The criminal trial of the man accused of sparking the Palisades fire, the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles city history, is expected to get underway in full on Wednesday with opening statements in the federal case.

Prosecutors accused the man, Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, of setting a fire in the Santa Monica Mountains that was initially believed to have been doused by firefighters but smoldered underground for a week before heavy winds whipped it into the Palisades fire in January 2025. They portrayed him in court filings as angry and isolated, enthralled by fire and resentful toward the rich.

Mr. Rinderknecht, who is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, faces three felony charges, including that he maliciously damaged and destroyed federal property with fire.

He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have argued that the initial Jan. 1 fire was caused by a firework lit by someone else. Investigators have determined that the first blaze, called the Lachman fire, was the source for the Palisades fire, which days later killed 12 people and destroyed 6,833 structures in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

The trial may answer some questions about the first spark. But it is unlikely to resolve others, including why the Lachman fire was not fully extinguished.

Judge Anne Hwang, who is overseeing the trial in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, limited the extent to which Mr. Rinderknecht’s lawyers could present evidence that they say shows that the Los Angeles Fire Department was negligent.

Prosecutors said in court filings that Mr. Rinderknecht, who grew up in France and was arrested in Florida, was living in an apartment in North Hollywood in the month before the fire. He was working as an Uber driver the night of the fire, they said.

Mr. Rinderknecht had been asking ChatGPT to generate pictures of burning forests and people running away from them, prosecutors said in court filings. He allegedly ranted about capitalism to his passengers on New Year’s Eve and talked to them about Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare. He was said to have been upset about his past romantic relationships and angry that he didn’t have New Year’s Eve plans.

After dropping off his last passenger in Pacific Palisades, Mr. Rinderknecht hiked up a trail and listened to a French rap song about sadness, prosecutors said. It was soon after, they said, that he lit a fire in the chaparral just after midnight and then called 911.

Steven Haney, a defense lawyer for Mr. Rinderknecht, said in May that the prosecutors’ focus on Mr. Mangione showed a lack of concrete evidence. He also accused them of politicizing the case.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial, which is expected to last two to three weeks and to include testimony from fire origin and arson behavior experts.

If convicted, Mr. Rinderknecht could be sentenced to up to 45 years in federal prison.

“Although no amount of courtroom justice will ever restore what was lost, they deserve answers and accountability,” Traci Park, who represents the Palisades on the Los Angeles City Council, said in a statement, referring to the fire victims. “While the jury will determine the facts, our community will never forget the pain, loss, and destruction caused by this tragedy.”

Len Kendall, 42, a Pacific Palisades resident who lost his home in the fire and now lives in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, said the outcome of the criminal trial “doesn’t even make the top 10 list of concerns” for him. More consequential, he said, are survivors’ ongoing fights with insurance companies and mortgage companies, and frustrations with the slow pace of government action.

“You care about rebuilding your life and getting back to normal,” Mr. Kendall said. “And this dude rotting in jail isn’t going to change that, right?”

Jonathan Zasloff, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, lived in Pacific Palisades until his house burned down in the fire last year. He is now a plaintiff in civil litigation over the Palisades fire.

Mr. Zasloff said that regardless of what happens to Mr. Rinderknecht in the criminal case, the city of Los Angeles and other government agencies could still face civil liability for failures during both fires.

“I want to know what happened,” he said. “I also don’t want to be in the position of finding the one scapegoat, because I think it’s bigger than that.”