A lighter that prosecutors believe was used to start the Palisades Fire failed to ignite brush in three separate attempts, according to video of an experiment shown to jurors in the trial of the man accused of setting the deadly blaze.
Opening statements in the second federal trial of 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht began Wednesday, with his attorney, Steve Haney, presenting the test footage to the jury.
In the nearly one-minute video, a green barbecue lighter resembling one found in Rinderknecht’s car is used on a foil baking pan filled with dry vegetation collected from Pacific Palisades.
According to the video, the lighter’s flame touched three separate areas of the medium-sized pan. Each time, the brush ignited briefly before the flames went out. The experiment was conducted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.
Rinderknecht is accused of using the lighter on New Year’s Eve 2024 to start the Lachman Fire, which smoldered for several days before reigniting and growing into the Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025.
The video came from a test that federal prosecutors ordered 11 months after Rinderknecht was charged.
“Based on that video, that lighter does not have the ability to start the fire on January 1st,” Haney told the California Post after the opening statements.
Investigators found the green lighter in the glove compartment of Rinderknecht’s car on January 24, 2025—more than three weeks after the devastating fire tore through the Palisades.
In his opening statement, Haney said the Lachman Fire could be seen from five miles away just moments after it began.
“That fire couldn’t get across a baking pan,” he said while telling jurors that an upcoming witness would testify to hearing an explosion shortly before the blaze started.
“He ran out to his backyard to see what it was,” Haney said of the witness, who lived at the base of the hill where the New Year’s fire is believed to have begun.
The defense has argued that fireworks caused the blaze. “We all know what it’s like on New Year’s,” Haney told the jury.
The prosecution’s opening argument revisited many of the same points raised during Rinderknecht’s first trial, which ended with a hung jury after jurors voted 10 to 2 for acquittal.
Prosecutors said Rinderknecht’s phone data indicated he was the only person in the area when the fire began. They also suggested he called 911 16 times to construct a story that would serve as an alibi.
“He made a screen recording of what he was doing with his phone, which was calling 911, to create an alibi,” prosecutors told jurors Wednesday.
They also highlighted a question Rinderknecht allegedly asked ChatGPT between his calls to 911: “Are you at fault if a fire is lit because of your cigarettes?”
“He appeared to be admitting he lit the fire,” prosecutors said, even though another ATF test concluded that cigarettes did not start the blaze.
“Things Jonathan typed into his phone will take the place of direct evidence of him starting the fire,” Haney said.
The second trial is expected to continue for nearly two weeks.
Rinderknecht watched the opening statements in a gray suit and blue tie, with a short beard. He faces two counts of arson.
“They keep calling him the defendant; his name is Jonathan Rinderknecht. He will be judged by you, and only you. This is your case,” Haney told the jury.
