Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in the case of the man accused of starting the deadly 2025 wildfire that became the most destructive in Los Angeles history, reducing the number of charges. This was reported by infohub.kz.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of intentionally sparking the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods in Malibu, faced a first trial that ended in June with a hung jury. Ten out of 12 jurors voted to acquit him on all three felony charges, leading the judge to declare a mistrial. Federal prosecutors vowed to try again, and a second trial is scheduled for the fall.
In the new indictment filed Thursday, prosecutors reduced the charges against Rinderknecht to two and narrowed their scope. Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht used a barbecue lighter on Jan. 1, 2025, to spark a fire that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring up again on Jan. 7 to become the Palisades fire, which destroyed more than 6,800 buildings.
All three charges in the first trial blamed Rinderknecht for setting both the Jan. 1 fire and the Palisades Fire. In the new indictment, only one charge references both fires, while the other focuses solely on the destruction caused by the first fire.
Rinderknecht's attorney and a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the new indictment. A status conference for arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday.
During the first trial, prosecutors argued that Rinderknecht was the only person in the area when the Jan. 1 fire began and presented a digital trail suggesting he was motivated by a desire to take revenge on society over rampant economic inequality. They also presented hours of recorded interviews with Rinderknecht in which he gave inconsistent recollections about his movements that night.
Rinderknecht's attorneys argued that prosecutors lacked direct evidence showing he started the fire and that they failed to consider fireworks as a potential cause of the first fire.