In a downtown Los Angeles federal courtroom, prosecutors told jurors that Jonathan Rinderknecht intentionally started the Lachman fire with a lighter, framing it as revenge against society. The defense countered that Rinderknecht was a 30-year-old former Uber
When the federal judge asked jurors to focus. the man at the center of the trial sat still for only a moment before his defense attorney adjusted his tie. Outside the courtroom, the Palisades blaze already carries a number that doesn’t fade—12 people killed. Inside, prosecutors tried to draw a direct line from the night of Jan. 1, 2025, to the disaster that erupted as the Palisades fire on Jan. 7, 2025.
The trial. which began this week in a downtown Los Angeles courthouse. is about Jonathan Rinderknecht. a 30-year-old former Uber driver charged in connection with the start of what prosecutors say became the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history. In opening statements on Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew W. O’Brien told the jury that investigators determined Rinderknecht was the only person near the fire that began on Jan. 1.
O’Brien described Rinderknecht as someone driven by “revenge”—revenge against society for “all his troubles,” as he put it. The government’s narrative places Rinderknecht in Pacific Palisades near the area where investigators say the Lachman fire ignited. shortly after midnight on Jan. 1. Prosecutors said the fire smoldered underground for a week before exploding into the deadly Palisades fire on Jan. 7, 2025.
The scale of the destruction is part of the backdrop jurors were reminded of from the start. Prosecutors said the Palisades fire killed 12 people, destroyed 6,500 structures across the Palisades and Malibu, and caused billions in damage and insurance claims.
O’Brien told jurors that on New Year’s Eve 2024, Rinderknecht had been working as an Uber driver. He allegedly dropped off his last passenger around 11:35 p.m. in a neighborhood close to where the fire began. O’Brien added that Rinderknecht knew the area well because he had lived there a few years earlier with his boyfriend. That relationship ended. and O’Brien said Rinderknecht later moved to a small apartment in North Hollywood. where his life “started to deteriorate.”.
“You’ll hear that in 2024, defendant was lonely with no real friends,” O’Brien told jurors. “He lived by himself and was withdrawn.”
According to O’Brien. that withdrawal ended in a decision to return near the hill where investigators say the fire started. He said Rinderknecht canceled his next Uber ride and drove to a small parking lot at the edge of the neighborhood. a block from where he had lived. O’Brien said Rinderknecht tried calling an ex, but the ex didn’t answer.
Then, prosecutors described a specific path up the hill. O’Brien said Rinderknecht used his phone flashlight to walk up a trail to a small clearing at the top of the hill called Hidden Buddha. There. O’Brien said. Rinderknecht listened to a French rap song whose music video “features the singer lighting things on fire and singing about his despair.”.
O’Brien placed the timing at the center of the case. He told jurors that around 12:12 a.m.—within seconds of the fire being detected on a surveillance camera—Rinderknecht attempted to call 911. but the call failed. The government. O’Brien said. relied on location data from Rinderknecht’s phone showing that during one of his attempts to call 911. he was less than 30 feet away from the fire.
Investigators, O’Brien said, ruled out other potential causes of the Lachman fire, including power lines, lightning and fireworks. O’Brien’s explanation turned on speed—he told jurors that authorities determined that in the first minute or two the fire grew very quickly. “so quickly that it must have been started by a lighter.”.
He said evidence would show that Rinderknecht admitted to investigators that he brought a lighter with him up to Hidden Buddha. O’Brien also told jurors that investigators found evidence on Rinderknecht’s iPhone. including an AI-generated image of a burning city. described by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
O’Brien said Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create images for him of a fire and expressed anger “about wealthy people and his anger about society.” In the interview. O’Brien said investigators asked why someone might commit arson in Pacific Palisades. O’Brien told jurors Rinderknecht answered that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money. “we’re basically being enslaved by them.”.
O’Brien concluded with a key claim: that the fire Rinderknecht allegedly lit on Jan. 1 was “the same fire that caused all that destruction on Jan. 7.” If convicted, he would face up to 45 years in prison. Federal charges against him include destruction of property by means of fire. arson affecting property used in interstate commerce. and timber set afire.
Rinderknecht has been in federal custody since October. More than 70 people packed into the courtroom on Wednesday morning, including his father, who sat in the front row, and City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the Palisades.
Steve Haney, Rinderknecht’s defense attorney, offered a sharply different picture from the start. Haney told jurors that his client did not start the fire. He said Rinderknecht had gone up on a hill on New Year’s Eve 2024 only to watch fireworks and had immediately called 911 when he spotted a fire. The defense, Haney said, would show that the fire was caused by fireworks.
Haney pushed at what he called gaps in the government’s evidence. He told jurors that investigators “found no accelerants. ” and “they found no incendiary devices that could be linked to my client.” He also said there was “no physical evidence that they found that connects Jonathan to the act of starting the Lachman fire.”.
In Haney’s telling, the 911 calls aren’t proof of involvement—they’re proof of fear. He said Rinderknecht called 911 immediately after he saw the fire, making the first of more than a dozen calls. When Rinderknecht reached an operator around 12:17 a.m., Haney said he “pleaded for help.”
A recording of the call played for the jury included Rinderknecht saying, “There’s a fire, there’s a fire.” Haney argued that those words and actions were not those of a person who began the blaze.
“The evidence is going to show it’s not the voice and actions of a man who started a fire,” Haney said. “it’s the voice and actions of a man trying to stop a fire.”
Haney also turned to how prosecutors shaped the story. He told jurors the government had initially investigated the Lachman and Palisades fires “as two separate events with two separate sets of suspects.” He argued it was prosecutors’ burden to prove the two fires were actually “just one big continuous fire.”.
He said that in the days after the fires. the federal government operated on a belief that the Lachman fire was started by fireworks and the Palisades fire was started by arsonists. Then. months later. Haney said. the government abandoned the two-fire theory and replaced it with a single combined. one-fire theory presented in court that day.
For jurors. the trial is now an exercise in choosing which version of the same night fits the facts best: prosecutors tying Rinderknecht to the ignition of the Lachman fire with a lighter and a chain of digital clues. or the defense arguing that his movements up the hill and repeated 911 calls are consistent with someone watching fireworks and then desperately trying to get help when he saw flames.
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