Overview
- Federal prosecutors say Jonathan R. set the Pacific Palisades fire as payback against the wealthy.
- Filings describe web searches two weeks before the blaze, including the query “let’s overthrow all billionaires,” and note his reported admiration for Luigi Mangione.
- Passengers who rode with him on December 31 and January 1 told investigators he drove erratically and ranted that he was furious at the world and at capitalism.
- Prosecutors allege he lit the fire just after midnight on January 1 on a popular hiking trail in Pacific Palisades soon after dropping off riders while working as an Uber driver.
- The blaze was later fanned by winds and spread toward Malibu, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes, in one phase of a three‑week January 2025 fire wave that killed 31 people and leveled more than 160,000 buildings; the defendant denies the charges and faces a June 8 trial.