The enduring mystery of the Kyle Rittenhouse criminal trial, which went to a jury Tuesday, has been the identity of "Jump Kick Man." As Rittenhouse ran away from a crowd of people, he testified that one of the pursuers hit him in the head with his skateboard. When Rittenhouse fell to the ground, Jump Kick Man flew through the air and stomped on his head. Rittenhouse fired two shots at Jump Kick Man, but missed.
Almost immediately, the man who had struck Rittenhouse with his skateboard, Anthony Huber, hit him with the skateboard again, and Rittenhouse fired a single round, killing Huber. A third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, saw this and approached Rittenhouse with his hands up. However, when Rittenhouse looked down for a split second, Grosskreutz pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Rittenhouse's head. Rittenhouse fired a single shot, striking Grosskreutz in the arm.
Jump Kick Man, whose attack on Rittenhouse (and Rittenhouse's subsequent response) arguably led to both Huber's and Grosskreutz's actions (and Rittenhouse's response to them), has never been identified--until now.
"The Dan O'Donnell Show" can now report exclusively that Jump Kick Man is a 40-year-old Black male from Kenosha with an extensive criminal record who was at the time of the Rittenhouse shootings on probation following a conviction for domestic violence battery. He faced a maximum sentence of nine months in jail, but less than two months before he kicked Rittenhouse, he accepted a plea deal that netted him 12 months' probation. The following year, he violated the terms of his probation and was sentenced to seven months in jail.
Had Jump Kick Man been sentenced to even two months in jail instead of probation, he would not have been in Kenosha the night of the shootings. His kick, which prompted Rittenhouse to fire two shots at him, may well have provoked Huber to strike Rittenhouse with his skateboard a second time, causing Rittenhouse to shoot and kill him. That in turn prompted Grosskreutz to advance on Rittenhouse and draw his handgun on him, which caused Rittenhouse to shoot him in the arm.
Jump Kick Man's actions likely set these events in motion, and thus had he not been on the streets of Kenosha that night, it is entirely possible that Huber and Grosskreutz would not have been shot.
"The Dan O'Donnell Show" is not naming Jump Kick Man, as he has not been criminally charged in connection with the Rittenhouse case. Sources indicate that he contacted prosecutors and offered to testify, but in exchange requested immunity from an ongoing drunk driving and domestic abuse case with which he was charged in June. Prosecutors declined his offer and chose not to call him as a witness in the Rittenhouse case.
According to online court records, Jump Kick Man has a criminal record that dates back more than two decades, with multiple felony convictions for car theft, ID theft, drug possession, and escaping custody. Given this and a recent prior conviction for misdemeanor battery (and a subsequent probation revocation), Jump Kick Man should have been sentenced to at least some jail time following his most recent conviction.
His earliest conviction listed in the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access online database is for felony escape, meaning that he had already been in custody or convicted of a crime and in the penal system. That offense is not listed in the database, but he was sentenced to two years in prison and five years of extended supervision on the escape charge.
Upon his release--and while he was on extended supervision--he was convicted of possession of THC and sentenced to five days in jail in 2003. After another THC possession conviction got him one year of probation in 2007, he violated the terms of that probation when he was arrested on multiple counts of felony identity theft in early 2008.
Amazingly, he reached a plea deal that allowed him to avoid prison time and was sentenced to just three years' probation. Less than four months later, he escaped arrest in a separate incident and was sentenced to a year in jail. Almost as soon as he was released, he was convicted of car theft and again sentenced to probation.
That arrest apparently violated the terms of his probation from the identity theft conviction. As a result, Jump Kick Man was sentenced to two years in prison and two years of extended supervision.
In 2013, he was convicted of both drug possession and obstructing an officer as a repeat offender and sentenced to six months in jail.
Three years later, though, he was charged as a repeat offender with domestic violence-related disorderly conduct but avoided jail time and got two years' probation. Unsurprisingly, in 2018 he violated the terms of that probation and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.
At this point, Jump Kick Man had been sentenced to probation in three different cases and violated the terms of that probation every single time. Still, a judge last June sentenced him to probation yet again...and yet again he violated the terms of that probation earlier this year.
Had the judge used common sense and recognized that probation serves as no deterrent to Jump Kick Man, that judge might have imposed at least some jail time. For two straight decades, Jump Kick Man continued to commit crimes while on probation and it should have therefore come as no surprise that while he was on probation for domestic violence, he would be part of a mob that had descended on Kenosha.
He likely should have been in jail, though, and was not only because he received yet another break from the Kenosha County criminal justice system. In a very real sense, this break may have indirectly led to the death of Anthony Huber and shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz.