Prosecutors say he sparked the Palisades Fire and was ‘fixated’ on Luigi Mangione. Now Jonathan Rinderknecht heads to trial

By Jack Hannah, CNN

(CNN) — The man who federal prosecutors say was “pissed off at the world” before allegedly igniting the Palisades Fire goes on trial this week in Los Angeles, roughly a year and a half after the deadly and historically destructive blaze claimed the lives of a dozen people and scorched thousands of homes and businesses.

Jonathan Rinderknecht had an “obsession with fire, fire-setting behavior, and a motive for starting the fire,” which began as the Lachman Fire on January 1, 2025, according to the trial memorandum. That blaze continued to smolder underground and, prosecutors allege, resurfaced on January 7 and exploded into the Palisades Fire.

Shortly after Rinderknecht was arrested in October 2025, authorities painted a picture of a man singularly focused on a city going up in flames, saying the suspect repeatedly watched a rap video that included “objects being lit on fire” in the days before allegedly setting the blaze.

Prosecutors accused Rinderknecht of using ChatGPT to create “dystopian” images showing crowds fleeing from flames, but the judge ruled those images cannot be used at trial. Prosecutors also said he was “fixated” on Luigi Mangione, who is charged with shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, roughly a month before the Palisades disaster.

In an emailed statement to CNN, Steven Haney, an attorney for Rinderknecht, said that “many people will look at this case in a much different light,” when the trial evidence reveals the facts.

“The pretrial narrative created by the Government is woefully slanted. Jonathan did not commit the crime he is charged with,” Haney wrote.

If convicted, Rinderknecht faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 45 years in federal prison. Jury selection is scheduled for Monday.

His alleged behavior before the fire

Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver in the Palisades on December 31, 2024, and January 1, 2025, and, prosecutors said, was frustrated with his inability to make any plans or find “companionship” on New Year’s Eve. Several of his passengers that day later told investigators that he was driving erratically and appeared “angry, intense … and ranting about being pissed off at the world,” according to the memo.

After dropping off his final passenger in the Pacific Palisades, surveillance video shows Rinderknecht hiking up a nearby trail in the wealthy enclave, where he recorded video on his phone, the memo says.

He lit the fire around 12:12 a.m. on New Year’s Day, watched it grow, then tried calling 911 multiple times, according to court documents. He left the area in his car before fire crews arrived on the scene, then returned and shot videos of the firefight, the documents say.

Rinderknecht’s attorneys say their client did not start the Lachman Fire and prosecutors cannot link him to the Palisades Fire, arguing in a court filing that investigators initially disclaimed any connection after obtaining search warrants on potential Palisades Fire suspects, none of whom had ties to Rinderknecht.

“But when the trail went cold, eight months later the nexus was claimed and (Rinderknecht) was charged,” they say in the court brief.

Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about “Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism,” according to the memo. A few weeks earlier, his online searches included Mangione-related news and phrases like “free Luigi Mangione,” “lets take down all the billionaires” and “reddit lets kill all the billionaires,” according to the memo. On January 3, 2025, he took a screenshot of an article about Mangione pleading not guilty, prosecutors said.

Weeks later, Rinderknecht was asked by investigators why someone would commit arson in the Pacific Palisades. He said that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as “‘we’re basically being enslaved by them,’” according to the memo.

“By focusing on Rinderknecht’s alleged ‘fixation’ with Luigi Mangione, prosecutors are drawing parallels to an extremely high-profile case in which a defendant is alleged to have committed a crime as payback to wealthy people they believe have taken advantage of those less fortunate,” said Josh Campbell, CNN senior correspondent and a former FBI special agent.

“Although proving a suspect’s motive isn’t necessary to obtain a conviction, it can be a powerful driver in convincing juries of a suspect’s guilt,” Campbell said.

Judge bars certain evidence

Weeks before the trial was set to begin in Los Angeles, US District Court Judge Anne Hwang excluded specific evidence that was front and center when prosecutors announced charges against Rinderknecht.

At an October news conference after his arrest, prosecutors displayed AI images they say Rinderknecht prompted ChatGPT to generate months before the fire started. One image was “a dystopian painting showing, in part, a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it,” Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California, said at the time.

Rinderknecht also asked the chatbot to show “hundreds of thousands of people in poverty are trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it. On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people. They are chilling, watching the world burn down, and watching the people struggle,” prosecutors allege.

Those AI images of a city in flames cannot be introduced at trial, Hwang ruled. Haney said those images are “prejudicial” and taken out of context.

In the trial memorandum, filed in April, prosecutors laid out a plan to include testimony from a handful of ATF agents, fire engineers and other experts who they say will not only place Rinderknecht at the scene but also provide evidence that he ignited the blaze. They will also include ATF testimony that the January 7 Palisades Fire was “a holdover from the Lachman Fire that continued to burn underground.”

Prosecutors face challenges

Fire investigators acknowledge arson trials aren’t typically open-and-shut cases for prosecutors and they could face an uphill battle in convincing a jury.

“This is by no means what I would call a simple effort on the part of (the prosecution),” said Steve Carman, a retired ATF fire investigator.

“They take a lot of effort and they take a lot of expertise,” Carman said of arson cases. “The prosecutor is going to have to convince the jury that the reasoning the ATF agents came up with as to why they believe the fire started in the way it did and where they believe it started. That’s going to be a big job.”

On the other hand, Carman points out, prosecutors could use Rinderknecht’s alleged remarks to his Uber passengers and his fascination with Mangione to their advantage.

“People are interested in that kind of stuff. Juries are made up of people who oftentimes fancy themselves as detectives of sort. By having information like that and presenting it … a prosecutor could play to that angle,” Carman said.

‘An extremely disturbing trend’

More than a year after the Palisades Fire, another alleged arson torched a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, California, causing an estimated half a billion dollars in damage, according to federal authorities.

Chamel Abdulkarim, a worker at the warehouse accused of setting the April 7 fire, has pleaded not guilty to several state and federal charges, authorities say.

Similar to the Rinderknecht case, the details laid out by federal prosecutors offered a glimpse into Abdulkarim’s state of mind before and during the alleged arson.

Prosecutors say Abdulkarim posted video from a first person perspective of someone starting the fire on his personal Instagram page, according to court documents.

Shortly before his arrest, Abdulkarim made a series of phone calls to multiple witnesses explaining his motivation for sparking the blaze, like “I just cost these mutherf**kers billions,” and equated what he did to Mangione’s alleged crime, prosecutors say.

“There is an extremely disturbing trend where people are resorting to violence to communicate political messages or economic messages,” Essayli said when announcing the arrest in April.

In an emailed statement to CNN, Matthew Magorien, Abdulkarim’s public defender, cited mental illness.

“These situations are tragic, not mysterious, and reflect profound psychological distress that demands understanding and context, not dismissive characterizations,” Magorien said.

Cases like these, while unrelated, represent a clear and present concern for investigators, CNN’s Campbell said.

“Researchers have noted how incidents that gain notoriety can often serve as a script or template for others to emulate, particularly if they believe such an act might provide their life with meaning,” Campbell said. “It’s a sad reality that high-profile criminal acts can inspire other aggrieved individuals to engage in similar copycat-style violence.”

Campbell said there are often warning signs.

“Contrary to popular belief, profilers say people don’t just one day ‘snap’ along their pathway to violence but instead will often stew in their real or perceived grievances, providing potential clues to a troubled state of mind,” he said. “In so many cases, prevention doesn’t come down to enforcing the law, but rather, family and friends recognizing troubling red flags and making an effort to intervene and assist a loved one in seeking help.”

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