Not guilty! That’s the verdict a jury handed down for the most serious charge a trio of BASE jumpers who dove off 1 World Trade Center in 2013 were facing. Prosecutors attempted to hit Andrew Rossig, 34, James Brady, 33, and Marko Markovich, 28, with felony burglary raps for entering the building with the intention of jumping off of it. But over the course of the two week trial, defense lawyers successfully argued that their clients couldn’t be convicted of that charge because of the statute, since it includes the words “therein,” and implies that their actions took place inside the structure. They jumped from the communications ring on the roof of the skyscraper and technically that’s outside the building, a sentiment the city’s own experts cemented with their testimony.
The men however, were convicted of two counts of reckless endangerment and BASE jumping, all of which are misdemeanors and most likely, won’t land them in jail when they’re sentenced in August. “This verdict represents the plea that we would have taken over a year ago had the District Attorney’s office not chosen to waste untold thousands of taxpayer dollars to make a failed political statement,” said Rossig’s attorney Tim Parlatore to the New York Post. (Photo: Bucky Turco/ANIMALNewYork)
