Alleged LA Palisades arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht hit with 2 felonies in federal grand jury indictment

The Florida man accused of sparking the devastating Los Angeles Palisades Fire was indicted Wednesday on three new charges, including two felonies – a week after he was taken into federal custody. 

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, was charged in the indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, with arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, destruction of property by means of fire and a count of timber set afire, the Department of Justice announced. 

Rinderknecht allegedly started the destructive blaze in the hills over LA that leveled 7,000 homes and businesses, caused $150 billion and damages and left 12 people dead. 

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He was arrested at his Florida home on Oct. 8 and initially charged by the feds with one count of destruction of property by means of fire.

Rinderknecht was living in Los Angeles when, prosecutors allege, he hiked into the Palisades hills on New Year’s Day and sparked a brush fire just minutes into 2025.

The alleged firebug was even listening to a rap song with lyrics about setting a fire – which he’d been playing on repeat for days – when the blaze started, prosecutors said.

As the fire kicked up, he fled and called 911 himself – then turned around and followed responders back into the hills and watched them battle the flames, prosecutors said.

But the blaze was never fully extinguished, and it exploded days later into the Palisades Fire as strong winds tore through the area.

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It went on to destroy swaths of LA and become one of the most destructive fires in the city’s history.

Data from Rinderknecht’s phone placed him just 30 feet from the initial brush fire as it grew, but he allegedly told investigators who interviewed him days later that he first saw the flames at the bottom of the hill and far away from where it was burning, prosecutors said.

He also had an apparent obsession with fire.

Before his arrest Rinderknecht allegedly used AI to generate images of cities burning while crowds of people fled, and he also allegedly threatened to burn down his sister-in-law’s Florida home just weeks before his arrest.

Rinderknecht was living in Florida after relocating weeks after the Palisades Fire was finally extinguished.

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His social media footprint also indicated an obsession with fire and climate catastrophe – with posts on his Facebook account going back years pushing articles about melting ice caps, food shortages, and even wildfires.

Rinderknecht will likely appear in Los Angeles federal court within weeks.

He faces at least five years in prison if convicted of his current charges, and no more than 45 in federal prison.