Arson retrial set for man accused of starting deadly Palisades fire

Jonathan Rinderknecht, the 30-year-old former Uber driver accused of starting the deadly Palisades wildfire, faces a second federal arson trial this week after his first ended with a hung jury four months ago. Jury selection is scheduled to start Monday at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse. The January 2025 wildfire killed 12 people and devastated thousands of buildings in Pacific Palisades.

Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht started the fire after dropping off a passenger in the wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood on December 31 and walking to a hillside clearing. According to law enforcement officials, he ignited brush that grew into the eight-acre Lachman fire. Firefighters extinguished that blaze on January 2, but embers continued smoldering underground for days before emerging as the Palisades fire.

Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty to destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and timber set afire. In the first trial, prosecutors described him as isolated and angry, arguing that he acted on grievances involving unsuccessful relationships and resentment toward wealthy people. They also cited his request to ChatGPT, months before the wildfire, for a dystopian image showing a burning city watched by an indifferent wealthy class.

The first jury split heavily against conviction, with 10 jurors voting not guilty and two voting to convict. Questions about the Los Angeles fire department’s responsibility hung over the proceedings, although jurors were barred from hearing evidence about its response to the Lachman blaze. One juror who voted for acquittal later told reporters that, even if Rinderknecht had started the initial fire, they questioned holding him responsible for the entire Palisades disaster given what they viewed as negligence by others.

For the retrial, federal prosecutors have sought an explicit instruction telling jurors not to consider whether efforts to suppress the Lachman fire were adequate. Court documents show that a judge tentatively approved that request.

Defense lawyers separately failed in their effort to prevent the new jury from hearing descriptions of the apocalyptic images Rinderknecht generated using ChatGPT. In a recent filing, they argued that the pictures were software outputs rather than his own statements, and that his prompts showed the program had not produced what he requested. They maintained that the images offered weak evidence of his intentions while carrying considerable emotional weight in a wildfire prosecution.

The proceedings have attracted close attention as people affected by the Palisades fire continue seeking damages from the city. The retrial will again put the allegations against Rinderknecht before a jury, with the handling of the earlier blaze remaining a disputed issue surrounding the case.