New Details Emerge in Reiner Deaths as Son Makes First Court Appearance
Rob and Michele Reiner were found fatally stabbed in the master bedroom of their home, a police official said. Their younger son, Nick Reiner, appeared in court on Wednesday to face murder charges, but did not enter a plea.
Nick Reiner appeared briefly in court on Wednesday morning but did not enter a plea, a day after he was charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents, the celebrated Hollywood fixtures Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
New details also emerged about the timeline of their deaths.
The county medical examiner’s office confirmed on Wednesday that the couple had died on Sunday of “multiple sharp force injuries.” They were found in the master bedroom area of their home on Sunday afternoon, according to Dominic Choi, the assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Chief Choi told city police commissioners on Tuesday that the investigation turned within hours to the couple’s younger son, Nick Reiner, 32, who was arrested without incident on Sunday night near a gas station in South Los Angeles, about 15 miles away from the family’s home.
Nick Reiner was charged on Tuesday with two counts of first-degree murder. Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, is also pursuing a murder conviction with “special circumstances,” a designation that could make Mr. Reiner eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Mr. Reiner appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court for the first time on Wednesday morning wearing a suicide-prevention smock, and had been expected to enter a plea. But his lawyer, Alan Jackson, told the court that it was “too early” for a plea and that he and the prosecution had agreed to delay the arraignment until Jan. 7.
The person who found Rob Reiner’s body was his daughter Romy Reiner, according to a person close to the family, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she and her other brother, Jake Reiner, were not yet ready to speak publicly. She entered the home after receiving a call from a massage therapist who had arrived at the Reiners’ Los Angeles home for a scheduled appointment.
On Wednesday, the siblings issued their first statement since their parents’ deaths. In it, they asked for respect and privacy.
“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” the statement said. “The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
Here’s what else to know:
A troubled path: The authorities said that Nick Reiner was arrested without incident on Sunday. Over the years, he has spoken publicly about his struggles with drug abuse. He collaborated with his father on the film “Being Charlie,” a project loosely inspired by his early life that offered an opportunity to help mend a fraught relationship.
Experienced prosecutors: Habib Balian and Jonathan Chung, the prosecutors assigned to handle the case against Nick Reiner, have managed complex homicide cases that attracted heavy attention from the media. Mr. Balian led an effort to block the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in 1989 and whose case received renewed attention from a popular Netflix show, and Mr. Chung secured a felony conviction last year against a man who broke into the home of Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles.
Hollywood legacy: Rob Reiner rose to fame as a sitcom actor before directing a slate of beloved films, including “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride.” Michele Singer Reiner was a photographer and later a producer, who also inspired Rob Reiner to rework the ending of “When Harry Met Sally …”. Rob Reiner had three children with Michele — Jake, Nick and Romy — while a fourth, Tracy, was adopted with the actress and director Penny Marshall.
Surveillance footage: Security cameras at an Arco gas station and convenience store near Exposition Park in South Los Angeles captured video of Nick Reiner appearing fidgety and buying a blue sports drink about an hour before his arrest.
Dec. 17, 2025
Orlando MayorquínMatt Stevens and Shawn Hubler
Orlando Mayorquin reported from Santa Monica, Calif. Matt Stevens and Shawn Hubler reported from Los Angeles.
Investigators look at a Santa Monica hotel as they trace Nick Reiner’s movements.
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The Pierside Santa Monica hotel on Tuesday.Credit…Daniel Cole/Reuters
A beachfront hotel in Santa Monica where Nick Reiner checked in hours before his arrest on Sunday has become a focus for investigators as they piece together his whereabouts following the deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner.
The hotel, the Pierside Santa Monica, is just steps from the Santa Monica Pier, as its name suggests. It’s unclear what time Nick Reiner checked into the hotel, what he did while he was there and when he left. It is also unclear how he traveled to the hotel.
