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Nick Reiner appeared in court on Wednesday as prosecutors announced that the final autopsy reports for his slain parents Rob and Michele Reiner have not yet been completed.
The son accused of stabbing his father – a well-known film director – and his mother – a photographer and philanthropist – sat at the defense table in a bright yellow prison shirt, blue pants, bound with a waist belt and a closely trimmed beard. He blinked repeatedly, but seemed to follow the procedure and forewent an immediate preliminary examination. The judge set a follow-up date for September 15th.
When asked if he understood he had the right to expedite the process, Nick turned to his public defender, Kimberly Greene. After a brief conversation, he told the judge, “Yes.”
Two terabytes of evidence
Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Chung said two terabytes of evidence would be turned over to the defense that same day and the autopsy reports were “not yet ready.” After the hearing, a prosecutor’s spokesman said he had no information about when the reports would be completed.
Reiner, 32, pleaded not guilty in February. He is accused of stabbing his parents to death in the family home in the Brentwood neighborhood. He was arrested on December 14, 2025, hours after his parents were found dead in the master bedroom of the home. Both died of “multiple lacerations,” according to the county coroner’s office. Nick was charged with two counts of first degree murder; The public prosecutor’s office names a knife as the suspected murder weapon.
After the murders, Nick’s struggles with mental illness and drug addiction became public knowledge. Four days after the arrest, sources confirmed to Rolling Stone that Nick had been treated for schizophrenia before the harrowing double murder. He was also diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder – a condition that combines psychotic symptoms with mood disorders – and was placed under confidential care in 2020, the New York Times reported. The newspaper also reported that Nick had taken psychotropic medication as part of his treatment, which apparently had an effect; However, side effects prompted him to switch to a different medication about a month before his parents died.
Police operations and previous history
Police records obtained by ROLLING STONE show officers were called to the family home twice in 2019 – including a well-being inquiry and a callout that was noted as a “mental health” incident. At his first court appearance on December 17, Reiner wore a suicide prevention robe and abdominal restraints.
The Reiners spent the evening before the murders at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party. Afterward, O’Brien called them “such wonderful people” and said he was stunned by the news of their deaths the next day.
Nick Reiner has spoken publicly about his addiction in the past, telling People magazine that he entered rehab at age 15 and went through more than a dozen programs. He later wrote a script together about his experiences, which was made into a film in 2016 under the title “Being Charlie” – directed by his father. In a 2018 podcast, Reiner described a violent episode while on drugs in which he trashed his parents’ guest house and then suffered what he described as a cocaine-related heart attack. He said there was “no logic” to his behavior at the time.
Family talks about the trauma
In a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times, his parents described how difficult it was for them to deal with his situation. “We were desperate,” Rob Reiner said. “We listened to those we shouldn’t have listened to – instead of our son.”
In an essay he posted on Substack on April 24, Nick’s older brother Jake Reiner described the “living nightmare” he and his sister Romy have lived through over the past four months. “Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents at the same time,” he wrote, calling the tragedy “too devastating to comprehend.”
“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” he wrote – a silent indication that he also considers his brother Nick lost. “Of course, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both at the same time and knowing that your brother is at the center of it all. It’s almost impossible to process.”
“I understand that people have questions about what happened,” he continued. “Some of these answers will come with time. But some things belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little we have left of what was taken from us.”
