Prosecutors on Wednesday laid out their case against Jonathan Rinderknecht, describing a troubled young man whose anger at a failed relationship boiled over into violence on New Year’s Day 2025.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew O’Brien told jurors in Los Angeles that Rinderknecht started the Palisades fire atop a hill in the Pacific Palisades shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025. O’Brien showed jurors a ChatGPT prompt he said Rinderknecht had entered six months earlier that described “a burning forest and then you have a bunch of people running away from that.”
“He wanted revenge – revenge against society because he blamed society for all his troubles,” O’Brien said, according to court reports.
The blaze began as a small brush fire that firefighters initially extinguished. But the flames continued to smolder underground before being picked up by powerful Santa Ana winds days later, reigniting into the most destructive wildfire in city history. The fire tore through about 23,000 acres, incinerated thousands of buildings, and killed 12 people.
O’Brien said investigators later found a barbecue lighter in Rinderknecht’s car and that Rinderknecht admitted to having it with him on the trail. Security camera footage captured the ignition location and time, O’Brien said, and investigators were able to place Rinderknecht nearby because he called 911 for help 16 times in quick succession after the fire started.
Rinderknecht, 29, faces three felony arson charges, including malicious destruction by means of fire. He has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could be sentenced to at least five years in prison.
Defense attorney Steve Haney told jurors his client was on the hilltop near the fire’s ignition that night but only to watch fireworks after dropping off Uber passengers. Haney said multiple witnesses and first responders will testify that they heard fireworks in the area around the time the fire ignited.
“When all the evidence is in, there will be one thing missing: proof that Jonathan Rinderknecht started that fire on January 1,” Haney said.
Haney played an audio recording of Rinderknecht’s conversation with a 911 operator in which he reported the fire. He noted that when federal investigators later contacted Rinderknecht, he agreed to drive back to the Palisades to help them pinpoint the starting point.
“It’s the voice and actions of a man who was trying to stop the fire,” Haney said.
Haney also argued that Rinderknecht is being made a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the original Jan. 1 blaze. However, Judge Anne Hwang has ruled that the defense cannot introduce evidence or arguments about alleged fire department negligence, calling it irrelevant and potentially confusing for the jury.
More than a year after the fire, thousands of residents in western Los Angeles remain displaced as recovery efforts slowly proceed.