Employees at the hotel declined to comment. The Sage Hospitality Group, which manages the hotel, according to its website, did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Reiner, 32, had attended a party with his father on Saturday night, according to people who were at the party and a person who is close to the Reiner family. On Sunday afternoon, his parents were discovered dead at their home in West Los Angeles. Mr. Reiner was not home at the time, and he was arrested around 9:30 that night about 15 miles away, near the neighborhood of Exposition Park, southwest of downtown, the authorities said.
On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Alan S. Hamilton of the Los Angeles Police Department said in an interview that the authorities were investigating Nick Reiner’s “travels from when we think he left the party, all the way to when he was arrested.”
Mr. Hamilton would not provide additional details about Mr. Reiner’s movements.
Both the hotel and the spot where he was arrested are five minutes or less on foot from light rail stations on Los Angeles County’s E Line, formerly known as the Expo Line.
On Wednesday, valet and staff members greeted guests as they arrived at the entrance of the hotel. Inside, a few guests were having lunch at a mostly empty restaurant.
Later in the day, two unmarked government vehicles pulled out of the hotel parking lot.
Dec. 17, 2025
Rachel Parsons
Reporting from Los Angeles
The Reiner’s neighbors are rattled and shocked after the killing of the couple.
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Holiday decorations and no trespassing signs on a gate outside the Reiners’ home on Tuesday.Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images
The atmosphere in the neighborhood around the Reiners’ home in Brentwood on Wednesday was somber. Christmas ornaments swung gently from the boughs of an enormous evergreen just behind the house’s main gate.
Several small bouquets of flowers, two candles and a small box of white hydrangeas had been left by well-wishers below Christmas wreaths decorating the gates, next to newly added “No trespassing” signs. Two private security guards stood watch in front of them.
Ken Nolan, a screenwriter who had worked on a film with Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner in 2018, stopped to lay flowers at the gates.
“It’s really horrible,” Mr. Nolan said, getting choked up. “It’s a Greek tragedy.”
Mr. Nolan recalled the Reiners’ warmth and generosity. He said Michele Reiner had a “funny, acerbic” personality and was “also incredibly kind.”
“I was just a tiny sliver of their lives, and they touched so many people,” he said.
Neighbors out for exercise or to walk dogs passed by quietly. No one agreed to give their names to a reporter, but over the three days since the Reiners were found stabbed to death in their bedroom and their younger son was arrested, several neighbors spoke of a pervasive sadness hanging over the community, mixed with a sense of shock and horror.
Homes here are surrounded by hedges, gates, cameras and security systems that include round-the-clock patrols. For many residents, the thought that a deadly threat might come from inside one’s own family was sobering. The couple’s younger son, Nick Reiner, 32, who has spoken publicly about his struggles with addiction, has been charged with two counts of murder.
Neighbors recalled the Reiners as polite, respectful people, though they kept to themselves and few could say they knew them well. Still, the events of the last few days, some neighbors said, had brought home the idea that this sort of tragedy could happen in any family.
Libby Motika, who grew up in the neighborhood in the 1950s and lives about six blocks from the Reiners’ home, said an influx of famous people in recent decades had changed the place’s sense of community, turning what had been an upper-middle-class neighborhood into a wealthy enclave where “no one normal lives anymore.” Rob and Michele Reiner were private but not aloof, neighbors said.
John Fawcett, who owns the Sinclair gas station a few blocks from the Reiners’ home and makes it a practice to address all of his customers by name, said the Reiners were friendly, engaging people who came in the station frequently.
“They were great — it’s so sad,” Mr. Fawcett said.
Dec. 17, 2025
Shawn Hubler
Reporting from Los Angeles
The bodies of Rob and Michele Reiner were found in their master bedroom, the police say.
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The Reiner home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Tuesday.Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images
The slain bodies of Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were found in the master bedroom area of their Brentwood home, and within hours the investigation turned to focus on their younger son, a Los Angeles Police Department official reported on Tuesday to the city’s police commissioners.
