Alleged arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht lonely, dejected when he lit Palisades fire, court hears
Assistant US Attorney Matthew O'Brien, one of the prosecutors, gives his opening statement. (Illustration via Reuters: Mona Edwards)
In short:
Prosecutors have accused Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, of lighting a fire in the Los Angeles hills while he was feeling lonely and dejected after a break-up.
Their case centres on proving the blaze allegedly lit by Mr Rinderknecht, who has pleaded not guilty, later grew into the Palisades wildfire that killed 12 people and destroyed up to $73 billion worth of property.
What's next?
Mr Rinderknecht is facing a sentence of up to 45 years in prison if he is convicted of all three charges levelled against him.
A federal prosecutor has told jurors in the US that 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht was feeling lonely and dejected over a break-up when he allegedly lit a wildfire in January 2025 that grew into one of the deadliest and most destructive in Los Angeles history.
The lawyer representing the former Uber driver countered that the hilltop New Year's Day blaze was triggered by fireworks, not his client, and that the massive Palisades inferno that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes a week later was a separate fire set by others.
The opposing accounts were presented to a US District Court jury on Wednesday at the start of a high-profile arson trial stemming from one of the worst wildfire calamities on record anywhere in the country.
Mr Rinderknecht was indicted last October on one felony count each of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and illegal burning of timber on public lands.
Jonathan Rinderknecht is alleged to have started the Palisades fire while angry over a break-up. (US Attorney's Office via AP)
He is accused of starting a brush fire that was suppressed relatively quickly, but continued to smoulder underground in the roots of dense scrub before reigniting a week later due to fierce winds.
From there, it is alleged to have grown into the conflagration that laid waste to the upscale seaside enclave of Pacific Palisades.
Mr Rinderknecht, who pleaded not guilty and has remained in custody since his arrest in Florida, faces a sentence of five to 45 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.
Opposing narratives presented to court
Assistant US Attorney Mark Williams said security camera footage and location data from Mr Rinderknecht's mobile phone established that he was the only person in the vicinity of the January 1 fire when it erupted.
He added that investigators had ruled out all non-arson ignition sources, including fireworks.
"The evidence will show that the defendant lit this fire on January 1 and that he did so on purpose, and the evidence will show that the fire that the defendant started on January 1 was the same fire that caused all of that destruction on January 7," Mr Williams told jurors in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
The Palisades fire burns through a street in LA's Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. (AP Photo: Ethan Swope)
Defence lawyer Steve Haney, however, said his client had witnessed the January 1 fire erupt from the vantage point of a hill he had climbed to watch a New Year's fireworks display after dropping off his last Uber passenger for the night.
Mr Rinderknecht had in fact tried to alert authorities when he saw it, Mr Haney said.
Mr Haney then played the court a recording of the emergency 911 call that Mr Rinderknecht placed to report the fire, after poor mobile reception thwarted several previous attempts to make the call.
"That's not the voice and actions of a man who started a fire. It's the voice and actions of a man who tried to stop a fire,"Mr Haney said.
Mr Haney also asserted that prosecutors lacked any physical evidence linking Mr Rinderknecht to arson, or any electronic or digital records showing an intent to start a fire.
Loading...Was it one fire or two?
The case against Mr Rinderknecht hinges in part on whether the January 1 blaze, originally referred to as the Lachman fire, and the disastrous Palisades fire that occurred six days later were actually the same fire.
Los Angeles firefighters believed they had swiftly extinguished the Lachman fire, which began near a hiking trail in Topanga State Park, part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
But after smouldering undetected — a phenomenon experts call a "holding fire" — the blaze erupted again on January 7 near the same spot and grew swiftly into the devastating Palisades fire, federal investigators said.
The Palisades fire is estimated to have destroyed up to $73 billion worth of property. (Reuters: David Ryder)
Fanned by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, the flames scorched 93 square kilometres and incinerated some 6,000 structures. Property losses have been estimated at anywhere from $US25 billion to $US51 billion ($36 billion to $73 billion).
The Palisades fire coincided with another catastrophic wildfire north-east of Los Angeles known as the Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people and ravaged the community of Altadena.
Mr Haney said testimony would show that the Palisades fire was originally treated as an act of arson separate from the Lachman fire, and that investigators only abandoned their two-fire theory in favour of a single-fire explanation eight months into their inquiry.
Ultimately, Mr Haney said, evidence will show that fireworks triggered the Lachman fire, and that the Palisades fire was the work of unidentified arsonists, "not Jonathan".
Moreover, he said, authorities initially failed to secure the Lachman site as a crime scene, thus compromising the integrity of any findings implicating his client.
Anger, heartbreak and ChatGPT
In seeking to establish a motive for arson, prosecutors have painted Mr Rinderknecht as a malcontent whose life "started to deteriorate" after a romantic break-up in 2024 that left him lonely and withdrawn.
Mr Williams said Mr Rinderknecht became angry towards the rest of society — the wealthy in particular — as he believed it was the cause of all of his troubles.
An examination of the defendant's digital profile showed he turned often to the AI chatbot ChatGPT to express those resentments, the prosecutor said.
Mr Williams said that on one occasion Mr Rinderknecht directed ChatGPT to create an image of thousands of people trying to escape a forest fire while a group of rich people laughed and danced from a safe position behind a gate marked with a dollar sign.
Reuters