OAKLAND, Calif. _ A woman who lived in an Airstream trailer inside the Ghost Ship warehouse in 2014 was so terrified by the mounds of wood scraps and shoddy electrical work there that she gave notice she was moving out after only three weeks, she testified Thursday.
"I didn't feel safe sleeping there because I thought it was possible that the place could burn down," Jennifer Turner said on the witness stand during the trial of Derrick Almena and Max Harris, who are both charged with 36 counts of manslaughter _ one for each dance partygoer who died in a December 2016 fire at the East Oakland warehouse.
Extension cords hung from the ceilings, Turner testified, adding that she was asked to purchase a 50-foot cord to power her trailer. It was hung from the ceiling and connected to a power distribution box _ or spider box _ outside.
Turner was questioned Wednesday and Thursday in the third and fourth days of testimony at the trial. Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Casey Bates' questions suggested the warehouse was dysfunctional and chaotic.
In their cross-examination of Turner, defense attorneys tried to cast doubt on her knowledge of what the space may have been like at the time of the fire, since she had not stepped foot inside the warehouse since early 2015.
Turner moved into the warehouse _ known at the time as Satya Yuga _ in November 2014, after seeing a Craigslist ad to rent out one of two trailers on the first floor of the Fruitvale warehouse for $600 a month, she said. The ad was titled "seeking surrealist pirate theater," Turner said.
Upon moving in, she paid a nonrefundable $600 "buy in" fee _ which she was told would be used for making improvements to the warehouse itself _ as well as first month's rent.
Almost immediately, she noticed safety issues, she said. There were piles of wood scraps, as well as furniture and other "flammable material" scattered throughout the space. At least five trailers were parked on the first floor of the building, some of which were occupied, she said.
There were two staircases to the second floor, she said: one built into the warehouse and the other strewn together with pallets she described as "rickety." Almena and his family were the only ones who lived upstairs, she said, so she didn't go up to the second floor much.
Apart from the safety concerns, she said she was put off by the shower and bathroom situations, as well as the noise. The bathrooms were dirty, and "a place I didn't want to set foot in," she said. She ended up taking showers at a nearby 24 Hour Fitness where she had a membership.
Almena would often work on projects during the early morning hours and get into screaming bouts with people, Turner said, making it hard for her to sleep. There were a few nights when she would stay in her car to get some sleep, she said.
Turner testified the warehouse lacked the community feel Almena had pitched to her when she was first thinking of moving in. She felt as though her $600 deposit would never actually be used to turn the place into the "surrealist pirate theater" mentioned in the ad, she said.
The final straw for Turner, though, was seeing police outside the warehouse in late 2014. Almena had been squabbling with someone else who lived there, and somebody _ the defense, during cross-examination, identified that person as Almena _ called the police. Though she did not see police officers go inside or know the full story of why they were there, just seeing them there made her feel anxious, she said. Turner then paid her $600 rent for December and announced she would be out in 30 days.
