A 29-year-old man has been dealt two additional charges this week in connection to the catastrophic Palisades Fire, following an indictment by a federal grand jury, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, originating from Melbourne, Florida, who was initially charged with property destruction through fire, now faces further accusations. These include one count of arson impacting property involved in interstate commerce and one count of setting timber ablaze, as per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. If found guilty, Rinderknecht could be sentenced to a maximum of 45 years in federal prison, prosecutors revealed.
“A federal grand jury today indicted a former resident of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, charging him with initiating in January 2025 what escalated into the Palisades Fire, a significant wildfire in Los Angeles history, thereby adding two felonies to his case,” stated the Attorney’s Office.
Court documents indicate that law enforcement identified the Palisades Fire as a ‘holdover’ fire, which means it was a continuation of the Lachman Fire that ignited early on New Year’s Day 2025.
WHO IS JONATHAN RINDERKNECHT, THE SUSPECT BEHIND THE PALISADES FIRE ACCUSED OF SPARKING A DEADLY INFERNO?
Jonathan Rinderknecht, aged 29, has been accused of starting the blaze that transformed into the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong and DOJ)
“Law enforcement determined — using witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things — that Rinderknecht maliciously set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on January 1 on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding,” the Attorney’s Office said. “A week later, the same fire — then known as the Palisades Fire — burned federal property.”
Prosecutors allege Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver on the evening of Dec. 31, 2024, and that two passengers he drove on separate trips late that night told law enforcement they remembered him appearing “agitated and angry.”
PASSENGER SAYS UBER DRIVER ACCUSED IN PALISADES FIRE WAS ‘NUT JOB’ WHO RANTED ABOUT TRUMP
A sketch of Jonathan Rinderknecht inside federal court in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 9, 2025. Rinderknecht is facing charges for allegedly starting a New Year’s Day fire that killed 12 people in Pacific Palisades, California. (Neftali Melendez)
“After dropping off a passenger in Pacific Palisades, Rinderknecht — who once lived in that neighborhood — drove towards Skull Rock Trailhead, parked his car, attempted to contact a former friend, and walked up the trail. He then used his iPhone to take videos at a nearby hilltop area and listened to a rap song — to which he had listened repeatedly in previous days — whose music video included things being lit on fire,” according to the Attorney’s Office.
“At 12:12 a.m. on January 1, 2025, environmental sensing platforms indicated the Lachman Fire had begun,” it also said. “During an interview with law enforcement on January 24, 2025, Rinderknecht lied about where he was when he first saw the Lachman Fire. He claimed he was near the bottom of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone carrier showed that he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it rapidly grew.”
An aerial view of beachside homes destroyed in the Palisades Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Rinderknecht was arrested on Oct. 7, 2025, and is expected to be arraigned at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
