Opening statements were heard Wednesday morning in downtown LA in the arson prosecution of Jonathan Rinderknecht, who’s accused of causing the January 2025 wildfires in Pacific Palisades.
Key to the prosecution’s case, a detailed timeline and location plot, based on Rinderknecht’s own repeated 911 calls on Jan. 1, 2025 to report the first of the two fires, that shows he was in the immediate area where the fire started.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew O’Brien told jurors ATF investigators ruled out all other possible causes, making Rindkernecht the culprit.
“They determined it wasn’t an accident, it was intentional, and the defendant, Jonathan Rinderknecht, was the only person near the fire when it began,” he said.
O’Brien showed jurors still images that Rinderknecht allegedly recorded of the Jan. 1 fire, and said the defendant’s ChatGPT prompts and other digital messages showed he was thinking about fires and that he was angry at wealthy people.
“After you see all the evidence, we’ll ask you to return the only verdict consistent with that evidence – guilty on all three counts,” he said.
In the defense opening attorney Steve Haney said jurors should remember Rinderknecht is presumed innocent, and there’s little proof he ignited the Lachman fire, let alone caused the destruction from the larger, Palisades fire, that started six days later.
“No matter what the government’s theory is the evidence will show Jonathan did not start the Jan. 1 Lachman fire,” he said, and explained a far more likely explanation were New Year’s Eve fireworks reported by neighbors and firefighters. “There will be one thing missing, proof that Jonathan set that fire on Jan. 1. And in court, when proof is missing, the verdict is not guilty.”