Dominic Choi, the assistant chief, told the police commission that “information developed during the early stages of the investigation” had led the department to view Nick Reiner, 32, first as a person of interest, and then to arrest him on Sunday night after locating him in Exposition Park, southwest of the city’s downtown, near the University of Southern California campus.
The information provided to the commission dovetailed with an account shared this week by a person close to the family, who told The New York Times that the couple’s daughter, Romy Reiner, had discovered the crime scene. Ms. Reiner, 27, had dropped by the house of her parents with a roommate after a massage therapist arrived at the gate for a scheduled appointment and got no answer, the family associate said. When she walked inside searching for her parents, the associate said, she went to their bedroom, saw her father’s body and reflexively ran outside, screaming, prompting her roommate to dial 911.
The associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the family was not ready to speak publicly about the matter, said that the daughter then ran back into the house to search other rooms for her mother, not realizing that Michele Reiner’s body also was in the master bedroom area.
Only after paramedics arrived did an emergency worker come out of the room and inform her that both of her parents had been killed, the family associate said.
The associate said that the daughter also told authorities that her brother lived on the property with their parents. Assistant Chief Choi told the police commission that officers who responded around 3:40 p.m. on Sunday searched the house “to determine whether there were any additional victims or suspects,” but they found none.
Nick Reiner was formally charged on Tuesday with two counts of murder, but did not appear in court until Wednesday because he had not been medically cleared to be transferred to court from jail. Flanked by his lawyers, he was dressed in a blue suicide-prevention smock of the sort issued to inmates whom the authorities believe to be at risk of self-harm. He did not enter a plea.
The nature of the evidence against Mr. Reiner has not been made public yet. The police have not said if the murder weapon was found or if they have forensic evidence linking Mr. Reiner to the crime. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office recorded the deaths of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner in its public database, citing the cause as “multiple sharp force injuries.”
Nick Reiner’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, said outside court that there were “very complex and serious issues associated with this case” that needed time to be examined before a plea could be entered, and he urged the public not to rush to judgment.
In a statement, Romy Reiner and the couple’s older son, Jake Reiner, asked “for respect and privacy,” and for public speculation “to be tempered with compassion and humanity.”
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge agreed to delay the arraignment until Jan. 7.
Dec. 17, 2025
Orlando Mayorquín
A security camera at a gas station recorded Nick Reiner buying a sports drink an hour before his arrest.
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Surveillance footage from a gas station convenience store in Los Angeles shows Nick Reiner buying a sports drink. About an hour later, Mr. Reiner is arrested across the street.
Security camera footage taken on Sunday night at an Arco gas station near Exposition Park in South Los Angeles shows Nick Reiner entering the station’s store briefly to buy a sports drink and then being arrested an hour later across the street.
Mr. Reiner is seen walking into the store wearing a striped jacket and a baseball cap, with a red backpack slung over his left shoulder. He approaches the store at about 8:20 p.m. from the direction of the nearby Expo/Vermont train stop and enters for a moment before quickly turning around and exiting. Mr. Reiner then appears to scan the area outside before deciding to go back into the store.
While inside, Mr. Reiner, 32, continues to glance behind him. He walks toward a cooler where he grabs a blue Gatorade sports drink. While in line to pay, he appears fidgety, swaying in place and looking around. After roughly two minutes, Mr. Reiner pays for his drink with cash and leaves.
About an hour later, footage from a security camera overlooking the gas pumps shows Mr. Reiner standing at a corner across the intersection. Several unmarked police vehicles pull up quickly around Mr. Reiner at about 9:15 p.m. He immediately throws his arms up and submits to arrest.
Dec. 17, 2025
Matt Stevens
Reporting from Los Angeles
The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner has recorded the deaths of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner in its public database. The records say they died on Sunday, and that the cause was “multiple sharp force injuries.” The records also confirm what the police have said: The Reiners were the victims of a homicide that occurred inside their home.
