LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Deliberations were underway Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles in the trial of Palisades Fire arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht, who faces federal charges for allegedly setting what became the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history.
A dual French and U.S. citizen, the 30-year-old Rinderknecht faces up to 45 years behind bars if found guilty of three arson counts: destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire.
Prosecutors contend Rinderknecht, driven by revenge, anger and loneliness, ignited a small brush fire around midnight on New Year’s Eve 2025 at a remote, deserted area adjacent to the Pacific Palisades’ Summit neighborhood that ultimately exploded into the deadly conflagration that wiped out much of the upscale community six days later.
Defense attorney Steven Haney, however, argued that no hard evidence links his client to the New Year’s Eve fire and whatever alleged proof was presented to the jury during the 10-day trial “doesn’t make much sense.”
Attorneys for both sides gave their closing arguments Tuesday. The jury started deliberating Wednesday morning.
Firefighters initially thought they had extinguished the New Year’s Eve Lachman Fire — named for a nearby street — but instead it smoldered underground in the root system of brushes and trees before bursting into view as the deadly Palisades Fire on Jan. 7, 2025, bolstered by strong Santa Ana winds, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danbee Kim said during her summation.
Rinderknecht “had a deeply entrenched belief that the wealthy were destroying the world,” she said, telling the panel in Los Angeles federal court that to the defendant’s way of thinking, “the Pacific Palisades neighborhood represented all of that.”
Calling the prosecutors’ evidence mere “fragments,” Haney said, “You don’t convict people on fragments.”
Rinderknecht declined to testify in his own defense.
With testimony from more than two dozen witnesses, the prosecution built a picture of Rinderknecht in the months leading up to the fire as a troubled, angry man, increasingly bitter about failed relationships, low finances, the current administration, and a dystopian society he believed was divided by cruel corporate overseers who had built a wall between the wealthy and everyone else.
“After months of stewing in resentment at the rich and powerful” and “pouring his frustrations into ChatGPT,” Rinderknecht — then working as a part-time Uber driver — lit the Lachman Fire, Kim said in her summation.
“He was the only one up there — he was the only one who could’ve lit that fire,” the prosecutor said.
The Palisades Fire killed 12 people, burned 23,448 acres and ruined much of the exclusive Pacific Palisades community, destroying about 6,800 structures.
Haney returned to his theme again and again Monday, telling jurors that errant fireworks were the likely cause of the fire, and his client did nothing more than call 911 to report it.
“Twelve minutes into the New Year … fireworks are being used across the area,” the attorney said. “Multiple witnesses heard fireworks around midnight (that night). If this fire had happened on Jan. 4, maybe it would be a different case.”
According to Haney, the Lachman Fire “could’ve started before Jonathan even arrived (on the scene). Nobody knows for sure when it started. Everyone is guessing. A man’s on trial and nobody knows when the fire started.”
But prosecutors presented testimony from law enforcement explaining how video surveillance, cell phone data and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things, determined Rinderknecht’s activity before and after they believe the Lachman Fire began.
At 12:12 a.m. on Jan. 1, environmental sensing platforms indicated the brush fire had started. During the next five minutes, Rinderknecht called 911 several times, but didn’t get through because his iPhone was out of range. When he finally connected with 911, he was at the bottom of the hiking trail and reported the fire. By that point, a nearby resident already had reported the blaze to authorities.
Prosecution witnesses testified that Rinderknecht drove away in his car, passing fire engines driving in the opposite direction. He then turned around and followed firefighters to the scene, evidence showed.
He then walked up the same trail from earlier that night to watch the fire and the firefighters, prosecutors said. At roughly 1:02 a.m., he used his iPhone to take videos of the scene.
Haney asserted that although there were cameras taking time-delayed pictures of the scene and geolocational data appeared to trace Rinderknecht’s cell phone use as it corresponded to his exact location on the trail, the surveillance “doesn’t show you anything.”
The jury heard tape of Rinderknecht ranting during a pre-arrest interview with federal agents about the wealthy and the supposed wall between the rich and low-wage workers.
“That’s what I disrupted,” he says at one point.
The prosecution chose to end its case-in-chief last week not with a wealthy property owner, but with a small businessman who lost his restaurant in the fire.
The final prosecution witness was the owner of the Reel Inn, a popular Malibu seafood restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway that was leveled in the fire on Jan. 7, 2025. Andy Leonard narrated before-and-after photos of what he called his “seafood shack,” which he said he had operated for 38 years. The popular eatery was pictured full of noshing customers in the first shot, followed by a scene of blackened rubble after the blaze. Leonard said he hoped to rebuild and reopen someday.
During an eight-hour interview with investigators months before he was arrested but weeks after the fire, Rinderknecht said he was alone in the area around midnight on Dec. 31, 2024. Toward the end of the interview, while walking with agents at the scene of the Lachman Fire, the defendant said he may have smoked a cigarette or two while on the darkened trail. When questioned about the statement, Rinderknecht claimed he could not remember what brand he smoked or how he lit the cigarettes.
Prosecutors contend a green Bic grill lighter found in Rinderknecht’s rented car was used to set the blaze.
Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detective Ed Nordskog testified Monday for the defense, saying that prosecutors’ belief that Rinderknecht was spurred by a desire for “societal revenge” could not be proven. The Lachman Fire, he said, couldn’t even be considered arson in the first place.
“There’s no data that says it’s arson,” Nordskog said. “There’s more evidence this was fireworks … In fact, I don’t believe it’s an arson at all.”
Nordskog echoed defense arguments that any potential forensic evidence in the case was destroyed because officials didn’t rope off the area of the Lachman Fire as a crime scene until weeks later.
“Whatever evidence might’ve been there was buried, crushed … or floated away in water,” he told jurors.
In pretrial hearings, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang, who is overseeing the trial, ruled that the defense may not attempt to shift the blame for the Palisades Fire to the Los Angeles Fire Department, which has been blamed for allegedly failing to completely extinguish the Lachman Fire.
She also ruled that jurors would not be permitted to view images Rinderknecht created with ChapGPT showing burning fires and wealthy people enjoying themselves behind a huge wall. “Too prejudicial,” the judge ruled.
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