A Los Angeles federal judge declared a mistrial on Friday after a jury could not reach a verdict for a 30-year-old man charged with setting one of the most destructive fires in California history.
The man, Jonathan Rinderknecht, had hiked up a trail above Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve in 2024 and a fire began nearby. It smoldered for a week and then exploded into the deadly Palisades blaze, which killed 12 and destroyed thousands of homes in and around the wealthy Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles.
Mr. Rinderknecht’s mistrial represented a stunning blow to the many residents seeking resolution and justice more than a year after losing their homes, and to one of the most intensive arson investigations in California history.
Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said that his office would retry Mr. Rinderknecht. “The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible,” he said in a statement posted to social media.
The judge ordered Mr. Rinderknecht held and set a new trial for Oct. 19.
Prosecutors argued that Mr. Rinderknecht, who had been living alone in a North Hollywood apartment and driving for Uber, had been resentful of the affluent. They said that he had developed an affinity for Luigi Mangione, who is charged with killing the chief executive of a health insurance company. Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty.
In the trial’s closing arguments, Danbee Kim, a prosecutor, told jurors in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that Mr. Rinderknecht had started the fire with a lighter as “societal revenge.”
Mr. Rinderknecht’s lawyer, Steven Haney, argued that New Year’s Eve fireworks had set it off.
“When you apply common sense to this case, serious questions remain,” Mr. Haney said.
The original fire scene was left unprotected for 12 days, destroying evidence, Mr. Haney said. Of 9,000 or so videos compiled in the investigation, none caught the ignition. And no one identified the exact time the fire started, he said.
“Where reasonable possibility exists, reasonable doubt follows,” Mr. Haney said.
Mr. Rinderknecht faced three arson-related felony charges: one count of destruction of property using fire; one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce; and one count of timber set afire.
In the hours before the fire, prosecutors said, he was angry that he hadn’t secured New Year’s Eve plans. His Uber passengers testified that he ranted about capitalism that night.
Mr. Rinderknecht dropped off his last passenger in Pacific Palisades and hiked up a trail near where the fire began, prosecutors said.
As the blaze grew, Mr. Rinderknecht called 911 more than a dozen times and filmed fire trucks as they tried to extinguish the blaze, prosecutors said.
To the prosecution, the calls were an attempt to cover his tracks.
But Mr. Haney, the defense lawyer, said it would be “self-destructive and idiotic” for an arsonist to call the authorities instead of leaving immediately.
This week, after 13 hours of deliberations over two days, the jury told the court that it could not reach a verdict on any count. Ten jurors had voted to find Mr. Rinderknecht not guilty while two voted to find him guilty, the foreman said in court.
Mr. Haney told reporters that the lopsided split was a “resounding indication of what the jury felt about this case.”
“The jury was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed these crimes, and it wasn’t even close,” he added.
The trial lasted nearly three weeks and ended after a dizzying final day.
The jury started deliberating at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. On Thursday, jurors sent a note just after 2 p.m. saying they had reached a unanimous verdict. But as the courtroom filled, Judge Anne Hwang’s clerk handed her another note from the foreman.
It said that in fact there were jurors who were “unwavering” in their opposed positions. “We’re unsure how to proceed,” the note said.
Judge Hwang then sent the jury home for the day.
On Friday, she found that the jurors had been unequivocal that they could not reach a verdict, noting that the foreman had underlined the word “cannot” in his note.
Mr. Rinderknecht, dressed in a black suit and a blue tie, hugged Mr. Haney after the judge declared a mistrial.
Syrena Boneck of Lompoc, a juror, and her colleagues hustled to the elevator with Mr. Haney after court.
“There’s not enough evidence,” Ms. Boneck said in a brief interview. “There’s no way to pin it on him and that’s a lot to pin on a person and my conscience would not allow that.”
About a year and a half after the fire tore through Pacific Palisades, storefronts remain vacant and lots empty. Many residents are unsure when or if they will return.
To Len Kendall, who lost his home, the question of who or what started the fire is less important than how it was allowed to rage out of control.
“If a lightning bolt hit the ground and this happened, we would have had the same result,” he said in an interview as the trial began.
