The attorneys for Ghost Ship defendant Derick Almena filed a motion to dismiss his 36 counts of manslaughter for the deadly 2016 fire, citing that even experts do not know the cause of the fire.
“If the origin and cause of the fire is unknown, how can defendants defend themselves?” wrote attorneys Tony Serra and Brian Getz in the motion filed Tuesday ... The inside was filled with furniture, rugs, art and musical instruments, and the labryinth-like interior and thick smoke made it impossible for many guests on the second floor to find their way down make-shift stairs to poorly marked exits.
But in the motion filed by Almena’s attorneys, they argue these items were destroyed in the fire. The items were necessary to determine the cause and origin of the fire and without them, they are “stymied and fatefully declare that the cause and the origin of the fire is not known.”