Jury Selection Opens in Retrial Over Deadly Palisades Fire

Federal jury selection has begun in the retrial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of setting a small brush fire on New Year’s Day 2025 that smoldered underground and later erupted into the deadly Palisades Fire. The initial trial ended in a mistrial after jurors split 10-2 in favor of acquittal; prosecutors have brought a revised case with two arson-related charges instead of three. Prosecutors allege Rinderknecht deliberately started the fire, while the defense says fireworks may have ignited the first blaze and argues the later inferno was a separate fire; the wildfire killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.