Federal prosecutors allege that a 29-year-old Uber driver, Jonathan Rinderknecht, ignited the Lachman blaze that later became the Palisades fire, killing 12 people, leveling thousands of homes, and causing billions in damage. Evidence collected by the ATF detailed the defendant’s anguished ChatGPT conversations, alleged attempts to hide phone data from investigators, and a late-night drive near the fire scene.
His lawyer argues prosecutors are fixated on Rinderknecht’s loneliness, rage, and online rants, but have failed to prove he set the fire.
Just minutes after a fire erupted above the Pacific Palisades on New Year’s Day in 2025, investigators say, Jonathan Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT if he might be held responsible for the blaze. “Are you at fault if a fire is lit because of your cigarettes?” wrote the Uber driver, then 29.
As the Lachman fire burned into the night, videos showed Rinderknecht continue to drive around the wealthy enclave, sometimes right behind fire trucks responding to the blaze that federal prosecutors allege he started. He called 911 twice to report the blaze, but said nothing about how it started, according to evidence presented in a downtown federal courthouse Thursday morning.
When he returned home to his North Hollywood apartment around 3:45 a.m., records from Rinderknecht’s phone show he played a French hip-hop song he’d become obsessed with, which has a video showing money set on fire. In two days on the stand at Rinderknecht’s arson trial, U.S.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agent Michael Montevidoni has painted a detailed picture of the defendant’s movements and mental state in the moments he allegedly started the Lachman fire and the day after.
Prosecutors believe the Lachman fire, which erupted around midnight on New Year’s Day 2025, burned underground for days and reignited Jan. 7 as the Palisades fire, the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history.
The inferno killed 12 people, destroyed 6,500 structures across the Palisades and Malibu, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Authorities allege in court documents that Rinderknecht “maliciously” started the Lachman fire near Skull Rock in Temescal Canyon just after midnight, citing statements he made to investigators about his resentment toward the wealthy and a lengthy conversation log with ChatGPT that showed the defendant was frustrated with his financial situation and social life. Prosecutors have also pointed to recovery of a green BIC barbecue lighter in Rinderknecht’s car that was seen in a video the defendant filmed near the fire scene on the night the Lachman blaze erupted.
Rinderknecht has denied all wrongdoing and his attorney, Steve Haney, has been quick to argue the government’s case is heavy on motive but lacks any proof. Prosecutors have yet to present any evidence that he intentionally burned anything.
While Montevidoni, the lead ATF agent on the case, spent hours detailing Rinderknecht’s discussions with an AI chatbot, Haney pointed out he never asked ChatGPT for advice to plot a fire. “You never saw any prompts or any searches on any of his devices...
on how to plan to burn something,” Haney said Thursday morning. Montevidoni said he had not.
If convicted as charged, Rinderknecht faces 45 years in federal prison. Within weeks of the Palisades fire, Rinderknecht became a target of arson investigators, who began serving the first of more than 40 search warrants used in the case on Jan.
10. He said Rinderknecht refused to give investigators passwords for his devices and that he used a Tor browser, the gateway to the dark web, to find information on how to delete information from his iCloud as investigators closed in.
Rinderknecht told investigators he had a remote program running that would delete everything from his phone if federal authorities tried to use any password-cracking software.
Montevidoni said authorities were only able to conduct a partial extraction of his cellphone data. He said Rinderknecht engaged in long conversations with ChatGPT that were akin to a journal.
In July 2024, Rinderknecht demanded the chatbot generate an image that showed wealthy elites dining extravagantly on one side of a wall while the world burned beyond the barricade. Rinderknecht prompted ChatGPT to create more than 40 images similar to that, and cursed out the bot when it didn’t do what he wanted or noted he was violating OpenAI’s content creation policies, according to images displayed in court.
Montevidoni said Rinderknecht also wrote to ChatGPT about his belief that the wealthy are “enslaving” society and causing harm to the planet. He wrote that he was having a difficult time coming to terms with not being able to do anything about it.
“Why am I so angry all the time,” he asked in one message. “The cost of life out here brings me anxiety.
My loneliness brings me anxiety,” he wrote in another. “Like, very, very lonely.”
Montevidoni said investigators also found internet searches and web history related to Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, on Rinderknecht’s devices. He said Rinderknecht searched “Free Luigi” and “reddit lets kill all billionaires” in December 2024.
Montevidoni later testified that Rinderknecht also used ChatGPT to look for information about the home address and security protocols of DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.
On Dec. 30, two days before the fire, Rinderknecht reached out to a woman he’d previously been in a romantic relationship with, hoping she would spend New Year’s Eve with him, but was rebuffed.
Montevidoni testified that Rinderknecht began sending vile messages to the woman from another phone, making comments about her weight, calling her a “pathetic pig” and telling her “you got no worth.”
Minutes before midnight, he called an ex-boyfriend whom he lived with in the Palisades from 2020 to 2022, but was ignored, according to phone records shown in court. He called the man again after the fire erupted.
At 12:12 a.m., he made two quick phone calls to 911, among many that L.A. County authorities received reporting the Lachman fire.
He was panicked but brief in both calls, which lasted only seconds. Two minutes later, he asked ChatGPT if someone would be responsible for the fire started by discarded cigarettes, Montevidoni said.
Rinderknecht “screen-recorded” both the 911 calls and his ChatGPT prompt, which Montevidoni said was odd. “To us, it seems like he was trying to create an alternative reason for why the fire was started and have a record of that to show at a later period,” he said.
Subsequent cellphone videos and surveillance cameras show Rinderknecht driving around the neighborhood near the fire for almost two hours after the blaze started, sometimes trailing Fire Department vehicles.
The next morning, Rinderknecht’s Google search history showed him repeatedly searching for information about the Lachman fire. It is unclear if Rinderknecht will testify at trial.
But his attorney, Haney, said the prosecution’s entire case seems focused on his client’s despair rather than the cause of the fire or proof that Rinderknecht was the person who set it. “You never found any searches in any of the devices regarding arson, right?
Any internet searches for deliberately starting a fire... any Internet searches on what type of incendiary device, lighter, torch, flare, might be better used to start a fire?
Never found any purchases of fire-starting materials?” Over and over again, the ATF agent responded no.