Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother is asking for donations to help cover her son’s legal bills.
Wendy Rittenhouse made the appeal for donations in an email and estimated that Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal costs for the month of November alone will be around $110,000, according to CNN.
FreeKyleUSA, the Kyle Rittenhouse Defense Fund, sells Rittenhouse merch to raise funds and as of March 1 claimed to have raised over $460,000, according to a post made on the group’s Twitter page in June.
Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with five felonies: first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, after shooting three men, two fatally, at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year after police shot unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake.
“We have been fighting an extremely uphill battle from the beginning,” Wendy Rittenhouse wrote in the email. “But with the support of thousands of our fellow Americans we have put up a big fight.”
The jury began deliberations on Tuesday. Rittenhouse randomly selected the 12 jurors who will decide the outcome of his trial. A pool reporter in the courtroom said the final jury panel is made up of five men and seven women, according to CNN.
“Both the prosecution and my son Kyle’s defense team have finished their closing arguments and I am beyond nervous,” Wendy Rittenhouse wrote in the email.
Jurors are able to consider lesser offenses for two of the five counts. Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a misdemeanor weapons possession charge and a non-criminal curfew violation prior to deliberations, CNN reports.
If convicted on the most serious charge, first-degree intentional homicide, he could face life in prison.
