diff --git a/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/convert_vla_jepa_checkpoints.py b/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/convert_vla_jepa_checkpoints.py
index 591ce5db9..2566dc18e 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/convert_vla_jepa_checkpoints.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/convert_vla_jepa_checkpoints.py
@@ -182,9 +182,7 @@ def _apply_source_config(kwargs: dict, source_config: dict) -> None:
     _set_if_present(kwargs, "action_dropout", diffusion_cfg.get("dropout"))
 
     _set_if_present(kwargs, "num_video_frames", video_cfg.get("num_frames"))
-    _set_if_present(
-        kwargs, "predictor_depth", video_cfg.get("predictor_depth", video_cfg.get("depth"))
-    )
+    _set_if_present(kwargs, "predictor_depth", video_cfg.get("predictor_depth", video_cfg.get("depth")))
     _set_if_present(
         kwargs, "predictor_num_heads", video_cfg.get("predictor_num_heads", video_cfg.get("num_heads"))
     )
diff --git a/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/modeling_vla_jepa.py b/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/modeling_vla_jepa.py
index adf8b7540..8b7916add 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/modeling_vla_jepa.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/policies/vla_jepa/modeling_vla_jepa.py
@@ -117,21 +117,33 @@ class VLAJEPAModel(nn.Module):
         )
 
     def _qwen_last_decoder_hidden(self, qwen_inputs: dict[str, torch.Tensor]) -> torch.Tensor:
-        """Return Qwen's last decoder hidden state matching training behaviour.
+        """Return the last decoder hidden state before the final RMSNorm.
 
-        The original starVLA uses `output_hidden_states=True` and takes `hidden_states[-1]`.
-        In transformers 5.x the `@capture_outputs` decorator explicitly replaces
-        `hidden_states[-1]` with `last_hidden_state` (post-RMSNorm), so this call
-        consistently returns the post-norm output regardless of transformers version,
-        matching what the model was trained with.
+        The model was trained with the output of the last transformer block BEFORE
+        the final RMSNorm. In transformers 5.x, `hidden_states[-1]` from
+        `output_hidden_states=True` is post-norm (tied to `last_hidden_state` via
+        `@capture_outputs`). A forward hook on `language_model.layers[-1]` recovers
+        the correct pre-RMSNorm state, matching the training-time representation.
         """
-        outputs = self.qwen.model(
-            **qwen_inputs,
-            output_hidden_states=True,
-            output_attentions=False,
-            return_dict=True,
-        )
-        return outputs.hidden_states[-1]
+        captured: list[torch.Tensor] = []
+
+        def _hook(module, input, output):
+            h = output[0] if isinstance(output, tuple) else output
+            captured.append(h)
+
+        last_layer = self.qwen.model.model.language_model.layers[-1]
+        handle = last_layer.register_forward_hook(_hook)
+        try:
+            self.qwen.model(
+                **qwen_inputs,
+                output_hidden_states=False,
+                output_attentions=False,
+                return_dict=True,
+            )
+        finally:
+            handle.remove()
+
+        return captured[0]  # [B, seq_len, H]
 
     # ---- Native VLA-JEPA forward (follows original VLA_JEPA.py) ----