California judge rejects plea deal in Oakland warehouse fire

The Associated Press

7 years ago

This combination of file June 2017 booking photos released by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office shows Max Harris, left, and Derick Almena, at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, Calif. T(Alameda County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)

The Ghost Ship Warehouse after a fire swept through the building in Oakland, Calif. on Dec. 3, 2016. (KGO-TV via AP, File)

A member of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, left, carries away a pallet outside the site of a warehouse fire in Oakland, Calif.on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

OAKLAND, Calif. — A judge is rejecting the plea deals of two men who were charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter after a 2016 California warehouse fire.

Judge James Cramer said Friday that 48-year-old Derick Almena didn’t accept “full responsibility and remorse.”

The plea deal called for sentencing Almena to nine years in prison and 28-year-old Max Harris to six years. Relatives of victims of the deadly blaze had slammed the proposed sentences as too lenient.

Almena’s attorney, Tony Serra, told reporters after the hearing that he will take the case to trial.

Prosecutors have charged the two men turned the warehouse into a residential death trap by cluttering it with highly flammable knick-knacks and blocking the few exits.