Los Angeles.- The United States Department of Justice has filed a new indictment against a Florida resident for allegedly starting a fire on the first day of 2025 that, according to prosecutors, smoldered for a week before becoming one of Los Angeles’ deadliest blazes.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, faced trial last June for allegedly maliciously starting what became the Palisades Fire, which occurred in January 2025 and claimed the lives of 12 people. But the jury failed to reach a verdict, so the trial was declared a mistrial.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a new indictment against the suspect, in which they dropped one of the three original charges and modified the other two, as reported this Friday by the Los Angeles Times.
The fire would have continued underground
Rinderknecht has maintained his innocence. Ten of the twelve jurors in the first trial sided with him.
According to the authorities, the man started a fire in Año Nuevo that smoldered for days and was fanned by strong winds on the local morning of January 7, devastating the affluent Palisades area.
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Among the evidence collected from his digital devices was an image generated in ChatGPT that showed a city on fire, stated federal prosecutor for California Bill Essayli when he presented the first indictment.
According to a filed affidavit, authorities determined that the Palisades fire was a “holdover” fire, a continuation of the Lachman fire that began early on New Year’s Day 2025.
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While the flames were quickly extinguished by firefighters, the fire continued to burn underground without anyone knowing until January 7, when strong winds caused the underground fire to surface and spread.
The evidence against Rinderknecht
Authorities indicated that Rinderknecht, who worked as an Uber driver, went to the Skull Rock trail, walked around the area, and recorded videos while listening to a song whose video showed objects catching fire. Shortly after, the start of the fire was detected, and although he tried to call 911, he was unable to get through immediately.
Rinderknecht fled the scene in his vehicle and later returned to watch the fire and record it again.
Later, he lied to the authorities about his location, but his iPhone data proved that he was only nine meters from the origin point of the fire. The man moved to Florida, where authorities finally arrested him last October.
The new trial against Rinderknecht was scheduled for October, according to the Los Angeles newspaper.
The Palisades fire, the most violent of a set of fires that devastated large neighborhoods last January in Los Angeles, razed nearly 9,500 hectares and burned more than 6,000 structures.
