Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that the man accused of setting the most destructive wildfire in the history of the city of Los Angeles was angry about spending New Year’s Eve alone and harbored resentments toward the wealthy.
The man, Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, set the blaze that would grow into the deadly Palisades fire because he “wanted revenge against society,” Matthew W. O’Brien, an assistant U.S. attorney, told jurors as the criminal trial opened.
Mr. Rinderknecht faces three felony arson charges. One of his lawyers, Steven Haney, told the jury that his client had climbed to a hillside lookout in the Santa Monica Mountains in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2025, to view fireworks, which started the fire. He made 17 calls to 911 trying to report the blaze, Mr. Haney said.
The flames were doused by firefighters, who believed the blaze had been extinguished. But it smoldered underground for a week, investigators say, before heavy winds whipped it up again.
The resulting Palisades fire killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the wealthy Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. “It’s a tragedy that nobody denies, including my client,” Mr. Haney said.
Prosecutors in opening statements tried to depict Mr. Rinderknecht as an angry and resentful young man “enthralled by fire.” They said he tried to cover his tracks by telling federal investigators that he was halfway down the hill, heading toward his parked car, when he noticed the blaze on the hillside.
Instead, Mr. O’Brien said, cellphone data and surveillance cameras placed him at the top of the hill in the early minutes of Jan. 1.
Mr. Rinderknecht looked straight ahead during the prosecution’s opening statements, and began taking notes on a yellow pad as his lawyer addressed the jury, telling them that Mr. Rinderknecht has never been directly linked to the fire.
The defense has suggested that the Los Angeles Fire Department had been negligent for not putting out the initial blaze, but Judge Anne Hwang, who is overseeing the trial in the U.S. District Court, limited the extent to which Mr. Rinderknecht’s lawyers could present evidence making that argument.
The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, and will likely include testimony from arson experts on fire behavior. If convicted, Mr. Rinderknecht faces to up to 45 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors said in court filings that the defendant, who grew up in France and was arrested in Florida, was living in an apartment in North Hollywood in the month before the fire, working as an Uber driver. They said he ranted about capitalism to his passengers on New Year’s Eve, and talked to them about Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare. Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty.
After dropping off his last passenger in Pacific Palisades, Mr. Rinderknecht hiked up a trail and listened to a French rap song about sadness, prosecutors said. It was soon after, they said, that he lit a fire just after midnight.
Some residents whose homes burned down want to see a deeper examination of the blaze than what is expected in the courtroom over the coming weeks.
Jonathan Zasloff, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, lived in Pacific Palisades until his house burned down in the fire. He said that regardless of what happens to Mr. Rinderknecht, the city of Los Angeles and other government agencies could still face civil liability for failures during both fires.
“I want to know what happened,” said Mr. Zasloff, who is involved in litigation with state authorities. “I also don’t want to be in the position of finding the one scapegoat, because I think it’s bigger than that.”