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A man accused of lighting a New Year’s Day bonfire that helped fuel a deadly Palisades fire allegedly displayed “incel powers,” according to a passenger in his Uber.
Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested in October 2025 and charged with arson and pleaded not guilty after being charged in connection with the Palisades Fire in January 2025. He is currently on trial in California. Los Angeles resident Brennan White testified Friday that when he rode in Rinderknecht’s Uber with his fiancee on New Year’s Day 2025, the suspect gave off “incel energy.”
White said Rinderknecht was driving erratically and would not stop talking about how dehumanizing, talking about how there are no good women in the county.
A witness told the Los Angeles Police Department that Rinderknecht gave off “incel powers,” which is a loose term for a loner or loner.
PALISADES ARROGANT SUSPECT HELD WITHOUT BOND
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, was charged with starting the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. (SattyEssayli/X)
White, who had been drinking that night, said he made small talk with Rinderknecht for the first three to five minutes of the ride, and the driver started yelling at him. He said that Rinderknecht was violent in his words but he did not ask to be removed from Uber because he felt it was better not to say anything.
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Former state prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital that this could be one of the “memorable” moments of Rinderknecht’s trial and added that prosecutors had a specific reason to call White to testify.
“An incel is a person who cannot have a relationship or maintain a relationship and does not get married automatically. So a lonely person, a strange person, such a person is likely to be an arsonist, there is a high possibility of being a big shooter. So by painting him in this way, I think it helps the case of the prosecutors,” said Rahmani. “The question is, is this character assassination unfair? Because Rinderknecht isn’t being charged with being an unknown person, he’s being charged with vandalism. And maybe this gives the defendant another argument on appeal if their client is convicted.”
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Fire crews respond to damaged homes while a helicopter descends over water as the Palisades Fire grows in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photos by David Swanson/AFP/Getty)
In a memorandum of understanding filed in April, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was obsessed with Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“In the months leading up to the fire, he was very angry about his life and the community at large,” prosecutors wrote. “For example, in the weeks and hours before the fire, the defendant framed Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York City on December 4, 2024.”
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Rinderknecht searched for the terms “free LuigiMangione,” “lets take down all the billionaires” and “reddit lets kill all the billionaires” on Dec. 12 and 13, 2024, state prosecutors said.
PALISADES SUSPECT HAS BEEN ATTACKED WITH NEW LARGE LAWFUL CANNON.
“Many of the defendant’s Uber riders on December 31, 2024 and January 1, 2025, described the defendant as angry, angry, driving erratically, and speaking of ‘disgust with the country’ and Luigi Mangione, a capitalist, and consciousness,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
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When investigators questioned Rinderknecht on Jan. 24, 2025, as to why someone would set fire to Pacific Palisades, allegedly replied that it would be out of anger and asked Mangione.
“When investigators asked the defendant why someone would set fire to Pacific Palisades, he replied that it would be because of anger at the rich enjoying their money as ‘in fact we are enslaved by them’ and he compared such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder Mangione was charged with,” prosecutors wrote.
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Luigi Mangione appears in a suppression of evidence case in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City on May 18, 2026. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told Fox News Digital in a statement: “As we have said before in numerous public court hearings, Mr. Mangione does not condone acts of violence and does not condone past or future political violence. These repeated attempts to link him to unrelated acts or imply that he is in favor of, supports this and supports it.”
Lena Weissbrot, who considers herself a supporter of Mangione, spoke to them during an interview with Fox News Digital on Tuesday outside the scheduled trial of the killer of the UnitedHealthcare executive.
WATCH: Mangione’s fan says he shouldn’t be charged with Palisades Fire suspect
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“I don’t think we can blame these things on Luigi, I think we have so much wealth inequality in America, that eventually it will boil over, and I think Luigi was just a temperature check…
Weissbrot added that he would “never support” the person who started the Palisades Fire, saying he was from Los Angeles.
Rinderknecht is charged with arson, burning property used in interstate commerce and timber. Fox News Digital has reached out to its representatives for comment.
Fox News’ Amanda Gillilan contributed to this report.
