The owner of a former Clinton Township business that exploded in 2024 and killed a 19-year-old bystander was ordered to stand trial again on an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Noor Noel Kestou, 34, was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court again on Thursday, Aug. 13, following a second preliminary examination before 41B District Judge Sebastian Lucido in Clinton Township, according to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. An involuntary manslaughter charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Kestou owned and operated Goo Smoke Shop/Select Distributors, where a fire triggered a series of explosions on March 4, 2024. The warehouse contained thousands of improperly stored nitrous oxide and butane canisters, Clinton Township officials
previously said.
Bystander Turner Salter, 19, of Clinton Township, was killed when a cylinder hit him in the head, and a township firefighter was injured.
Kestou was initially ordered to stand trial in October, but Macomb Circuit Court Judge Michael Servitto sent the case back to district court on March 27 after finding that prosecutors had not sufficiently established proximate cause — the required legal connection between Kestou’s conduct and Salter’s death.
Servitto wrote that the district court had “abused its discretion in finding probable cause that the intensity of the fire and its ensuing explosions were foreseeable."
He ordered further proceedings to determine whether Kestou’s storage of the canisters created a hazard that proximately caused Salter’s death. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said testimony addressing that issue was presented during the Thursday, Aug. 13, preliminary examination.
Kestou’s attorneys previously argued that prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence that Kestou was grossly negligent or that any gross negligence caused Salter’s death. Prosecutors countered that testimony showed Kestou either ignored or was willfully blind to laws and regulations intended to protect people from hazardous chemicals.
According to testimony from the initial preliminary examination, the warehouse held as many as 30 pallets of nitrous oxide weighing more than 70,000 pounds. Authorities were unable to determine what caused the fire.
“It is alleged that events of March 4, 2024, resulted in the tragic loss of a young man’s life, while also creating a serious threat to our community and the first responders who were there,” said Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido in a statement on Thursday, Aug. 13. “Now that the defendant has been bound over again, we will move forward with the prosecution and continue to seek justice for the victim and his family.”
Kestou's attorneys could not be reached for comment.
Kestou is scheduled to be arraigned before Servitto in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens on Monday, Aug. 24.
Reporter Christina Hall contributed to this report.
Nour Rahal is a trending and breaking news reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Email her at nrahal@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Owner of Clinton Twp. building that exploded bound over for trial again
