{"id":5533,"date":"2026-05-05T02:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=5533"},"modified":"2026-05-05T02:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:31:33","slug":"palisades-fire-suspect-ranted-about-luigi-mangione-before-sparking-the-deadly-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=5533","title":{"rendered":"Palisades Fire suspect ranted about Luigi Mangione before sparking the deadly blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The man\u00a0accused of sparking\u00a0the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset that he didn\u2019t have plans for New Year\u2019s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has\u00a0pleaded not guilty\u00a0to starting what became one of the\u00a0most destructive wildfires\u00a0in California history. It began Jan. 7, 2025, in hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu and killed 12 people. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later.<\/p>\n

Rinderknecht\u2019s trial is set to begin June 8. His attorneys say he is being used as\u00a0a scapegoat\u00a0for the Los Angeles Fire Department\u2019s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.<\/p>\n

An outline of the prosecutors\u2019 strategy \u2014 with details about the defendant\u2019s alleged state of mind on the night before the first fire began \u2014 appears in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Witnesses reported that Rinderknecht had been driving erratically while on Uber routes around the Palisades on New Year\u2019s Eve, said prosecutors. His passengers described him as \u201cangry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being \u2018pissed off at the world,\u2019\u201d the memo said.<\/p>\n

According to court filings, Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter\u00a0Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism. In an interview with investigators on Jan. 24, when asked why someone might commit arson in the Palisades, Rinderknecht \u201cresponded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as \u2018we\u2019re basically being enslaved by them,\u2019\u201d and again referenced Mangione\u2019s alleged crime, the documents said.<\/p>\n

In addition, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was distraught over a failed relationship and upset about thwarted plans for New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client maintains his innocence as he has from the beginning and we look forward to clearing his name at trial,\u201d Rinderknecht\u2019s attorney Steve Haney said in an email Sunday. \u201cThe offered motive that my client started a fire on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haney held a news conference in March to call for Rinderknecht\u2019s release from jail in light of evidence he said shows he is not responsible for the blaze. Haney pointed to a\u00a0deposition\u00a0in which a firefighter testified that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the fire on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city.<\/p>\n

A battalion chief had testified that he walked the perimeter of the burn area four times throughout the day and ensured all hot spots were out.<\/p>\n

Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, has said he is concerned about the differences in the firefighters\u2019 testimonies and commissioned an independent report on how the Jan. 1 fire was handled.<\/p>\n

Haney has said this evidence was not available to the defense when Rinderknecht was indicted.<\/p>\n

#Palisades #Fire #suspect #ranted #Luigi #Mangione #sparking #deadly #blaze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The man\u00a0accused of sparking\u00a0the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset that he didn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[2109,599,2899,4974,1074,4151,10991,10989,10990,10992,10078,9441],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}