The son of actor-director Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Reiner had his first court appearance Wednesday after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the gruesome stabbings, leading to the deaths of his parents at the family home in Los Angeles on December 14th.
First hearing and response in court
Nick Reiner, 32, appeared wearing a padded blue suicide prevention gown with a cuff around his waist. His arms were free. He sat in a Plexiglas-shielded area during the brief morning hearing.
When his attorney requested that the plea be postponed until January 7, the judge asked whether Nick would agree to waive his right to a speedy arraignment.
“Yes, Your Honor,” Nick replied, making it clear that he could follow the procedure. Nick looked down as the media entered the courtroom, appearing mostly stoic but at one point appearing to nod to his three attorneys as they stood outside the cordoned off area.
Defense and camera ban
His lead defense attorney, Alan Jackson, a former Los Angeles assistant district attorney who previously represented Harvey Weinstein in his California criminal case, told the judge as she considered whether media should be allowed to photograph Nick: “There may be identification problems. Or not.”
Jackson thereby reserved the defense’s right to argue that Nick did not kill his parents. The judge then ruled that cameras were not allowed to photograph Nick.
Continuation of the prosecution
“We don’t want to enter a plea at this point, it’s too early,” Jackson later said in court. The judge scheduled the indictment to be read on January 7th. Nick stood up at the end of the hearing and walked slowly through a back door. Surrounded by officials. He remains in custody without bail.
“This is a devastating tragedy that has struck the Reiner family. We all recognize that,” Jackson said in a statement outside the courthouse after the hearing. “Our condolences go out to the entire Reiner family. There are very, very complex and serious questions associated with this case. These must be thoroughly but very carefully addressed, examined and analyzed.” Jackson declined to answer further questions.
Statement from the siblings
“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we experience every moment of every day. The terrible and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something no one should ever have to experience. They were not just our parents. They were our best friends,” Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner, Rob and Michele Reiner’s children, said in a statement.
“We are grateful for the overwhelming concern, kindness and support we have received not only from family and friends, but from people from all walks of life. We now ask for respect and privacy. That speculation be met with compassion and humanity. And that our parents be remembered for the incredible lives they led and the love they gave.”
Statements from the public prosecutor
At a news conference Tuesday, prosecutors sidestepped a question about whether Nick had a history of mental illness beyond his acknowledged problems with addiction. “If there is evidence of mental illness, it will be presented in court to the extent the defense desires,” said District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
Possible punishment and status of the investigation
If convicted, Nick faces a possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, Hochman said Tuesday. The prosecution has also made a specific allegation that Nick personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, “namely a knife.”
Hochman said his office is still considering whether to seek the death penalty. Governor Gavin Newsom has currently imposed a moratorium on executions in California.
Police information and arrest
Police responded to a death at the Reiners’ Brentwood home around 3:40 p.m. Sunday. The Reiners’ daughter, Romy, 27, discovered the crime scene, ROLLING STONE previously confirmed.
Police said Tuesday that a manhunt for Nick after the alleged killings led them to Exposition Park near the University of Southern California, where they arrested Nick without incident around 9:15 p.m. Sunday night. Investigators did not want to answer questions about a possible motive. Nick remained jailed without bail until his initial appearance on Wednesday. Jackson confirmed to ROLLING STONE on Tuesday that he was representing Nick and that his client was not “medically cleared” to appear in court on Tuesday.
Rob Reiner’s career and collaboration with his son
Rob Reiner, the son of the late comedian Carl Reiner, played Meathead on the groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family. He later directed This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally…, The Princess Bride and A Few Good Men before working with Nick on the 2016 film Being Charlie.
Nick co-wrote the screenplay, loosely based on his own struggles with heroin addiction, and Reiner directed.
Nick’s statements about addiction and family
Nick told People in 2016 that he was 15 years old when he first went to rehab. More than a dozen stints in rehab centers followed, and he experienced homelessness in Maine, New Jersey and Texas.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Reiners said they had desperately tried to help their son, but arranging his care had been difficult. “The program works for some people. But it can’t work for everyone,” Reiner said. “When Nick told us it wasn’t working for him, we didn’t listen. We were desperate, and because these people had diplomas on the wall, we listened to them when we should have listened to our son.”
Statements by Michele Reiner
Michele added that the couple was “so influenced by these people.” “They told us he was a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.”
Meaning of “Being Charlie”
Being Charlie tells the story of the troubled, drug-addicted son of an actor with political ambitions in California. In a video interview with the AOL BUILD Series in 2016, Rob Reiner called the film the most personal and “most satisfying creative experience” of his career.
“The fact that we were dealing with the things that Nick had gone through and how I had behaved about it and how his mother had behaved about it … forced me to see more clearly and understand more deeply what Nick had gone through,” Reiner said. “And I think it forced him to see the things that I had experienced in the process. And it definitely brought us closer together.”
Father-son relationship
Nick described the film as a “bonding” experience with his father. “I think the bond came not from the story itself, but from the fact that we were working on a film together,” he said. “I was able to see him in the form in which he expresses himself best, which is in filmmaking, because he has so much experience.”
“Seeing that made me think, OK, I should probably shut up and listen to him. Because he knows a lot more about this than I do. I don’t know anything. So I’m going to learn everything he can teach me.”