LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The man accused of sparking the deadly wildfire that ripped through a Los Angeles neighborhood in January must remain jailed while he awaits trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Federal officials have said Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, started a small fire on New Year\u2019s Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through coastal Pacific Palisades<\/a> and Malibu, home to many of Los Angeles\u2019 rich and famous. The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings<\/a> while burning for days in Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella A. Oliver denied his bond, saying he must be kept in custody due to his mental health and distress he caused his sister and her family. Rinderknecht\u2019s father testified in support of his release, denying that his son had mental health issues.<\/p>\n Rinderknecht was arrested<\/a> Oct. 7 in Florida, where he staying at his sister\u2019s house in Orlando. A judge ordered that he remain jailed<\/a> after a prosecutor said he had traits of an arsonist and his family had worried about his declining mental state. Prosecutors also argued Rinderknecht was a flight risk because he had family in France and spoke French.<\/p>\n Rinderknecht was indicted on one charge of malicious destruction by means of a fire, one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and one count of timber set afire. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n His trial is scheduled for April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n Federal officials called the Palisades blaze a \u201choldover fire\u201d from the Jan. 1 fire that Rinderknecht is accused of starting, which was not fully extinguished by firefighters. LA\u2019s interim fire chief said such fires linger in root systems and can reach depths of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 meters), making them undetectable by thermal imaging cameras.<\/p>\n Rinderknecht’s attorney Steve Haney said that even if Rinderknecht was the cause of the initial smaller fire on New Year\u2019s Day, there were several \u201cintervening factors\u201d in the week between that day and when the Palisades Fire ignited, mainly the Los Angeles Fire Department’s response to the fire.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The man accused of sparking the deadly wildfire that ripped through a Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[175,18,7704,48,52,51,1015,47,4101,50,49,36137,5437,17,535],"class_list":{"0":"post-59317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-fires","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-indictments","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-headlines","13":"tag-la-news","14":"tag-legal-proceedings","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-area-wildfires","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-palisades-wildfire-suspect-rinderknecht-california-los-angeles","20":"tag-trials","21":"tag-u-s-news","22":"tag-wildfires"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}