A Ventura County Superior Court docket decide declared on Wednesday that there was sufficient proof to carry for trial a Moorpark man accused within the demise of counterprotester Paul Kessler final 12 months.
Decide Ryan Wright determined that Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, 51, would stand trial after listening to 18 witnesses over a two-day preliminary listening to, in response to the Ventura County district attorney’s office.
Alnaji was charged with two felonies: involuntary manslaughter and battery inflicting severe bodily harm with particular allegations of personally inflicting nice bodily hurt harm on every depend, in response to district lawyer’s spokesperson Joey Buttitta. If discovered responsible of all expenses, Alnaji may spend as much as 4 years in jail.
Alnaji posted $50,000 bail. He couldn’t be reached for remark.
Alnaji’s and Kessler’s lives endlessly modified on Nov. 5 at a pro-Palestinian rally at Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards in Thousand Oaks.
The location had been often called a gathering level for pro-Palestianian teams protesting Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in response to the Oct. 7 assault on Israel by Hamas.
Kessler, 69, carried an Israeli flag and joined a gaggle of counterprotesters. In complete, about 100 individuals had been on the intersection.
A “bodily confrontation” broke out between Kessler and Alnaji, by which Alnaji allegedly bludgeoned Kessler with a megaphone, in response to the district lawyer. Kessler fell to the bottom bleeding with extreme head accidents.
He died the following day at a hospital.
Proof offered within the preliminary listening to by Courtney Lewis, senior deputy district lawyer, included DNA evaluation of Kessler’s blood discovered on the rim of a megaphone that Alnaji is accused of utilizing to hit the person.
Kessler’s cellphone video that exhibits the moments main as much as the assault was additionally submitted as proof.
County health worker Dr. Othon Mena additionally testified about Kessler’s explanation for demise. Mena stated Kessler died from blunt pressure trauma brought on by the blow from the megaphone and the following fall.
The district lawyer’s workplace stated that though antisemitic hate speech befell that day, it couldn’t hyperlink something to Alnaji.
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