An ATF investigator told the jury that Jonathan Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create dozens of images depicting apocalyptic forest fires, in which the rich were enjoying themselves in safety while the poor were fleeing in terror.
LOS ANGELES (CN) – The man accused of starting the devastating Palisades fire last year was seen chasing fire engines through Los Angeles’ affluent Westside neighborhood in the area where prosecutors say he started a brush fire that later turned into a firestorm.
On Thursday, Michael Montevidoni, a special agent with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, walked the downtown Los Angeles jury through security camera footage from surrounding homes. Footage shows the suspect’s car, driven by 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, speeding through Pacific Palisades shortly after midnight on January 1, 2025.
After calling 911 to report the brush fire he is accused of starting near a trail in the hills above the residential neighborhood, Rinderknecht is seen on surveillance footage walking a short distance. When a fire engine drives in the opposite direction towards a fire, its vehicle follows immediately behind at high speed.
“As the fire truck passes him, he decides to follow it,” Montevidoni said under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew O’Brien.
Minutes later, another residential security camera shows firefighters opening a gate blocking access to a driveway so they can reach the brush fire. Rinderknecht’s white Genesis GV60 is seen following the fire engine through the gate and is later shown on another camera inside the neighborhood.
Later, he drives out the gate and, according to the investigator, parks nearby. For the next hour, video from his iPhone shows him watching the fire and firefighters battling the flames from a nearby location.
The so-called Lachman Fire that is Rinderknecht accused launched in the early hours of January 1 was quickly subdued. However, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles say the embers continued to burn underground at the root, and when powerful Santa Ana winds hit Southern California on Jan. 7, those embers reignited and ignited the firestorm that ripped through Pacific Palisades, Malibu and surrounding communities.
Rinderknecht faces up to 45 years in prison if the jury finds that the Palisades fire was a holdover from Lachman’s fire and that he started the original fire.
Montevidoni, the lead federal investigator, also testified at length about Rinderknecht’s frequent use of ChatGPT to vent anger and frustration about wealth inequality, climate change and personal issues.
He told jurors that Rinderknecht prompted ChatGPT to generate dozens of images depicting apocalyptic scenes of burning forests and poor people fleeing while a wall protects the safe and comfortable rich.
At times, Rinderknecht seemed to lose patience with the AI tool — which warned that some requests violated its content policy — when it didn’t generate images that he said adequately reflected his belief that the rich are responsible for environmental destruction that affects the poor.
Under cross-examination by Steven Haney, Rinderknecht’s attorney, Montevidoni acknowledged that he was not an expert on human behavior and was not offering an expert opinion on the suspect’s behavior.
“Would you agree that someone who is frustrated and upset about corporate greed is not necessarily an arsonist?” Haney asked.
Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht was angry after failing to get a date or an invitation to a New Year’s party and was instead driving to Uber. Several passengers who rode with him that night told investigators he seemed agitated and was talking about wealth inequality and social injustice.
“He wanted revenge on society because he blamed society for his problems,” O’Brien said in his opening statement Wednesday.
Rinderknecht is accused of starting the Jan. 1 fire on a trail near where he previously lived with an ex-boyfriend. Prosecutors showed jurors photos of a large hillside home overlooking the Pacific Ocean, as well as images of Rinderknecht working in the home’s expansive backyard.
Investigators used cellphone location data and security camera footage to identify him in the weeks after the fire. Although they seized his two cell phones, they were unable to access all the data on his iPhone because he refused to provide his password, Montevidoni testified.
Rinderknecht also had the Tor browser installed on his computer, which can be used to access the dark web and “onion” sites that investigators could not access, the agent said.
U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang, a Joe Biden appointee, has largely barred the defense from arguing that the Los Angeles Fire Department should bear responsibility for failing to fully extinguish the Lachman fire.
However, it will be up to the government to convince the jury that the Palisades fire was a drowning of the Lachman fire and that, under a “but for” theory of causation, the fire would not have occurred if Rinderknecht had not started the initial fire.
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