The Norco man accused of igniting the 43,000-acre Line fire in Highland initially denied being in the area that day until being confronted by surveillance images showing his truck on several streets and him walking through a casino parking structure, a prosecutor said Monday, April 14, the first day of the arson trial.

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Also, a document filed by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said DNA matching that of Justin Wayne Halstenberg was found on coins — three nickels, a dime and a penny — that prosecutors contend were used to weigh down a device used to start the blaze.

Halstenberg also set two fires in the two hours before the Line fire started on Sept. 5, 2024, that were quickly snuffed out, prosecutors contended Monday. At both fires, prosecutors said, investigators found coins or scraps from a yellow legal pad — or both — similar to the coins and paper found in his truck and at the Line fire.

But Halstenberg’s attorneys said during their opening statement in San Bernardino County Superior Court that prosecutors are overselling the quality of the DNA match.

“They promised to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. They built their case around him,” Deputy Public Defender Luke Byward told jurors at the San Bernardino Justice Center. “But he never went near any of those fires. Trust your eyes, trust your common sense.”

Halstenberg, 35, who is in custody, wore a black suit as the trial got underway. Halstenberg has pleaded not guilty to 14 felony charges: four counts of arson of a structure or forest land, three counts of arson of property, three counts of arson using an ignition device, two counts of arson of an inhabited structure and one count each of aggravated arson and arson causing great bodily injury.

One house in Running Springs was destroyed and five other structures were damaged. Six firefighters were hurt, including one who badly sprained an ankle.

The fire burned well into the San Bernardino National Forest, and it burned for so many days that it prompted evacuation orders in Angelus Oaks and Seven Oaks more than three weeks after it started.

Highway 330 was shut down until Nov. 22, and even now it is undergoing repairs. Highway 38 was closed for a time as well.

A firefighter watches as the Line fire approaches Emmerton Lane in Highland on Sep. 7, 2024. Justin Wayne Halstenberg of Norco is on trial in San Bernardino, charged with 14 felony arson counts that he has denied. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) 

The prosecution gave its opening statement first, walking jurors through timestamped surveillance images that purported to show Halstenberg’s white double-cab Chevrolet pickup near the three fires as well as the locations where his cell phone was pinged.

That phone, according to the document filed by the DA, was turned off between 3:25 p.m. and 6:44 p.m. on the day the Line fire started around 6 p.m.

A plate reader captured a license number that investigators used to track Halstenberg to his Norco home.

When Halstenberg was questioned, Deputy District Attorney Andrew Peppler said, Halstenberg said he was home all day on Sept. 5 and never went to Highland.

“I don’t go out and drive around. You know, that area is not the best,” Halstenberg was quoted as saying in a statement projected on the courthouse screens.

But investigators then showed him a photo of him walking through the parking structure at the Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in Highland.

Halstenberg then told his questioners that he gambled for an hour before going home.

“Find the defendant guilty,” Peppler said.

But prosecutors have not said whether they have determined a motive.

Just as Byward was to deliver his opening statement, cellphones buzzed in the sixth-floor courtroom with an alert about the impending earthquake in San Diego County. The 10-story courthouse lightly swayed.

Byward said Halstenberg consistently denied setting the fires.

Cal Fire/San Bernardino Unit Capt. Michael Watanabe testified that the Line fire was moving at a moderate rate of spread when firefighters arrived, but it grew out of control two minutes later when flames moved up a slope.

The trial is expected to continue through mid-June.