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Palisades Fire suspect hit with new charges in grand jury indictment
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The 29-year-old man accused of starting what became the devastating Palisades Fire was hit with two new charges this week after being indicted by a federal grand jury, the Justice Department announced.
Jonathan Rinderknecht of Melbourne, Florida, who previously was charged with destruction of property by means of fire, is now facing one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and one count of timber set afire, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
“A federal grand jury today indicted a former resident of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles who is charged with starting in January 2025 what eventually became the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history, adding two felonies to his criminal case,” the Attorney’s Office said.
It cited court documents as saying that, “law enforcement determined that the Palisades Fire was a ‘holdover’ fire — a continuation of the Lachman Fire that began early in the morning on New Year’s Day 2025.”
WHO IS JONATHAN RINDERKNECHT, PALISADES FIRE SUSPECT ACCUSED OF SPARKING DEADLY BLAZE?
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, was charged with igniting the fire that eventually became the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong and DOJ)
“Law enforcement determined — using witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things — that Rinderknecht maliciously set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on January 1 on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding,” the Attorney’s Office said. “A week later, the same fire — then known as the Palisades Fire — burned federal property.”
Prosecutors allege Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver on the evening of Dec. 31, 2024, and that two passengers he drove on separate trips late that night told law enforcement they remembered him appearing “agitated and angry.”
PASSENGER SAYS UBER DRIVER ACCUSED IN PALISADES FIRE WAS ‘NUT JOB’ WHO RANTED ABOUT TRUMP
A sketch of Jonathan Rinderknecht inside federal court in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 9, 2025. Rinderknecht is facing charges for allegedly starting a New Year’s Day fire that killed 12 people in Pacific Palisades, California. (Neftali Melendez)
“After dropping off a passenger in Pacific Palisades, Rinderknecht — who once lived in that neighborhood — drove towards Skull Rock Trailhead, parked his car, attempted to contact a former friend, and walked up the trail. He then used his iPhone to take videos at a nearby hilltop area and listened to a rap song — to which he had listened repeatedly in previous days — whose music video included things being lit on fire,” according to the Attorney’s Office.
“At 12:12 a.m. on January 1, 2025, environmental sensing platforms indicated the Lachman Fire had begun,” it also said. “During an interview with law enforcement on January 24, 2025, Rinderknecht lied about where he was when he first saw the Lachman Fire. He claimed he was near the bottom of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone carrier showed that he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it rapidly grew.”
An aerial view of beachside homes destroyed in the Palisades Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Rinderknecht was arrested on Oct. 7, 2025, and is expected to be arraigned at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
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LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Conservation groups are pushing back against a new state mapping tool that identifies federal lands potentially available for development in Nevada.
The governor’s office, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Nevada, unveiled the interactive map this week to make it easier to find federal land that may be available for development throughout the state and in the Las Vegas Valley.
“It is shocking to look at the map and see how many lands could potentially be sold off,” said Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter.
Tanager said she was surprised at how many federal lands were identified for disposal when she first looked at the map.
“Places like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon in Southern Nevada are what draw people to live in Southern Nevada. We cannot continue to develop right up onto the boundaries or perhaps even in these precious places,” Tanager said.
The conservation group says the mapping tool is the latest effort to treat Nevada’s public lands as a real estate inventory rather than a shared public resource.
“We know that a lot of these areas are environmentally sensitive. We know that there are endangered species on these lands,” Tanager said.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unveils interactive tool mapping federal lands available for possible development, other uses
Housing concerns
Lawmakers have proposed using federal lands to create more affordable housing. Several areas at the edges of the Vegas Valley have been identified for potential development on the mapping tool. Tanager said she does not see that as a viable solution.
“The areas on the outskirts or far outside of existing urban areas are wholly inappropriate for affordable housing. Housing that is located that far away from services will never be truly affordable,” Tanager said. “As folks have to live further and further away from resources like schools and grocery stores, transportation costs go up substantially.”
The conservation group says the valley should fill in open lots and build upward within the existing urban core instead of building outward.
“We know that sprawl and developing on the outskirts of the valley worsens air quality as well from increased transportation,” Tanager said. “We know that sprawl is incredibly water-intensive. The further out you build, the harder it is to recapture that water.”
The Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter says treating federal lands as disposable assets could set a dangerous precedent that accelerates privatization efforts and undermines the principle that public lands should remain in public hands for future generations.
Approximately 85% of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the federal government.
The state says the tool is designed to bolster information sharing about federal lands. The mapping tool is available here.
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