Palisades Fire suspect followed fire engines to initial blaze scene

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The man accused of causing the devastating Palisades Fire last year was seen following fire engines through the upscale Westside neighborhood of Los Angeles back to the area where prosecutors say he ignited a brush fire that later morphed into a firestorm.

On Thursday, Michael Montevidoni, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, walked the jury in downtown Los Angeles through security camera footage from surrounding homes. The footage shows the suspect’s car, driven by 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, circulating through Pacific Palisades shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025.

After calling 911 to report the brush fire he is accused of igniting near a trail in the hills above the residential neighborhood, Rinderknecht is seen on surveillance footage driving a short distance away. When a fire engine passes in the opposite direction toward the fire, his vehicle follows shortly afterward at a high speed.

“As the firetruck passes him, he decides to follow,” Montevidoni said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew O’Brien.

Minutes later, another residential security camera shows firefighters opening a gate blocking access to a cul-de-sac so they can reach the brush fire. Rinderknecht’s white Genesis GV60 is seen following the fire engine through the gate and later appears on another camera inside the neighborhood.

Later, he drives back out of the gate and, according to the investigator, parks nearby. For the next hour, video from his iPhone shows him watching the fire and firefighters battling the flames from a nearby location.

The so-called Lachman Fire that Rinderknecht is accused of starting in the early hours of Jan. 1 was quickly subdued. However, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles say embers continued to smolder underground in roots, and when powerful Santa Ana winds hit Southern California on Jan. 7, those embers reignited and sparked the firestorm that raged through Pacific Palisades, Malibu and surrounding communities.

Rinderknecht faces up to 45 years in prison if the jury finds the Palisades Fire was a holdover from the Lachman Fire and that he started the initial blaze.

Montevidoni, the lead federal investigator, also testified at length about Rinderknecht’s frequent use of ChatGPT to vent anger and frustration over wealth disparity, climate change and personal issues.

He told jurors that Rinderknecht prompted ChatGPT to generate dozens of images depicting apocalyptic scenes of burning forests and impoverished people fleeing while a wall protects safe and comfortable wealthy people.

At times, Rinderknecht appeared to lose his temper with the AI tool — which warned that some requests violated its content policy — when it did not generate images that, in his view, adequately reflected his belief that the wealthy are responsible for environmental destruction affecting the poor.

Under cross-examination by Steven Haney, Rinderknecht’s attorney, Montevidoni acknowledged he is not an expert on human behavior and was not offering an expert opinion on the suspect’s conduct.

“Would you agree that someone who is frustrated and upset about corporate greed isn’t necessarily an arsonist?” Haney asked.

Prosecutors allege Rinderknecht was angry after failing to get a date or an invitation to a New Year’s Eve party and was instead driving for Uber. Several passengers who rode with him that night told investigators that he appeared agitated and was ranting about wealth inequality and societal unfairness.

“He wanted revenge against society because he blamed society for his problems,” O’Brien said in his opening statement Wednesday.

Rinderknecht is accused of starting the Jan. 1 fire on a trail near where he previously lived with a former boyfriend. Prosecutors showed jurors photos of a large hillside home overlooking the Pacific Ocean, as well as images of Rinderknecht working out in the spacious backyard.

Investigators used cellphone geolocation data and security camera footage to identify him in the weeks after the fire. Although they seized his two cellphones, they were unable to access all data on his iPhone because he refused to provide his password, Montevidoni testified.

Rinderknecht also had the Tor browser installed on his computer, which can be used to reach the dark web and “onion” sites investigators could not access, the agent said.

U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang, a Joe Biden appointee, has largely barred the defense from arguing that the Los Angeles Fire Department should bear responsibility for failing to fully extinguish the Lachman Fire.

It will be up to the government, however, to persuade the jury that the Palisades Fire was a holdover from the Lachman Fire and that, under a “but for” theory of causation, the blaze would not have occurred if Rinderknecht had not ignited the initial fire.

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