Prosecutors said the man accused of starting the deadly Palisades fire in Los Angeles in 2025 was upset over a failed relationship and having no New Year’s Eve plans just before he started a small fire that reignited six days later.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, who is scheduled to go on trial June 8, “expressed extreme anger, resentment and frustration at not being able to find company on New Year’s Eve,” prosecutors in Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli’s office said in a court filing. They said he tried and failed to make plans with two other people that night.
“On New Year’s Eve 2024, the defendant was alone again,” the filing states. Rinderknecht, who worked as an Uber driver, dropped off passengers in the Palisades area that night, then headed to a hillside where evidence shows he lit a BIC lighter on a grill that was later found in his car, the government alleges.
The Palisades Fire, which broke out on January 7, eventually killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in one of Los Angeles’ most affluent neighborhoods. That fire, and another that started the same day on the other side of Los Angeles County, are among the costliest in insurance history, with economic losses estimated at $65 billion, according to reinsurance firm Gallagher Re.
If convicted, Rinderknecht would be responsible for one of the most expensive arsons in the country. The US said he could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors filed a 25-page brief in court Wednesday that outlined the evidence they want to use at trial, including statements Rinderknecht made to investigators and expert testimony about the cause of the fire.
“I maintain my client’s innocence,” Steven Haney, Rinderknecht’s attorney, said in an email. “No amount of misguided theory from the government is going to change the lack of evidence that my client started or was responsible for one of the fires he is charged with. We look forward to proving that in court.”
Rinderknecht “became increasingly angry with his life and society at large,” according to prosecutors, who said he also became “fixated on Luigi Mangione,” the Ivy League graduate accused of shooting a UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive. in Manhattan in December 2024.
A forensic examination of Rinderknecht’s computer showed that he searched for “Mangione-related messages” using terms such as “free Luigi Mangione,” “let’s take down all the billionaires” and “reddit lets kill all the billionaires,” the filing said.
When Rinderknecht was questioned by investigators days after the fire about why someone would commit arson in the Palisades neighborhood, prosecutors said he “replied that it would be out of spite for the rich who enjoy their money because ‘we’re basically enslaved by them,’ and likened such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder Mangione was charged with.”
Rinderknecht, who lived in the Pacific Palisades area, dropped off an Uber passenger near where the fire started, the US said. A federal investigator found the fire started shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025, and Rinderknecht called 911 while standing about 30 feet away, prosecutors said.
The government says a small “holding” fire allegedly started by Rinderknecht along a trail in Topanga State Park smouldered underground after firefighters extinguished it and turned into a large fire during high winds.
Haney tried to get U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang to exclude evidence gathered from the search warrants, including digital and ChatGPT data, arguing that there was not probable cause to charge Rinderknecht just because he happened to be near the scene of the New Year’s fire. Hwang denied the motion to suppress the evidence in April.
In court, Haney is seeking to show that firefighters were “negligent” in their handling of the New Year’s fire, and said he has a statement from a Los Angeles fire captain who warned his supervisor that leaving a burn scar was “a bad idea.” A second firefighter observed active “hot spots” and “audible popping” on Jan. 2, Haney said in the filing.
The US is trying to block that evidence and wants to call expert witnesses to refute theories that the Palisades fire was started by fireworks or downed power lines.
Firefighters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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