Frustrated Uber driver who wanted to burn down a rich neighborhood? Or a scapegoat pursued to hide the failures of Californian firefighters? These are the questions that will shake up the trial of the American suspected of having voluntarily started one of the deadly fires in Los Angeles in 2025.
Jonathan Rinderknecht is due to appear Monday in federal court in the city, for a first day of hearing devoted to jury selection.
The prosecution suspects him of being at the origin of a fire declared on New Year's Eve 2025, which firefighters thought they had initially brought under control, but which would have started again six days later to ravage the upscale neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.
In this wealthy area of Los Angeles, where multi-million dollar villas overlook the Pacific Ocean, thousands of homes were reduced to ashes and 12 people died - out of the 31 victims who perished in total in the fires of January 2025.
Mr. Rinderknecht pleads not guilty.
In court documents filed in May, prosecutors portray him as an Uber driver turned against capitalist society, who allegedly burned down the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a celebrity haunt where he once lived, in revenge.
- “Furious at the world” -
Two weeks before he committed the act, his Internet search history contained queries like "let's eliminate all the billionaires", according to the prosecution.
He would also have searched for the slogan "free Luigi Mangione", the American accused of having killed the boss of United Healthcare - a case which caused intense controversy in the United States, because he was sometimes elevated to the rank of modern Robin Hood on social networks.
"Many passengers" that Mr. Rinderknecht transported during New Year's Eve 2025 "described the accused as angry, intense, driving erratically and ruminating on diatribes where he said he was 'furious at the world', mentioned Luigi Mangione, capitalism and taking the law into his own hands yourself,” according to the documents.
Obsessed by fire, this American who grew up in France called for help himself before fleeing the scene, according to the prosecution.
His main lawyer, Steve Haney, however, presents him as a "good Samaritan" who made "seventeen calls" to emergency services to report the original fire.
The New Year's fire "was started by fireworks set off by other people (...) and not by the defendant", assures the defense in recent court documents.
The lawyer also believes that his client is serving as a scapegoat to hide the failure of the Los Angeles firefighters to put out the initial fire, and points to their responsibility in the disaster.
The trial could last a little more than a week.
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