Dec. 17, 2025
Ken Nolan, a screenwriter known for “Black Hawk Down,” left flowers at the Reiners’ Brentwood home on Wednesday. “It’s beyond belief,” said Nolan, 58, who said he worked with the Reiners’ to develop a JFK-related film in 2018 and 2019. “I was just a tiny sliver of their lives, and they touched so many people,” he said. “They were so kind and so generous.”
Dec. 17, 2025
Shawn Hubler
The bodies of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found in the master bedroom of their Brentwood home, Dominic Choi, the assistant chief of police in Los Angeles, told the city’s police commission on Tuesday. In a weekly report, the assistant chief added that “information developed during the early stages of the investigation” had led them to view Nick Reiner, the couple’s younger son, as a person of interest, and then to arrest him on Sunday night.
Dec. 17, 2025
Soumya Karlamangla
The prosecutors assigned to the Reiners’ killing are familiar with high-profile cases.
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Habib Balian, an assistant head deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, standing in front of the judge before Nick Reiner appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.Credit…Pool photo by Jae C. Hong
The two prosecutors assigned to handle the case against Nick Reiner, accused of stabbing his parents to death in their home over the weekend, are familiar with high-profile cases.
The prosecutors, Habib Balian and Jonathan Chung, are both experienced trial lawyers who have managed complex homicide cases that attracted heavy attention from the media. “They will bring their decades of experience to holding this murderer accountable,” the Los Angeles County district attorney, Nathan J. Hochman, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Mr. Reiner, 32, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, the award-winning Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, who were found dead on Sunday in their house in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The charges include a “special circumstance” element that could make Mr. Reiner eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Earlier this year, Mr. Balian, an assistant head deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, led an effort to block the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in 1989 and whose case received renewed attention from a popular Netflix show.
Last year, Mr. Balian secured a first-degree murder conviction against a man who stabbed a graduate student from the University of California, Los Angeles, 46 times and killed her. In 2021, Mr. Balian led the murder prosecution of Robert Durst, the heir to a famed Manhattan real estate empire whose crimes were made famous by an HBO documentary.
Mr. Chung, the deputy district attorney for major crimes, has also worked on closely watched cases. He secured a felony conviction last year against a man who broke into the home of the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. In 2016, he led the prosecution of a man who shot and killed four people in a restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, and who was ultimately sentenced to several life terms in prison.
Mr. Reiner is being represented by the well-known criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson, who has also represented Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.
Dec. 17, 2025
Matt Stevens
Reporting from Los Angeles
Jake and Romy Reiner say they feel ‘unimaginable pain’ after losing their parents.
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Members of the Reiner family in September. Romy Reiner, third from left, and Jake Reiner, right, spoke out on Wednesday after their parents’ murder.Credit…Aude Guerrucci/Reuters
Jake and Romy Reiner spoke publicly on Wednesday for the first time since their parents’ killing, calling their deaths “horrific and devastating” — and also requesting that speculation be “tempered with compassion and humanity” as the investigation proceeds.
Jake and Romy’s brother, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents, the actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Romy Reiner, 27, and Jake, 34, described what they said had been “unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” since their parents were found dead on Sunday afternoon inside their Los Angeles home.
“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience,” Romy and Jake Reiner said. “They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
“We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life,” they said, adding that they were asking now for respect, privacy “and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Dec. 17, 2025
Tim Arango
Reporting from Los Angeles
Nick Reiner appears, briefly, before a judge.
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Alan Jackson, Nick Reiner’s lawyer, speaking to the media outside Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday. He asked the public not to “rush to judgment.” Credit…Caroline Brehman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Nick Reiner’s first appearance in a courtroom on Wednesday to answer charges that he had killed his parents lasted mere minutes.
Mr. Reiner was seated behind a wall of plexiglass just to the left of the judge, and Mr. Reiner’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, was standing in front of him, as if shielding his client from the media.
