LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Driven by anger and loneliness, accused Palisades Fire arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht used a lighter to ignite 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, a prosecutors told a federal jury Wednesday.
Defense attorney Steven Haney, however, countered that no evidence linked his client to the New Year's Eve fire and what alleged proof there might be wouldn't pass the jury's "gate of common sense."
Firefighters initially thought they had extinguished the New Year's Eve Lachman Fire, but instead it smoldered underground for six days 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 Matt O'Brien said during opening statements of Rinderknecht's trial Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court.
"Nobody saw the defendant start the fire," O'Brien conceded, but he said witnesses, video surveillance, cell phone data and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene will show Rinderknecht intentionally set the Lachman Fire then lied about it to investigators during an eight-hour interview.
Opening statements came at the start of the second trial of the man accused of setting a blaze prosecutors believe grew into the deadly Palisades Fire, the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history.
"There's no direct physical evidence supporting their arson claims," Haney told the panel in Rinderknecht's defense.
Saying his client may not appear to be the most likeable defendant he has ever represented, the defense attorney promised jurors that by the end of the trial, "you won't be asked if you want Mr. Rinderknecht to come to Thanksgiving at your house."
Hundreds of prospective jurors gathered in the downtown federal courthouse Monday for questioning before a final 16-member panel was chosen at the end of the day on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, a jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquitting Rinderknecht on three arson-related charges stemming from the 2025 firestorm.
In light of the deadlock, the judge declared a mistrial, and prosecutors vowed to retry the case.
The Palisades Fire killed 12 people, burned 23,448 acres, cost billions in damage and insurance claims, and ruined much of the exclusive Pacific Palisades community, destroying about 6,500 structures across the Palisades and Malibu.
Rinderknecht was originally charged with three federal arson counts: destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire. However, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment with only two charges -- destruction of property by means of fire and arson affecting property used in interstate commerce.
Rinderknecht, 30, has pleaded not guilty and denies the charges. He sat in court Wednesday, bearded, his hair cut short and wearing a suit, rarely looking up at the attorneys delivering their statements.
In the new streamlined indictment, the first charge refers only to Rinderknecht's alleged setting of the Lachman Fire, rather than the Lachman and Palisades fires.
U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang ruled that there be no reference to the first trial during the retrial.
The defendant remains in federal custody while on trial because three separate judges found that he is a danger to the community. The findings were based on evidence showing, among other things, that he hid a firearm in a child's teddy bear and threatened to burn his sister's house down in Florida.
O'Brien told the jury Wednesday that the deadly Palisades Fire was a "holdover" fire -- a continuation of the Lachman Fire that began early in the morning on New Year's Day 2025. Although firefighters quickly suppressed the Lachman Fire -- named for a street near the Skull Rock Trailhead -- the fire continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation.
On Jan. 7, 2025, heavy winds caused the underground fire to resurface and spread above ground in what became known as the Palisades Fire, which caused widespread damage in Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
Prosecutors are expected to use more than two-dozen witnesses, video surveillance, cell phone data and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene to try to show Rinderknecht intentionally set the Lachman Fire and then lied about it. The evidence is largely circumstantial.
In his opening, Haney argued that no hard evidence tied his client to arson, and the Lachman and Palisades fires were two separate events -- and his client had nothing to do either one. The first fire was likely caused by errant New Year's Eve fireworks, he suggested.
According to Haney, Rinderknecht was on the trail near the Hidden Buddha clearing where the Lachman Fire was thought to have started, but the part-time Uber driver did nothing more than call 911 to report it.
Haney insisted that "when the Lachman Fire started, nobody knows."
Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht, a former Uber driver wracked with anger, loneliness and a thirst for revenge, used a grill lighter to ignite hilltop vegetation around midnight on Dec. 31, 2024, at the remote, deserted area adjacent to the Pacific Palisades' Summit neighborhood. That fire ultimately exploded into the deadly conflagration that wiped out much of the upscale community six days later, federal prosecutors said.