A federal prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday that a former Uber driver despondent over a failing relationship and resentful of the rich deliberately set a blaze that grew into one of the deadliest and most destructive wildfires on record in Los Angeles.

Jonathan Rinderknecht's attorney countered that the defendant had nothing to do with the January 2025 fires.

Rinderknecht, 30, was indicted last October on charges of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and illegal burning of timber on public lands.

The initial fire was quickly suppressed but continued to smolder under dense vegetation before reigniting a week later.

Winds then whipped it into a conflagration that killed ​12 people and laid waste to the seaside enclave of Pacific Palisades, leading to billions of dollars' worth of property damage.

Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty. He has been in custody since his arrest in Florida.

If convicted on all three counts, he could face at least five years in prison, ⁠the Department of Justice said. The maximum sentence is 45 years.

"The evidence will show that the defendant lit this fire on January 1 and that he did ​so on purpose and the evidence will show that the fire that the defendant started on Jan. 1 was the same fire that caused all of that destruction ⁠on January 7," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Williams told jurors in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

Defense attorney Steve Haney said that the two fires were unrelated and that his client started neither, though he saw the first.

Rinderknecht was no arsonist, but a man who "tried to stop a fire by calling 911 when he saw it break out," Haney said.

Los Angeles firefighters believed they had swiftly extinguished the New Year's Day blaze near a hiking trail in the mountains near Santa Monica. But it erupted again on Jan. 7 and soon grew into the devastating fire in Pacific Palisades, federal investigators say.

Driven ​by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, the flames scorched more than 23,000 acres (9,300 hectares) and destroyed about 6,000 structures.

It coincided with another catastrophic wildfire northeast of Los Angeles that killed 19 people and ravaged the community of Altadena.

Interest in Mangione

A pretrial memorandum alleged that Rinderknecht closely tracked news about Luigi Mangione, who is charged with murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and admired in some extreme left-wing circles as a folk hero.

The memo also described Rinderknecht as "deeply agitated" over a fraying romantic relationship.

A former Pacific Palisades resident, Rinderknecht proclaimed his innocence in a court declaration in March.

He said he ⁠saw flames erupt from a hill he had climbed to watch New Year's Eve fireworks after dropping off an ⁠Uber passenger. He said that he called 911 to report the fire and stayed put until firefighters arrived, and that he offered to help them.

But according to a criminal complaint filed in the ⁠case, cellphone data showed ⁠that no one besides Rinderknecht was in the area where the fire started.

Defense disputes fire link

According to court documents, Rinderknecht listened to a rap song whose music video depicted things being set on fire. He then lit a blaze and fled the scene, only to return a short time later to watch the flames and the firefighters.

During his 911 call, according to the complaint, Rinderknecht typed a question into the AI app ChatGPT, "Are you at fault if a fire is lift (sic) because of your cigarettes?" ChatGPT's response was yes, the complaint said.

At a bail hearing last October, defense lawyer Haney said Rinderknecht ​was essentially being charged with arson allegedly committed seven days before the much larger fire for which he is being prosecuted.

"So why are they blaming him for whatever the fire department didn't do?" Haney said, adding that the defense was not conceding prosecutors' assertion that one fire was the continuation of another.

At the time, Haney said his client had no ​criminal record and no documented history of mental illness.

Prosecutors said in court filings that Rinderknecht was motivated by anger against the rich, saying he followed Mangione news on Google using such search terms as "Let's take down all the billionaires" and ranted to his Uber passengers about the December 2024 shooting death.