Jury selection is set to begin Monday at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles in the retrial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, the 30-year-old former Uber driver accused of starting the Palisades fire, the January 2025 blaze that killed 12 people and ravaged thousands of buildings in the Pacific Palisades.
The retrial comes four months after Rinderknecht's first trial ended with a hung jury, with two jurors voting to convict and 10 voting not guilty. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and timber set afire.
On 31 December, Rinderknecht dropped a passenger off in the upscale Los Angeles enclave before climbing on foot to a hillside clearing. Law enforcement officials said he ignited a brush fire that grew into the 8-acre Lachman fire. Firefighters extinguished the Lachman blaze on 2 January, but its embers smouldered underground for days before erupting into the Palisades fire.
During the first trial, prosecutors portrayed Rinderknecht as a lonely and angry person lashing out over grievances including failed romances and a general disdain for the rich. Months before the Palisades fire, he asked ChatGPT to create a dystopian image of a city burning down as an apathetic wealthy class watched. “He lit that fire to take back power,” prosecutor Danbee C Kim reportedly said during closing arguments.
Jurors were not allowed to hear evidence about the fire department's handling of the Lachman fire, but they appeared reluctant to place the blame squarely on Rinderknecht. “I'm not saying I don't think there was enough evidence to say he started the first fire,” one juror who voted not guilty told reporters. “But say he did? I don't see why everybody else's negligence of doing things incorrectly, where he needs to be responsible for the whole Palisades.”
For the retrial, federal prosecutors have asked the court to explicitly instruct jurors not to consider the adequacy of the Lachman fire suppression efforts, a request a judge tentatively granted, court documents show. Rinderknecht's defence team unsuccessfully tried to block the jury from hearing descriptions of the AI-generated apocalyptic images he created with ChatGPT. “The images are not Mr. Rinderknecht's statements. They are output a program produced in response to his instructions, over a series of attempts, and the prompts themselves show that the program did not produce what he asked for. What the images depict is therefore poor evidence of what he intended, while a picture of a burning landscape shown to a jury in a case about the Palisades Fire carries obvious emotional force,” his lawyers wrote in a recent court filing.
The case has been closely watched as victims of the Palisades fire continue to pursue damages from the city.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- The retrial will decide criminal responsibility for a fire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in one of Los Angeles's best-known neighbourhoods.
- It is being watched closely by victims pursuing damages from the city, and raises the question of where individual culpability ends and institutional responsibility for the fire department's handling of the earlier blaze begins.
- The case also tests the evidentiary value of AI-generated images, after the defence's attempt to keep them from the jury failed.
Background
The Palisades fire tore through the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles in January 2025, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of buildings. According to prosecutors, the fire began as a small brush fire, the Lachman fire, ignited on a hillside clearing on 31 December and extinguished on 2 January, only to re-emerge days later from smouldering embers. Rinderknecht's first trial ended in a hung jury, with 10 jurors voting not guilty and two voting to convict, and the retrial will again consider whether he is criminally responsible for the full scale of the disaster.
Key Perspectives
Federal prosecutors: say Rinderknecht lit the fire to “take back power”, casting him as a lonely and angry person with grievances including failed romances and a disdain for the rich, and have asked the judge to keep the fire department's handling of the earlier blaze out of the retrial.
Rinderknecht's defence team: argues the ChatGPT images shown to the jury are not his statements but output produced by a program, and that the prompts show the program did not produce what he asked for.
A juror who voted not guilty in the first trial: said that even if Rinderknecht started the first fire, others' negligence meant he should not be responsible for the whole Palisades fire.
What to Watch
- Whether the new jury can reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three federal charges after the first jury split two to ten in favour of acquittal.
- The judge's final ruling on the prosecution's request to instruct the jury not to consider the adequacy of the Lachman fire suppression efforts.
- Whether the ChatGPT-generated images are shown to the jury and how much weight they carry in the prosecution's case.
Checked
12 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 12 supported.
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- SupportedThe retrial is beginning for a man accused of starting the deadly Palisades fire.World news | The Guardian: “A 30-year-old man accused of starting the deadly Palisades fire is being retried for arson this week, four months after his first trial ended with a hung jury.”
- SupportedThe first trial ended in a hung jury, and Rinderknecht faces a new jury.World news | The Guardian: “his first trial ended with a hung jury. [...] Jury selection is set to begin Monday at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.”
- SupportedFederal prosecutors asked the court to tell retrial jurors not to consider the adequacy of the Lachman fire suppression efforts.World news | The Guardian: “Federal prosecutors have asked the court to explicitly instruct the retrial’s jurors not to consider the adequacy of the Lachman fire suppression efforts in Rinderknecht’s case.”
- SupportedJury selection is set to begin Monday at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.World news | The Guardian: “Jury selection is set to begin Monday at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.”
- SupportedRinderknecht is 30, a former Uber driver, and accused of starting the January 2025 fire, which killed 12 people and ravaged thousands of buildings in Pacific Palisades.World news | The Guardian: “Federal prosecutors say Jonathan Rinderknecht, a former Uber driver, is responsible for the January 2025 wildfire, which killed 12 people and ravaged thousands of buildings in the Pacific Palisades.”
- SupportedTwo jurors voted to convict Rinderknecht and 10 voted not guilty.World news | The Guardian: “Two jurors voted to convict Rinderknecht, while 10 voted not guilty.”
- SupportedRinderknecht pleaded not guilty to the three listed fire-related charges.World news | The Guardian: “Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty to charges of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and timber set afire.”
- SupportedOn 31 December, Rinderknecht dropped off a passenger in the Los Angeles enclave and walked to a hillside clearing; officials said he ignited a brush fire that grew into the 8-acre Lachman fire.World news | The Guardian: “On 31 December, Rinderknecht dropped a passenger off in the upscale Los Angeles enclave, before climbing on foot to a hillside clearing. Law enforcement officials said he ignited a brush fire, which ballooned into the 8-acre Lachman fire.”
- SupportedFirefighters extinguished the Lachman fire on 2 January, but its embers smouldered underground for days before erupting into the Palisades fire.World news | The Guardian: “Firefighters extinguished the Lachman blaze on 2 January, but its embers smoldered underground for days before erupting into the devastating Palisades fire.”
- SupportedProsecutor Danbee C Kim reportedly said during closing arguments, “He lit that fire to take back power.”World news | The Guardian: ““He lit that fire to take back power,” prosecutor Danbee C Kim reportedly said during closing arguments.”
- SupportedA juror who voted not guilty told reporters, “I'm not saying I don't think there was enough evidence to say he started the first fire.”World news | The Guardian: ““I’m not saying I don’t think there was enough evidence to say he started the first fire,” one juror who voted not guilty told reporters.”
- SupportedRinderknecht’s lawyers wrote, “The images are not Mr. Rinderknecht's statements. They are output a program produced in response to his instructions, over a series of attempts”.World news | The Guardian: ““The images are not Mr. Rinderknecht’s statements. They are output a program produced in response to his instructions, over a series of attempts,”