A federal judge declared a mistrial for the man accused of deliberately igniting the Palisades Fire after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested in October 2025 and charged with destruction of property by means of fire and pleaded not guilty after being charged in the Palisades Fire in January 2025.Ten of the California jurors thought Rinderknecht was not guilty, while two thought he was."The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible for igniting the fire on January 1, 2025, which eventually became the Palisades fire," United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in a post on X.
"We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts."On Thursday afternoon, jurors said they had reached a verdict only to come back 30 minutes later to say that they had no verdict.LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCASTA firefighter battles the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon in Los Angeles on Jan.11, 2025.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, the suspect facing charges related to the blaze, is shown at right.(Jae C.
Hong/AP; Department of Justice/Reuters)"Would an additional instruction or the re-reading of any testimony help the jury in their deliberations?" the judge asked."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," the jury replied.In total, estimates say the fire caused $35 billion and $45 billion in damage and led to the deaths of 12 people.During the trial, behavioral analyst Kevin Kelm testified he believes Rinderknecht's behavior is similar to someone who is driven by "societal revenge."Kelm said that in cases of societal revenge, the suspect typically focuses on personal problems such as finance, relationships, work, lifestyle or anything they're not capable of dealing with on a daily basi...