Jury deadlocked in LA's Palisades fire trial
A Los Angeles jury has announced it is deadlocked in the trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man charged with setting a fire that officials said
A Los Angeles jury has announced it is deadlocked in the trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man charged with setting a fire that officials said eventually became the Palisades Fire. The fire stands as the most destructive in Los Angeles history. FOX 11's Christina Gonzales was in the courtroom after it was believed the jury reached a verdict. Around 2 p.m., the jury sent a note indicating they had checked the unanimous verdict box. But by 2:30 p.m., they returned with a different note saying they were at a total standstill and unsure how to proceed. When the judge asked if any extra instructions or evidence read-backs could help, the foreman sent back a note stating, "There is nothing the court can do it was this in the deliberations.
Unfortunately, we cannot reach a unanimous decision." The defense immediately asked the judge to declare a mistrial. The prosecution is fighting back, asking the judge to find out if the jury is stuck on all three arson counts or just one. They are also asking to bring out the jurors one by one to question them about the deadlock. Inside the packed courtroom, Rinderknecht sat in a dark suit looking serious, while his mother, father, and sisters sat hunched over in prayer, Gonzalez reported. During the 10-day federal trial in downtown Los Angeles, prosecutors relied on witness statements, video surveillance, cell phone data, and fire dynamics analysis to argue that Rinderknecht "maliciously" set the initial Lachman Fire.
According to prosecutors, Rinderknecht was driven by anger, loneliness, and a thirst for revenge against the wealthy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danbee Kim told the panel Tuesday that Rinderknecht "had a deeply entrenched belief that the wealthy were destroying the world," and that the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood represented that disparity to him. Feds argue he used a grill lighter to ignite a small brush fire around midnight on Dec. 31, 2024, in a remote area near the Summit neighborhood. Crews initially thought they extinguished the blaze, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim explained it actually smoldered underground in the root systems before roaring back to life on Jan. 7, 2025, fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds. Defense attorney Steven Haney pushed back hard, arguing that no hard evidence linked his client to the destruction and that the prosecution's data "doesn't make much sense." The defense maintained that the Lachman and Palisades fires were entirely separate events and that Rinderknecht had nothing to do with either one.
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