{"id":46922,"date":"2026-08-15T16:12:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46922"},"modified":"2026-08-15T16:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:12:35","slug":"prosecutors-narrow-their-case-ahead-of-the-retrial-of-the-man-accused-of-setting-the-palisades-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46922","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors narrow their case ahead of the retrial of the man accused of setting the Palisades fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/14\/California_Wildfires_Palisades_Investigation_817_7_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/los-angeles\/\">LOS ANGELES<\/a> \u2014 Federal prosecutors will pursue fewer charges in their second attempt to convict a man accused of starting the deadly 2025 wildfire that became the most destructive in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/los-angeles\/\">Los Angeles<\/a>\u2019 history.<\/p>\n<p>A jury deadlocked in June over whether to convict <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/jonathan-rinderknecht\/\">Jonathan Rinderknecht<\/a> of intentionally sparking the fire that killed 12 people as it incinerated much of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/pacific-palisades\/\">Pacific Palisades<\/a> and other neighborhoods in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/malibu\/\">Malibu<\/a>. Ten out of 12 jurors wanted 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 set to start in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>In a new indictment filed Thursday, prosecutors reduced their case against Rinderknecht to two charges and narrowed their scope.<\/p>\n<p>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 back up Jan. 7 to become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/palisades-fire\/\">Palisades fire<\/a>, which destroyed more than 6,800 buildings.<\/p>\n<p>All three charges in the first trial blamed Rinderknecht for setting both the Jan. 1 fire and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/palisades-fire\/\">Palisades Fire<\/a>. In the new indictment, only one charge references both fires. The other only focuses on the destruction caused by the first fire.<\/p>\n<p>Rinderknecht\u2019s attorney and a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office declined to comment on the new indictment. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang is holding a status conference for an arraignment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout 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 seeking to show 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 offered inconsistent recollections about his movements that night.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rinderknecht\u2019s attorneys argued that prosecutors lacked direct evidence showing that he started the fire and that they failed to consider fireworks as a potential cause of the first fire.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 Federal prosecutors will pursue fewer charges in their second attempt to convict a man accused of starting the deadly 2025 wildfire that became the most destructive in Los Angeles\u2019 history. A jury deadlocked in June over whether to convict Jonathan Rinderknecht of intentionally sparking the fire that killed 12 people as it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/14\/California_Wildfires_Palisades_Investigation_74174_c0-242-5808-3630_s1200x700.jpg?2eea077db11081564a9c9ccf41d000f90ed9795c","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}