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a suspect in los angeles The area’s deadly Palisades fire earlier this year was ordered to be evacuated from Central California on Thursday FloridaWhere he was arrested last week.
A hearing was set for Jonathan Rinderknecht. orlandoFlorida, was canceled for Friday. According to federal prosecutors, his next hearing will be an arraignment in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
The order to transfer Rinderknecht from Florida to California came a day after the grand jury Southern California They were convicted of one count each of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and setting fire to timber.
Rinderknecht was arrested last week in Space Coast, Florida, where he had been living at the home of his sister and brother-in-law for the past five months. He was ordered to remain in federal custody during a court hearing last week because a magistrate judge had concerns about his mental health and his ability to travel to California for future court hearings.
At the court hearing, he was represented by a public defender. But he has since hired defense attorney Steve Haney, who previously represented a former aspiring sports business manager who was one of those convicted in a college basketball bribery case.
Federal officials have said Rinderknecht, who lived in Southern California at the time, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered underground before igniting again about a week later on Jan. 7 and spreading to coastal Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The fire, which killed 12 people in mountainous areas, was one of two major fires that day. In total they killed more than 30 people and destroyed more than 17,000 homes and buildings. Los Angeles County,
Authorities first interviewed Rinderknecht on January 24. Investigators said that during the intervening months they worked for the first time to rule out other possible causes of the fire, such as fireworks or lightning. During this time, they were checking the suspect’s phone to find out where he was on the day the incident started.
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