Before Judge Theresa McGonigle of Los Angeles Superior Court addressed Mr. Reiner’s case, she took up a request from the media to film the proceedings. Mr. Jackson said he did not mind the proceedings being filmed, but he asked that Mr. Reiner himself not be shown, to which the judge agreed.
Judge McGonigle asked Mr. Jackson whether Mr. Reiner was prepared to enter a plea, and Mr. Jackson said that he was seeking to finish the rest of the arraignment on Jan. 7, a date he had agreed on with prosecutors. He said he needed time to see all the evidence. In complicated cases, it is not uncommon for arraignments to be delayed.
Judge McGonigle asked Mr. Reiner if he agreed to waive his right to a speedy arraignment and continue the proceeding in January. “Yes, your honor,” he said, before being led out of the room through a side door by security officers.
After the hearing, which lasted roughly five minutes, Mr. Jackson faced a bank of television cameras outside the courthouse and explained the rescheduling, saying there were “very complex and serious issues associated with this case” that needed time to be examined. He asked the media and public not to “rush to judgment,” and then he left without taking any questions.
Dec. 17, 2025
Matt Stevens
Reporting from Los Angeles
Jake and Romy Reiner issued a statement on Wednesday, calling the loss of their parents “horrific and devastating.” They said they were grateful for the support they have received, and asked for respect and privacy moving forward.
“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” the statement said. “The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
The statement continued: “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”
Dec. 17, 2025
Reporting from Los Angeles
In brief remarks to reporters outside the courthouse, Alan Jackson, Nick Reiner’s lawyer, said there were “very complex and serious issues associated with this case” that needed time to be examined. He urged the public and the media not to “rush to judgement.” He took no questions.
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CreditCredit…Reuters
Dec. 17, 2025
Reporting from Los Angeles
Nick Reiner’s attorney, Alan Jackson, told the court it was “too early” to enter a plea and that he had already agreed with the prosecution to delay the arraignment until January.
Dec. 17, 2025
Reporting from Los Angeles
Nick Reiner made a brief appearance in court but did not enter a plea. His arraignment was continued until Jan. 7.
Dec. 17, 2025
Reporting from Los Angeles
Nick Reiner’s first court appearance is scheduled for this morning in Los Angeles Superior Court. Yesterday, Reiner had been scheduled to appear for his arraignment but it was delayed because he had not been medically cleared to be transferred to court from jail.
Dec. 17, 2025
Ali Watkins
Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan and others remember Rob Reiner as a ‘master story teller.’
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Rob Reiner, left, with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan during an anniversary screening of “When Harry Met Sally” in 2019.Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Billy Crystal, Larry David, Martin Short and several other prominent figures and close friends of Rob Reiner released a statement on Tuesday memorializing the Hollywood director, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were found dead in their home in Los Angeles on Sunday. Their son Nick Reiner, 32, has been charged with murder in their deaths.
In their statement, the friends of Mr. Reiner said: “Going to the movies in a dark theater filled with strangers having a common experience, laughing, crying, screaming in fear, or watching an intense drama unfold is still an unforgettable thrill. Tell us a story audiences demand of us. Absorbing all he had learned from his father Carl and his mentor Norman Lear, Rob Reiner not only was a great comic actor, he became a master story teller.
“There is no other director who has his range. From comedy to drama to ‘mockumentary’ to documentary he was always at the top of his game. He charmed audiences. They trusted him. They lined up to see his films.”
Mr. Crystal, a close friend of the Reiners who starred in several of his movies, including “The Princess Bride” and the romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally … ,” was seen late Sunday leaving the Reiners’ home, not long after their bodies had been discovered.
Mr. Reiner was also a longtime friend and collaborator of Mr. David, having produced Mr. David’s show “Seinfeld” and appearing as an exaggerated version of himself in Mr. David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Along with Mr. David, Mr. Crystal and their wives, the statement was issued on behalf of Martin Short, Albert and Kimberly Brooks, Alan and Robin Zweibel, Marc Shaiman, Lou Mirabal, Barry and Diana Levinson, James Costos and Michael Smith, according to The A.P.
