Posted on 06/26/2026 10:53:35 AM PDT by V_TWIN
A federal judge declared a mistrial for the man accused of deliberately igniting the Palisades Fire after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested in October 2025 and charged with destruction of property by means of fire, and he pleaded not guilty after being charged in the Palisades Fire in January 2025. Ten of the California jurors thought Rinderknecht was not guilty, while two thought he was.
"The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible for igniting the fire on January 1, 2025, which eventually became the Palisades fire," United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in a post on X. "We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts."
After the judge declared a mistrial, Steven Haney, Rinderknecht's attorney, said the mistrial shows that the government did not have enough evidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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"On Thursday afternoon, jurors said they had reached a verdict only to come back 30 minutes later to say that they had no verdict"
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Only in California. SMH
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What the.......... ðŸ˜
In California, only the jury gets hung.
I certainly hope the prosecutor’s office has the nads to move for a retrial.
“When investigators asked defendant why someone might commit arson in the Pacific Palisades, he responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them’ and compared such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder for which Mangione was charged,” prosecutors wrote.
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told Fox News Digital in a statement: “As we have stated before in multiple public court filings, Mr. Mangione does not support violent actions and does not condone past or future political violence. These repeated attempts to connect him to unrelated acts or to insinuate that he condones or supports these acts are irresponsible, dangerous and prejudicial.”
Mr. Mangione does not support vilent actions? Didn’t he kill someone?
“Didn’t he kill someone?”
That’s what he’s charged with.
It’s NY so who knows what will happen.
If he was in my state, my money would be on him finding himself on death row.
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