A mistrial has been declared in the federal trial of the Uber driver charged with sparking a fire that eventually led to the Pacific Palisades conflagration. The Palisades Fire destroyed 7,000 homes and killed twelve people in Jan. 2025, and touched off a blaze that destroyed part of Malibu.
A federal jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquitting Jonathan Rinderknecht during short and contentious jury deliberations. The jury received the case in the afternoon of Tuesday, June 23, came back to deliberate the next day, and by June 25, had sent the judge a letter declaring a deadlock. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang sent the jury home, and the next day declared a mistrial. The jury spent 13 hours deliberating.
Hwang cited "manifest necessity" in declaring the mistrial, a narrow ruling that precludes double jeopardy.
Law Commentary reports that "manifest necessity is a narrow basis for ending a criminal trial before a verdict when a serious problem prevents the case from continuing fairly. The standard can apply to a deadlocked jury, severe juror misconduct, sudden illness, or an error so serious that any conviction would likely be overturned later." It's unclear if any juror misconduct or serious error contributed to the ruling.
Rinderknecht will be retried starting Oct. 19.
Rinderknecht, whom prosecutors said was driven to set the fire because of his deep hatred for wealthy people and admiration for murderer Luigi Mangione, will stay in custody pending the outcome of his next trial.
Prosecutors circumstantially connected Rinderknecht to the fire, using his physical presence at the scene on New Year's Eve 2024; photos of the car he used for his Uber driving gig going to-and-from the scene; cell phone records and geo-tracking; and his ChatGPT, OpenAI search history and social media posts, including Reddit, in which he expressed anger and resentment towards wealthy people. His Uber customers that night reported that he enthused over Luigi Mangione's murder of a health care executive and his hatred for Donald Trump.
Rinderknecht's ChatGPT chat logs showed he generated images of the Pacific Palisades burning and used phrases such as "free the way Luigi Magione" and "kill all the billionaires."
Documents in the case show that after using a Bic barbecue lighter to start the blaze, on which they found his DNA, the 29-year-old then attempted to repeatedly call 911 to report his fire, and when his calls finally went through and fire trucks were coming, went back to the scene and offered to help put out the blaze.
Rinderknecht's defense attorney, Steve Haney, argued there was insufficient evidence. It looks as if the jury needed more proof — perhaps a video of him doing it — to find him guilty.
Haney told local reporters that prosecutors "didn't even come close" to proving their case.
More — Case of Trump-Hating, Luigi-Loving Accused Arsonist Who Sparked Palisades Fire Goes to Jury
State of mind is entirely appropriate to bring up in court, but one juror wasn't buying it. "Juror #4" said there wasn't enough proof to bring the case in the first place, and she didn't like how prosecutors had attempted to besmirch Rinderknecht's character by putting his social media and ChatGPT on blast in court.
I did not appreciate them demeaning his character, because I, myself, have overcome a lot of depression and anxiety in my life, so, it like really pissed me off. [It's like] you're judging someone by little bits and parts and pieces of their life.
Outside the courtroom, Rinderknecht's dad said it was as if prosecutors were using his son as a "scapegoat" for the entire Palisades Fire.
An attorney for 4,000 of the Palisades Fire victims, Trey Robertson, thought the federal case was a distraction from the city's incompetence in failing to properly fight the fire. He said he was glad this phase of the case was over.
The yet-to-be-approved Senate-approved U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, pushed back on that characterization, and doubled down on Rinderknecht's retrial.
Holding the person who ignited the fire criminally liable is not a “distraction,” it’s justice.
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) June 27, 2026
Civil lawyers mislead the public by suggesting that holding an arsonist accountable will absolve other parties of liability. Multiple parties can be held accountable under civil law.… https://t.co/4BQDHoimT6
Firefighters visibly snuffed out flames from the Lachman Fire, but reports of texts from the Los Angeles firefighters to state officials, uncovered during discovery in Robertson's civil case against the city, revealed that the fire was still active underground. Indeed, texts reveal that the ground was still hot to the touch, but the LAFD couldn't bring in heavy machinery to dig it out, due to state environmental rules. That evidence undergirds the civil lawsuits now being readied against the city and state.
The complete incompetence of the city and state responding to the Lachman Fire was amplified when that holdover fire, sparked on New Year's Eve 2024, itself sparked the Palisades Fire a week later. The city's failure to pre-deploy assets when weather reports predicted deadly fires due to Santa Ana winds, get tankers up in the air early when reports first came, and systemic failures to have water nearby to put out the growing conflagration sealed the fate of the Palisades and Malibu areas. In all, 23,000 acres were burned from Malibu to the Santa Monica Mountains.
Keep Up — West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Seattle's FIFA World Cup Protest Chaos
Thousands of families lost their homes, schools, neighborhood businesses, and churches. Twelve souls were lost in the fire.
It took nearly a month to put the fire completely out.
Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, whom Mayor Karen Bass fired — the only person who lost their job over the disaster — is now suing the mayor for defamation and retaliation, as I reported in "Former L.A. Fire Chief Sues Mayor Karen Bass, and Sparks Are Already Flying." Crowley believes she was fired because she told reporters that Bass had cut her budget by $17 million leaving a vast number of fire trucks and ambulances on the sidelines in need of maintenance.
For more gobsmacking backstory on the Palisades Fire and Robertson's discovery in the matter, watch my conservation with him on the Adult in the Room Podcast.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member