“His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant,” the statement continued. “For the actors, he loved them. For the writers, he made them better.
“His greatest gift was freedom. If you had an idea, he listened, he brought you into the process. They always felt they were working as a team. To be in his hands as a filmmaker was a privilege but that is only part of his legacy.”
The group also paid tribute to the Reiners’ political work. The pair were longtime Democratic backers who were mourned by much of the progressive left.
“Rob was also a passionate, brave citizen, who not only cared for this country he loved, he did everything he could to make it better and with his loving wife Michele, he had the perfect partner. Strong and determined, Michele and Rob Reiner devoted a great deal of their lives for the betterment of our fellow citizens,” the statement said. “They were a special force together — dynamic, unselfish and inspiring. We were their friends, and we will miss them forever,” the statement said.
“There is a line from one of Rob’s favorite films, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ‘Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?’ You have no idea.”
Separately on Wednesday, Meg Ryan, who starred opposite Mr. Crystal in “When Harry Met Sally … ,” posted a statement on Instagram.
“I have to believe that their story will not end with this impossible tragedy, that some good may come, some awareness raised,” she wrote. “I don’t know, but my guess is that they would want that to be hopeful and humane, to be something that brings us all to a greater understanding of one another and to some peace.”
Dec. 16, 2025
Soumya Karlamangla
Nick Reiner could face the death penalty because a special circumstance was added to the murder charges.
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Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, at a news conference on Tuesday.Credit…Daniel Cole/Reuters
Nick Reiner, the younger son of the celebrated Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the death of his parents. In California, a single conviction on that charge typically carries a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
But Mr. Reiner, 32, could face the death penalty because of how the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed the charges against him. The two murder counts include a special circumstance of committing multiple murders, which increases the possible punishment.
Special circumstances around a first-degree murder charge in California can elevate it to a more severe crime, and raise the maximum punishment to the death penalty or life in prison without parole. In addition to multiple murders, these circumstances include killing for financial gain, killing a police officer or public official or a killing that involved torture, according to the state penal code.
The Los Angeles County district attorney, Nathan Hochman, said that his office had not yet decided if it would pursue the death penalty against Mr. Reiner, and that it would take the desires of the Reiner family into consideration.
“Prosecuting these cases involving family members are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching cases that this office faces because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes involved,” Mr. Hochman said during a news conference on Tuesday.
Soon after taking office in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California put a moratorium on executions in the state. But the death penalty is still legal, and the moratorium doesn’t mean that people can’t be sentenced to death, said Aya Gruber, a criminal law professor at the University of Southern California. There are currently 580 prisoners on death row in the state, and they could be executed if the moratorium is lifted.
“Prosecutors can pursue death cases, and people can be sentenced to death. It’s just that right now they’re not being put to death,” Ms. Gruber said.
Mr. Hochman said that his office would also bring against Mr. Reiner a special allegation of using a deadly weapon, in this case a knife. That enhancement, another form of adding time to a sentence, typically adds another year to a felony sentence, but would very likely only be relevant if Mr. Reiner is convicted of lesser charges, experts say.
Mr. Hochman, who took office in 2024, reversed his predecessor’s countywide moratorium on pursuing the death penalty. He said at the time that he would pursue it only in “exceedingly rare cases.”
Ms. Gruber, the law professor, said she was surprised that the death penalty was on the table, given Mr. Reiner’s history of substance abuse and that such a punishment might go against the family’s wishes. But she said Mr. Hochman might have introduced the idea to try to quickly secure a conviction.
“It’s a very useful tool in getting people to plead guilty,” she said.
Dec. 16, 2025
Shawn Hubler and Matt Stevens
Reporting from Los Angeles
New details emerge about how the Reiners were found dead.
