A pro-Palestinian professor charged with killing a 69-year-old Jewish dad during an anti-Israel protest in southern California in 2023 will not stand trial after he plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
The 54-year-old Moorpark resident Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery causing serious bodily injury related to the death of Paul Kessler, the Ventura County District Attorney’s office said in a press release on Tuesday.
Alnaji-who teaches computer science at Moorpark College-and Kessler were both protesting the Israel-Hamas war during dueling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations in Thousand Oaks in 2023 when Alnaji struck the Jewish demonstrator in the head with a megaphone.
The DA said the blow to the head caused Kessler to fall to the ground, where he then struck his head on the pavement, later dying from injuries he sustained in the clash.
In addition to pleading guilty, Alnaji admitted the “aggravating factors that he used a weapon and that the victim was particularly vulnerable” and that he had “personally inflicted great bodily injury to Kessler,” the DA noted.
Because Alnaji was not convicted he will likely get formal probation with up to a year behind bars, per the DA. He was facing up to four years in prison for the crime.
“Alnaji should be sentenced to prison for his violent behavior, and our office strongly objects to any lesser sentence,” Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said in a statement.
“While no amount of punishment will ever fully account for the Kessler family loss, a prison commitment underscores the severity of this crime and will deter others from committing similar acts of violence.”
“Mr. Alnaji made a thoughtful decision today, one guided by his family’s well-being and a deep concern for community peace,” Alnaji’s attorney, Ron Bamieh, told The Post,
“The tragedy that befell Mr. Kessler, compounded by the geopolitical tensions surrounding Israel and Gaza, led Mr. Alnaji to reconsider pursuing a full trial,” he added.
Bamieh claimed it was Kessler who approached his client and “thrust a cellphone in his face while making inflammatory accusations.”
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The professor then allegedly was trying to knock the phone out of Kessler’s hand when he struck the victim in the head, the attorney said.
“Mr. Kessler suffered from an epidermoid cyst located on his brain stem—a rare condition that had previously caused balance problems and contributed to his falling weeks before the confrontation, witnessed by multiple people,” Mr. Bamieh added.
Bamieh said the issue at trial would’ve been over what made Kessler fall, was it the hit or the cyst.
Rabbi Noah Farkas with the Jewish Jewish Federation of Los Angeles reacted to Alnaji’s guilty plea.
“Alnaji’s admission of guilt to the heinous crime of killing Paul Kessler, an elderly Calabasas resident who was peacefully supporting his people, is a welcome development,” the Rabbi told The Post.
“It reinforces what our Jewish community has always known: That pro-Jewish and pro-Israel demonstrators are peaceful and law-abiding, while those who seek to destroy the Jewish people and Israel are not.”
Alnaji is out of jail on $50,000 bail and will be back in court for sentencing June 25.
