A dual French and U.S. citizen, 30-year-old Rinderknecht faces up to 45 years behind bars if found guilty of three arson counts: destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire.
The trial in Los Angeles federal court ended its second week Thursday.
The downtown courthouse was closed Friday for the Juneteenth federal holiday.
Federal prosecutors rested their case last week with a final witness -- the owner of the Reel Inn, a popular Malibu seafood restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway that was leveled in the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7, 2025.
Andy Leonard showed before-and-after photos of what he called his "seafood shack,'' which he said he had operated for 38 years. The popular eatery was pictured full of noshing customers in the first shot, followed by a scene of blackened rubble after the blaze. Leonard said he hoped to rebuild and reopen someday.
In more than a dozen witnesses, the prosecution offered a picture of Rinderknecht in the months leading up to the fire as a troubled, angry man, increasingly bitter about failed relationships, low finances, the current administration, and a society he believed was divided by cruel corporate overseers who had built a wall between the wealthy and everyone else.
Bent on revenge, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Rinderknecht allegedly spontaneously lit a small brush fire around midnight on New Year's Eve 2025 near the Hidden Buddha clearing, a remote, deserted area near the Palisades' Summit neighborhood where the former Uber driver once lived.
That fire, dubbed the Lachman Fire for a nearby lane, was initially thought to have been extinguished by firefighters.
However, the fire smoldered underground for six days in the root system of brushes and trees before bursting into view as the deadly Palisades Fire on Jan. 7, 2025, according to expert witnesses called to testify during the trial.
Although telling investigators he was in the area around midnight on Dec. 31, 2025, Rinderknecht denied setting a fire. However, he did eventually tell an ATF agent during a strange daylong pre-arrest interview that he had smoked at least one cigarette while walking in the Hidden Buddha area but could not recall what lighter he used or what brand he smoked. Prosecutors contend a green Bic barbecue lighter found in Rinderknecht's rented car was the instrument used to set the brush fire.
Also Thursday, defense attorney Steven Haney put on a brief case for Rinderknecht's acquittal.
Four defense witnesses, including a resident of the area who said he heard what he thought were fireworks on New Year's Eve, and a college student whom Rinderknecht drove for 10 minutes in his Uber vehicle on the night of the Lachman Fire and remembered the defendant as quiet and normal-seeming, were on and off the stand within roughly an hour.
Earlier, special agent Matt Beals of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told jurors that the seven-hour interview took place on Jan. 24, 2025 at Rinderknecht's West Hollywood apartment and while walking in the area of the Lachman Fire. Rinderknecht had not yet been arrested but was considered a suspect, Beals said.
During the recorded interview, portions of which were played for the jury, Rinderknecht expressed resentment against the rich, the pharmaceutical industry, Elon Musk, federal food regulators, "the administration'' and "the people that rule the world,'' the jury heard.
Rinderknecht "was getting more emotional as he talked,'' Beals said, adding that the defendant "was starting to cry'' at one point.
The defendant is heard on audiotape complaining about the role of major corporations in an "unbalanced'' system, saying, "This is what I disrupted.''
With those words, Beals told the jury, Rinderknecht had inadvertently admitted to setting the Lachman Fire.
A behavioral analyst specializing in arsonists testified last week that a thirst for "societal revenge'' drove Rinderknecht to commit arson.
Dr. Kevin Kelm, a former ATF special agent, said that "escalating anger'' and "social isolation'' compelled Rinderknecht to set the Lachman Fire on New Year's Eve 2025.
Kelm said alleged arsonists such as Rinderknecht are frequently driven by extreme frustration and anger, often leading to "spontaneous'' acts of fire-setting prompted by a desire to seek revenge against the world.
"These individuals have a lot of things going wrong in their lives,''Kelm told the jury. "The opportunity to express revenge can be exciting.''
The analyst said that in the period before the fire, Rinderknecht, then working as an Uber driver, was fixated on his problems and under mounting stress involving financial issues, loneliness, and frustration at the wealth disparity in the U.S.
"These pressures continue to build and build until they decide to act,'' Kelm said of the typical "revenge'' arsonist.
Haney maintains that while his client was alone at the remote Hidden Buddha clearing where the Lachman Fire began at around midnight that night, the blaze was actually set by nearby fireworks and the Palisades Fire could have been lit on Jan. 7 by an unknown arsonist.
Under cross-examination from Haney on Wednesday, certified fire investigator Derek Hill said the Palisades Fire was a "holdover'' fire from the earlier Lachman blaze. The Jan. 1 fire smoldered deep in the root structure under the soil for days before hurricane-force Santa Ana winds caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground days later.
The most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history, the Palisades Fire burned 23,448 acres and ruined much of the exclusive Pacific Palisades community, destroying about 6,800 structures and killing 12 people.
Hill told jurors that investigators did not believe fireworks caused the Lachman Fire, although the possibility was explored early on and quickly dismissed.
Instead, an "incendiary device'' -- the green Bic lighter -- was likely used to start the smaller fire, Hill said.
In pretrial hearings, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang ruled that the defense may not attempt to shift the blame for the Palisades Fire to the L.A. Fire Department, which has been blamed for allegedly failing to completely extinguish the Lachman Fire.
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