Social Isolation, Escalating Anger Drove Palisades Arsonist’s Desire for Revenge, Analyst Tells Jury

A behavioral analyst underscored the state’s case against 29-year-old accused of sparking a blaze that led to one of the most destructive fires in U.S. history.

A man walks over debris left from the Palisades Fire and heavy rains in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

LOS ANGELES—A behavioral analyst on Wednesday told a federal jury that social isolation and escalating anger helped drive a 29-year-old Uber driver to ignite a brush fire in the Santa Monica Mountains, which days later would resurface as the deadly inferno that killed 12 people and leveled more than 6,000 homes in the wealthy coastal enclave of the Pacific Palisades.

Dr. Kevin Kelm, a retired supervisory special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms who specializes in behavioral analysis and criminal profiling related to arson, alleges Jonathan Rinderknecht was motivated by an “expressive,” or emotionally driven, and opportunistic desire for revenge on society at large.