ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida has issued an order. the man was indicted A man accused of California’s dangerous Palisades Fire will remain in jail Thursday after prosecutors said he had the characteristics of an arsonist and his family feared his mental health was deteriorating.
In ordering Jonathan Rinderknecht’s detention, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathan Hill said he had concerns about the suspect’s mental health and ability to travel to California for future court hearings.
Federal officials said Linderknecht, who was living in Southern California at the time, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered in the basement until it rekindled nearly a week later on Jan. 7. Rumble through the Palisades of the Pacific Coast And Malibu.
The fire, which killed 12 people in the hillside area, was one of two major fires that day. Killed over 30 people in total. More than 17,000 homes and buildings were destroyed Located in Los Angeles County.
Prosecutors say the suspect is a flight risk
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Lyons said during Thursday’s hearing in federal court in Orlando that Linderknecht is a flight risk because he has family in France and speaks French.
Shackled and wearing a red prison uniform, Rinderknecht listened carefully as agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives described the family’s concerns about the man’s mental health.
ATF Special Agent Thomas Harrison testified that Linderknecht moved to his sister and brother-in-law’s home in Brevard County, Florida, five months ago. However, they then moved out fearing for their safety and initiated eviction proceedings against him. Harrison said Rinderknecht threatened to set the house on fire during the argument and called police. Harrison said her father called police again after Rinderknecht said he had a gun for self-defense.
No arrests or charges were made in any of the police calls.
Prosecutor Lyons hinted that the sentence could be harsher if convicted because of the deaths.
Linderknecht became a loner with a “hopeless worldview,” Lyons said, spending much of his time on ChatGPT and living paycheck to paycheck as an Uber driver, prosecutors added.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Aziza Hawthorne argued that Rinderknecht’s client should be released under strict conditions, noting that officers never asked Rinderknecht’s sister whether she thought his threats were credible. The public defender also said there were no allegations of physical violence and that Linderknecht had recently been seen by a psychiatrist.
Rinderknecht is not a flight risk and was supported by his family during the criminal proceedings, police said.
“He’s not a danger to anyone,” Hawthorne said.
After the hearing, one of the sisters comforted the other as she cried outside the courtroom. No one in the family wanted to talk to reporters.
Linderknecht was scheduled to be held at the Seminole County Jail until an Oct. 17 hearing when prosecutors are scheduled to present evidence needed to prosecute.
Investigators zeroed in on the suspect in January
Rinderknecht was arrested on Tuesday, but was first questioned by authorities on January 24. Investigators said they had spent the previous months working to rule out other potential causes of the initial blaze, including fireworks or lightning. All the while, they were combing through the suspect’s cell phone to track his whereabouts on the day the incident began.
Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of ATF’s Los Angeles field division, said the agency was following more than 200 leads in the United States and abroad while searching the hilly area where the fire started.
“We literally had agents and partners on their hands and knees crawling through the rubble of the fire,” Cooper said. “We collected more than 13,000 pieces of evidence, including fire debris, digital data and DNA samples.”
More than 500 scientific tests were conducted at the ATF laboratory, and investigators also returned to the scene to recreate the fire under the exact conditions that occurred on New Year’s Day, he added.
“I emphasize this because I know there are questions about how long it took to come to this conclusion,” Cooper said at a press conference Wednesday announcing the arrest.
The first fire smoldered underground for several days.
Cooper downplayed the role of firefighters who failed to stop the initial blaze from reigniting, saying the fire remained unnoticed and smoldered underground for several days.
“The person who started this fire is responsible,” he said. “Knowing how this fire started, I will never blame our brave firefighters.”
Interim Los Angeles Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, who was not in charge of the department in January, said his crew spent 36 hours digging around the initial fire and extinguishing hot spots. He said their conclusion was that the crackdown effort was successful and “completely and completely out.” Villanueva said “residual fire” remains in the root system and can be as deep as 20 feet (6 meters), making it undetectable by imaging cameras.
“So even if someone had installed thermal imaging equipment, they would have come up with the ultimate method of extinguishing the fire, just like our firefighters do,” he told The Associated Press.
The department released a report Wednesday that found firefighters lacked sufficient resources and struggled to communicate clearly during the first 36 hours of the Palisades fire, challenges that hampered the response at a critical time. The report said the ministry did not deploy sufficient resources in advance despite warnings of strong winds.
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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Jamie Dinh in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Follow Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social
