Ventura County DA Announces Manslaughter, Battery Charges Against Alleged Paul Kessler Killer

Ventura County District Attorney (DA) Erik Nasarenko announced that his office is charging the suspected killer of Jewish protester Paul Kessler with involuntary manslaughter and battery causing seriously bodily injury. However, they currently do not have requisite evidence to charge the suspect with a hate crime. The suspect has pleaded not guilty.

Sheriff Jim Fryhoff began the press conference by announcing that they arrested Loay Alnaji, 50, without incident at his Moorpark residence in connection to Kessler’s death on one count of involuntary manslaughter. Fryhoff said that the Sheriff’s department had interviewed more than 60 witnesses and reviewed 600 pieces of evidence, including “numerous hours of video” on electronic devices. The investigation is not yet complete, so Fryhoff encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

Nasarenko then said that the DA’s office approached the investigation “with an open mind” and that “never treated the fact that criminal charges would be a foregone conclusion.” But after reviewing the evidence, they decided to file the two charges against Alnaji, which include special allegations that Alnaji “personally inflicted great bodily injury upon Paul Kessler.” These offenses count as strikes under California’s three strikes law, “which makes punishment prison eligible,” Nasarenko said.

The DA explained that involuntary manslaughter means that a person was killed “without malice.” “We received no evidence no statements no information whatsoever that the defendant arrived at that intersection … with the intent to kill, injure or harm anyone,” Nasarenko said. However, Alnaji engaged in “reckless conduct that carried with it a high risk of death or great bodily injury,” Nasarenko alleged. The battery charge means “willful touching of another in a harmful or offensive way that results in significant or serious bodily injury.”

Nasarenko said the  “task was to search for the truth and to achieve clarity in this case and that is what we have done,” adding that this was not easy due to the “disparate, often conflicting interpretations and statements and the fragmentary nature of the evidence.” But ultimately they were able to file charges after “additional important pieces of information came forward” regarding “new physical and forensic evidence as well as findings regarding the injuries to the left side of Paul Kessler’s face,” Nasarenko  explained. Additionally, the DA’s office was able to establish “a clear sequence of events leading up to the confrontation” between Alnaji and Kessler due to video and photo evidence. The medical examiner’s office had concluded that Kessler suffered nonlethal injuries to his face and lethal injuries to the back of his head that were consistent with a fall.

Murder charges were not filed against Alnaji because the DA’s office concluded that Alnaji had “no intent” to murder anyone, according to Nasarenko. Regarding hate crime charges, the DA said that they currently do not have enough evidence available “meet the elements of a hate crime” but they are continuing to investigate the matter.

Nasarenko acknowledged that the under the criminal justice system, just because someone has been charged with a crime does not mean that they have actually committed said crime and that every individual has the right of presumption of innocence and due process under the law.

Alnaji pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday afternoon. His lawyer, Ron Bamieh, succeeded in lowering Alnaji’s bail from $1 million to $50,000 but failed to get his client released on recognizance.

Speaking outside the courthouse to reporters after the arraignment, Bamieh argued that video footage would clear Alnaji. “While [Kessler] may have been pushed or hit by a megaphone, that’s not what caused his fall,” Bamieh claimed, per The New York Post. “When he fell, my client was six-to-eight feet away from him, and that will be the evidence that we present when we finally get this thing in front of a judge and jury.” The lawyer posited that Kessler may have “tripped on that sign or something,” per The Los Angeles Times.

Bamieh also alleged that Kessler was shouting obscenities at pro-Palestinian protesters and “he put his phone in the face of my client and my client brushed the phone away,” the Thousand Oaks Acorn reported.

Bamieh described his client as a “a man of peace, who abhors violence, and believes in the truth of persuasive arguments and education, never violence” in a statement, per the Associated Press (AP).

At his press conference, Nasarenko said that he and Fryhoff spoke with the Kessler family for about half an hour on Thursday. “They are mourning, they are grieving, and they are asking for privacy during this very difficult period,” Nasarenko said. “We have heard about Paul Kessler and his positions about Israel, his political activism but I want to share with you just a few other details about Paul Kessler because in this process we should never forget that a human life was taken and a victim exists.” An experienced pilot, Kessler worked in medical sales and flew himself to his medical sales and marketing classes at satellite college campuses. He was married for 43 years and leaves behind a son. “We want to continue to remember and honor Paul Kessler and the tragic loss of life that has occurred,” Nasarenko  said.

He proceeded to thank Muslim and Jewish leaders in Ventura County for showing “restraint” during the investigation. “Their comments have been measured, the respect for the criminal process has become well known, they trusted law enforcement to arrive at this point,” Nasarenko  said.

During the Q&A portion of the press conference, Nasarenko  was asked about the status of the megaphone that was allegedly used to hit Kessler in the head; Nasarenko  replied that he could not comment on the status of the location of evidence.

As for the possibility of a hate crime charge, Nasarenko  said that the DA’s office is looking to see “whether or not the acts — the impact, the force — was accompanied by specific hate speech, specific statements or words that demonstrate an antipathy a hatred towards a specific group. We don’t have that at this point.”

Alnaji’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 4.