Where Is the Suspect Accused of Starting the Palisades Fire — and What Do Authorities Say He Did?   By Christine Pelisek

A year after the deadly Palisades Fire in California, the man accused of starting what eventually became the blaze that burned more than 23,000 acres and claimed the lives of 12 people, is currently housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles pending trial.

Jonathan Rinderknecht faces one count of destruction of property by means of fire, one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and one count of timber set afire, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Central District of California.

In October 2025, Rinderknecht, who is also known as “Jonathan Rinder” and “Jon Rinder,” pleaded not guilty to the charges in a Los Angeles federal courtroom.

The former Uber driver’s trial is scheduled for April 21 of this year, according to prosecutors.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE, on the evening of December 31, 2024, two of Rinderknecht’s Uber passengers reported that he appeared “agitated and angry.”

Prosecutors allege that after Rinderknecht dropped off his passengers in the Pacific Palisades, he drove towards the Skull Rock Trailhead.

There, prosecutors allege, Rinderknecht hiked up to a clearing called Hidden Buddha where he “used his iPhone to take videos … and listened to a rap song — to which he had allegedly listened repeatedly in previous days — whose music video included things being lit on fire,” according to a Department of Justice statement.

Just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025, environmental sensing platforms indicated the Lachman Fire had begun, per the statement.

The criminal complaint notes that the first indication of the blaze was “captured at 12:12:01 a.m. from a camera approximately 4.7 miles away.”

Authorities said Rinderknecht attempted to call 911 at 12:12:31 a.m., but the call didn’t go through because he was most likely out of cell phone range, according to the complaint. He attempted to call 911 several other times following the initial call but was unsuccessful. He then tried to call several more times while descending the hill.

“When he finally connected with 911, he was at the bottom of the hiking trail and reported the fire. By that point, a nearby resident already had reported the fire to authorities,” the Department of Justice said.

The criminal complaint alleges that during the call, Rinderknecht “typed a question into the ChatGPT app on his iPhone asking, ‘Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?’ ChatGPT’s response was “Yes,” followed by an explanation.”

Rinderknecht left the scene but then drove back to the area, prosecutors allege.

“Rinderknecht then walked back up the same trail that he had used to climb up and down the hill earlier that night, in order to watch the fire and the firefighters,” the complaint states.

According to the Department of Justice, during a police interview on Jan. 24, 2025, Rinderknecht lied about where he was when he first saw the fire — allegedly saying he was near the bottom of the trail — but location data from his cell phone placed him 30 feet from the blaze as it rapidly grew.

His recording of his attempts to call 911 and his question to ChatGPT indicated he “wanted to preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire and he wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” the criminal complaint states.

A multi-agency investigation determined that the Palisades Fire that erupted days later on Jan. 7 was a continuation of the Lachman Fire that began early in the morning on New Year’s Day 2025.

“Although the Los Angeles City Fire Department quickly suppressed the Lachman Fire on Jan. 1, unbeknownst to anyone the fire continued to smolder and burn underground, within the root structure of dense vegetation,” the complaint states. “On Jan. 7, heavy winds caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground in what became the Palisades Fire.”

An investigative team concluded the Lachman fire was started by “the introduction of an open flame [likely a lighter] to a combustible material such as vegetation or paper,” per the complaint.

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed Rinderknecht’s initial arrest on X on Oct. 8. At the time of his arrest, he was staying at his sister’s home in Florida.

At Rinderknecht’s Oct. 23 arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

His attorney Steve Haney tells PEOPLE that “there is a glaring lack of evidence in this case.”

“It is so illogical to believe that somebody would intentionally start a fire, commit a crime of arson, and then call the fire department 15 times,” he says. “He raced down the hill and called them again and said, ‘Hey, are you guys coming up here or what? There’s a fire up here.’ And then he waited for them, met them as they arrived. That is not anything that you’d expect somebody would do that had committed a crime. It makes zero sense.”

Haney says others called 911 to report they heard a loud bang before seeing the fire.

“There’s no question in my mind after looking at the discovery that that fire was started on January 1st by a firework, which at 12:12 a.m. when people are lighting off fireworks, is a very logical assumption of what happened,” he says.

“And the whole theory that he started the fire with an open flame and a lighter, you wouldn’t hear a loud bang that would wake up neighbors,” he says. “One witness who was awakened by the loud bang right after midnight went outside and saw the fire. You don’t light a bush with a lighter and have a loud bang that would wake people up in the neighborhood. That’s a firework.”

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According to Haney, Rinderknecht used to live in the area.

“It’s not like he was there out of place. He lived for a long time right there at the bottom of that hill. He was dropping somebody off in his Uber. It was New Year’s Eve. He walks up to watch the fireworks. There’s absolutely nothing out of the ordinary or unusual about what my client was doing that evening. Zero. And then he calls 911. Had he not made the 911 call, I don’t even think he’d be charged with this crime.”

Haney says Rinderknecht’s question to ChatGPT is also “great evidence of his innocence.”

“When he’s putting in a prompt, never believing somebody’s going to see it one day, he’s wondering, ‘Oh boy, did I start that fire?’ That’s the opposite of maliciously starting a fire and intentionally starting a fire if you’re questioning if you accidentally started a fire. If anything, that’s some of the best evidence that he’s not guilty.”