Boys, an extremist group.
In response, Schroeder ordered that Rittenhouse “shall not knowingly have contact with any person or group of persons known to harm, threaten, harass or menace others on the basis of their race, beliefs on the subject of religion, color, national origin, or gender.” The teen’s lawyers have said he has no ties to extremist groups.
Rittenhouse shot the men with an AR-15-style rifle during chaotic demonstrations that followed white police Officer Rusten Sheskey shooting Jacob Blake, who is Black, several times in the back at close range.
Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26. A third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, who prosecutors have said was armed with a handgun, survived the teen shooting him in the arm. Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued he shot all the men in self-defense.
