Deadly Palisades Fire Defendant's Case Ends in Mistrial as Jury Remains Deadlocked
A judge presiding over the case of the suspect accused of starting the Pacific Palisades fire declared a mistrial Friday after the jury said they were deadlocked.
U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang declared the mistrial after jurors told her that both sides “are unwilling to change their opinion” and that the jury was “at a standstill,” according to NBC News.
The decision came after a nearly three-week trial during which the prosecution sought to convince the jury to convict former Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire.
The good news for those who seek justice in the case is that Hwang has already scheduled a retrial to start on Oct. 19 and, more importantly, decreed that Rinderknecht must remain in federal custody pending the new trial.
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.
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) June 26, 2026
During the trial, prosecutor Danbee C. Kim portrayed Rinderknecht as an extremely angry, resentful man full of rage and hate.
“On Jan. 1, 2025, Jonathan Rinderknecht started a fire on a hill in the Pacific Palisades,” Kim said in closing statements. “He was angry all the time. He believed he was enslaved by the wealthy. He didn’t understand why the ‘rich losers’ and the ‘motherf***ers at the top’ had it all.”
Earlier in the trial, according to CNN, Kim’s team pointed to evidence showing that Rinderknecht had used the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT to generate images of fire, and that he’d at one point asked it, “Why am I so angry all the time?”
Similarly, Kim’s team had some of the suspect’s Uber passengers testify that he was “enraged,” “irritable,” and reckless while driving them, often ranting about his hatred for President Donald Trump and his fascination with alleged murderer Luigi Mangione.
Defense attorney Steve Haney pushed back by arguing that his client’s mindset was irrelevant, and that all that mattered was whether prosecutors could “prove he set” the Palisades Fire.
After the mistrial was declared, Haney further argued that the fact that 10 out of 12 jury members had voted “not guilty” — including the woman below — was an “overwhelming message” that the prosecution’s case was weak.
There should be basic critical thinking tests before being allowed to be a juror
A juror in the federal arson trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, who was accused of setting the Pacific Palisades fire, says she couldn’t find him guilty because she gets sad all the time and talks to… pic.twitter.com/2aLK65Fs6t
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) June 27, 2026
But KTLA legal analyst Alison Triessl noted that, judging by some of the evidence presented by the government, the opposite appeared to be at least somewhat true.
“The circumstantial case that the federal government had was pretty strong,” she said after Friday’s court decision. “So they had someone they painted as an angry, hateful, ‘I want to take revenge against the rich.’ He had these images he had created about cities burning down.”
“A green lighter with his DNA is found in his car. The cellphone data has him right near the scene within 30 feet of where the initial fire was set. And he makes some statements that the government says were incriminating,” she added.
However, during the course of the trial, Haney drew attention to frantic 911 calls his client had made right after the initial fire erupted.
“Have you ever heard of an arsonist calling 911 multiple times and then staying at the scene?” he asked arson expert Edward Michael Nordskog.
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