The federal judge overseeing the trial of the man accused of igniting brush that became the massive and destructive Palisades fire declared a mistrial on Friday, June 26, after the jury insisted it could not reach a verdict on any of the three charges.

U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang polled the panel, asking each jury if more deliberations could thaw the deadlock.

When they answered that it would not, she declared a mistrial — setting the stage for trial starting from scratch, if federal prosecutors decided to re-try the case.

On Thursday, June 25, the jury told the judge that, after 13 hours of deliberations, it was at a standstill in the case of Jonathan Rinderknecht, an 30-year-old ex-rideshare driver, accused of starting the most destructive wildfire ever in Los Angeles. The judge sent jurors home for the evening.

But Friday morning, it was clear to her that no progress would be made, and the lawyers agreed.

Authorities say it all started with Lachman fire on Jan. 1, 2025, which was thought extinguished but smoldered underground for a six days before kicking up and becoming the Palisades fire, named after the coastal community of Pacific Palisades, that burned over 23,500 acres there, Malibu and elsewhere, killing 12 people and destroying or damaging more than 7,500 homes and businesses.

After two weeks of evidence getting present, including testimony by a dozen-plus witnesses, and attorney arguments, the case was handed to the jury on Wednesday.

Rinderknecht was not charged with any of the deaths, which were not allowed to come up during the trial. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on those decisions.

He decided against taking the stand.

Federal prosecutors have labeled Rinderknecht a malcontent, an arsonist enraged about wealth disparity and climate change, using his lighter on brush on a Hidden Buddha hillside around midnight.

“He went up a hill in a neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood he personally associated with his personal history with wealth and rejection. And when he went up that hill, he took this lighter with him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Danbee Kim said during her closing arguments, displaying a picture of a green, long-handled BIC lighter that the prosecution said Rinderknecht used to start the Lachman fire.

The defense argued that the fire could have been sparked by a firework, others could have been on Hidden Buddha hill the night of the blaze and that the prosecution lacked evidence that Rinderknecht started the fire. Rinderknecht’s distaste for the wealthy is not an uncommon feeling in the country, his defense argued.

“Why was so much of this case about January 7, 2025?” Rinderknecht’s defense lawyer Steve Haney asked the jury during his closing statements, referencing the day the Palisades fire began. Haney called into question what he called a focus on the Palisades fire, while the charges against Rinderknecht are connected with the Lachman fire.

Haney also criticized the investigation’s start, which was 12 days after the Lachman fire, when the scene could have been affected by fire suppression efforts, the Palisades fire burning the area for a second time, winds or hikers entering the area.

“The government is prosecuting a man for a fire they say he set that nobody investigated for 12 days?” Haney said.

The trial unfolded at the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez U.S. Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

The Lachman fire was first spotted around 12:12 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2025. It grew to 8-10 acres before it was extinguished by firefighters. No evacuation orders were issued and no homes were affected.

On Jan. 7, 2025, as Santa Ana winds whipped the region, the Palisades fire began and burned for more than three weeks, blazing across the coastal enclave.

Criticism has been leveled against the Los Angeles Fire Department for its role in the fire. Evidence pertaining to the Fire Department’s response was not permitted at the trial.

Outside the courtroom on Thursday, Haney said his client was trying to cope with the unexpected turn the jury took.

“(There is) a lot anxiety, you can imagine, your life is on the line,” he said of Rinderknecht. “It’s a very stressful time for him and he’s hanging in there … We’ll see which direction this takes tomorrow.”

The Eaton fire, which erupted on the same day as the Palisades fire, killed 19 people, burned over 14,000 acres and damaged or destroyed over 10,000 homes and businesses in the San Gabriel Valley. A trial in that fire is scheduled for January 2027, when attorneys will seek to prove faulty equipment owned by Southern California Edison sparked the fire that devastated Altadena.

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