Judge declares mistrial in the Palisades Fire arson case after jury hits a deadlock

After the jurors hit a deadlock, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang declared a mistrial in the arson trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, who is accused of starting the fire near the Palisades neighborhood on January 1, 2025, which eventually became one of the most destructive fires in Los Angeles’ history. 

Initially, the jury had indicated they had reached a verdict, but on Thursday they announced it was unable to reach a unanimous decision in the trial of 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, telling the judge in the case the panel was at a "standstill" in deliberations, with some jurors "unwilling to change their opinion." 

 "There is nothing the court can do to assist the jury in their deliberations. Additional instructions or rereading the testimony would not help in deliberations. Unfortunately, we cannot reach a unanimous verdict," wrote the jury in a note to the judge on Thursday. 

Judge Hwang brought the jurors into court Friday morning to resolve the deadlock with the jury, but no resolution was made. The jury foreperson told Hwang the panel of 12 had deadlocked at 10 for not guilty and two for guilty. The panel had deliberated for 13 hours over two days.

In response, Hwang declared a mistrial in the case, which has sparked a debate over the case.   

Shortly after news broke that the case was declared a mistrial, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayliannounced on X that his office will retry the case.

“The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible for igniting the fire on January 1, 2025, which eventually became the Palisades fire. We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts,” he said.

Out­side the courtroom, defense attor­ney Steve Haney said the jury “was not con­vinced bey­ond a reas­on­able doubt … and it wasn’t even close.”

“Ten to two is a pretty resound­ing indic­a­tion of what the jury felt about this case,” he said, “and we felt that way from the very begin­ning.”

Haney said a re-trial would likely end up with Rinderknecht being acquitted.

In a news con­fer­ence later, he added that “a hung jury on a ten to two ver­dict, to be frank, in most dis­tricts, you’re not going to have a retrial. But you will in this dis­trict.”

Judge Hwang scheduled a new trial date for October 19, 2026, and ordered that the defendant remain in custody. 

The Palisades Fire killed 12 people, burned 23,448 acres, cost billions in damage and insurance claims and destroyed much of the exclusive Pacific Palisades community, destroying about 6,800 structures.