Attorneys for a Clinton Township warehouse owner say a district court judge abused his discretion when he ordered the owner to stand trial last fall for involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2024 explosion that killed a Macomb County teen.
Noor Kestou’s attorneys argued Monday that prosecutors cannot accuse Kestou of causing the fire inside his warehouse because he had too much nitrous oxide and butane in his facility, when investigators have not been able to determine a cause for the fire.
“To put a business owner on trial is an injustice. He didn’t have anything to do with this death,” attorney Peter Torrice argued Monday during a hearing for his motion to disregard the case being sent to stand trial from district court and to dismiss it.
When Kestou’s warehouse on 15 Mile exploded in March of 2024, thousands of nitrous oxide cylinders, butane containers and lithium batteries on the site flew as far as a mile away. One canister struck 19-year-old Turner Lee Salter in the head a quarter of a mile away, killing him. Investigators still do not know the cause of the fire.
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