Nick Reiner’s arraignment was postponed again Wednesday in the murders of his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, after his attorney, Alan Jackson, withdrew from the case. The arraignment hearing is now scheduled for Feb. 23.
The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office will take over for Jackson and his co-counsel, both of whom stepped down. Public defender Kimberly Greene will represent Nick Reiner, who will remain in custody until the new hearing date. He is being held without bail.
The 32-year-old is charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances after prosecutors said the couple were stabbed to death on Dec. 14 in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood. The L.A. County medical examiner said they died from “multiple sharp force injuries.”
If convicted as charged, Nick Reiner could face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office hasn’t decided which to pursue.
A December arraignment was postponed after Reiner appeared in court wearing a suicide prevention smock and shackles. Jackson had said at the time, “There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case,” adding that those issues needed to be “thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined and looked at and analyzed.”
Since the deaths of the couple, details have emerged about Nick Reiner’s struggles with addiction. In 2018, he shared stories on a podcast about how his drug use while traveling cross-country landed him in a hospital, and another about punching walls and destroying a TV after his parents told him he had to leave their guesthouse.
CBS News obtained police records for service calls at the Reiners’ Los Angeles home from August 2013 through December. Over those 12 years, the LAPD responded to the address a total of seven times, including twice on the day the Reiners were found dead.
In 2019, police responded once for a welfare check and again for a mental health call for a male. Records did not indicate who the officers made contact with. The remaining three calls were related to minor disturbances in 2013, 2014 and 2017.
The bodies of the Reiners were found in their home on the afternoon of Dec. 14. Several hours later, Nick Reiner was arrested outside a gas station convenience store in South L.A. He did not resist arrest, according to police.
Rob and Michele Reiner married in 1989 and had three children together. Their other two children, Jake and Romy Reiner, said in a statement last month that they were experiencing “unimaginable pain” after the loss of their parents.
“They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends,” they said.
