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After hearing weeks of evidence about Jonathan Rinderknecht’s loathing of the kinds of wealthy elites who inhabit the Pacific Palisades, jurors on Tuesday began deliberating whether he should be convicted of setting a fire that grew to swallow the opulent enclave and became the worst blaze in Los Angeles history.Prosecutors made their final pitch to the jury Tuesday afternoon, arguing that Rinderknecht, 30, intentionally set the Lachman fire last New Year’s Day in a bid for vengeance against millionaires he believed were “enslaving” common people like him.The Lachman Fire smoldered underground for a week before exploding into the deadly Palisades fire on Jan.7, 2025.
The secondary inferno killed 12 people, destroyed 6,500 structures across the Palisades and Malibu and cost billions in damage and insurance claims.If convicted, Rinderknecht faces up to 45 years in prison.Over the course of the trial, prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses, including veteran arson investigators who told jurors they had ruled out fireworks, lightning, cigarettes and other potential instigators of the blaze — leaving only Rinderknecht, who they say admitted to bringing a lighter with him as he hiked to the Hidden Buddha clearing overlooking the Pacific Palisades, near where the blaze was first spotted just minutes into the new year.While prosecutors contend Rinderknecht started the fire by burning some vegetation, they were unable to present any evidence proving how the fire started or an eyewitnesses who saw the 30-year-old do it.
Defense attorney Steve Haney repeatedly seized on the idea that the Lachman fire crime scene had been burned away before investigators got near it, leaving prosecutors to focus on why Rinderknecht might have started the fire without proving that he actually did.Texts, screen grabs, recordings and other records recovered from a search of Rinderknecht’s cellpho...