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Romy Reiner discovered the body of her father, Rob Reiner, inside the family’s mansion on Sunday.Credit…Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
It was Sunday afternoon when a massage therapist arrived at the white-gated home in the affluent enclave of Brentwood for a scheduled appointment with Rob and Michele Singer Reiner. The couple was scheduled to have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama and others in just a few hours.
Getting no answer at the gate, the massage therapist called the couple’s daughter, Romy Reiner, who quickly came by with a roommate. She walked in and found her father’s body and the gruesome scene of his death.
The account of what transpired is based on an interview on Tuesday with a person who is close to the Reiner family. The person, who provided one of the first detailed descriptions of the tragedy from the family’s perspective, spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the immediate family was not yet ready to speak publicly.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in Los Angeles charged Nick Reiner, the couple’s younger son, with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the death of his parents, who were luminaries in show business and Democratic Party politics. The second of three grown children the couple had together, he had been living with his parents in a guesthouse on the property.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office declined to comment Tuesday on the details of the investigation.
In a news conference, however, the district attorney, Nathan Hochman, said that “prosecuting these cases involving family members are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching cases that this office faces because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes involved.”
The person close to the family said that nothing in recent weeks suggested that Nick Reiner, 32, would be capable of such violence.
The person disputed accounts that suggested the family had been especially apprehensive in recent weeks about Nick Reiner’s behavior. Nick Reiner had struggled for more than half of his life with drug addiction, but the person close to the family said they were accustomed to working through his problems together.
In 2016, the father and son had made and released a film together that was loosely based on their experience with the son’s battles with cocaine and heroin.
In fact, the person pointed out, just the night before, the family had attended a Christmas party together. The gathering, at the home of the comedian Conan O’Brien, had been crowded with people in show business and neighborhood friends.
The Times reported on Monday that Nick Reiner had behaved erratically that evening and had alarmed guests with his behavior, according to two people who attended the party. One of those two guests, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve relationships, said Rob Reiner had rebuked his son, telling him that his behavior was inappropriate for a guest in someone else’s home.
The person close to the family was not in a position to dispute that account, but said that Rob and Nick Reiner did not have a heated argument and that the episode was being overblown. The intensity of any conversation that might have taken place between father and son may have been misinterpreted, the person said.
He took issue with news accounts that suggested the family might have left the party early because of the son’s behavior. Nick Reiner’s behavior at the party, the person said, was not unusual to the Reiners, who had grown used to it over the years.
The day after the party on Sunday afternoon, Romy Reiner, 27, fled the house in anguish upon encountering her father’s body inside the house. Her roommate, waiting outside, called 911, the person said.
When the paramedics arrived, the person said, Romy Reiner told them that her brother lived on the property also, but she did not suggest to the authorities that her brother might be a suspect, as some news outlets have reported.
Romy Reiner did not see her mother’s body in the house and learned from the paramedics outside that she was dead, too, the person said.
Investigators did not find the son in the guest house. He was arrested without incident later that evening around 9:30 p.m. by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department Gang and Narcotics Unit who had located him about 15 miles away near the neighborhood of Exposition Park southwest of downtown. It was not clear how the police found him.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said the coroner had not yet determined whether the Reiners had died on Saturday night or Sunday.
The Los Angeles County district attorney, Mr. Hochman, said that the son would be formally arraigned soon. Nick Reiner had been expected to appear in court for the first time on Tuesday morning, but he was not present and his lawyer, Alan Jackson, said that his client had not been medically cleared to be transferred from jail.
A correction was made on
Dec. 17, 2025
:
An earlier version of this article misstated the age of Romy Reiner. She is 27, not 28.
Dec. 16, 2025
Matt Stevens and Jill Cowan
Reporting from Los Angeles
Nick Reiner was formally charged with murdering his parents.
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If convicted, Nick Reiner could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.Credit…Aude Guerrucci/Reuters
Prosecutors in Los Angeles on Tuesday formally charged Nick Reiner with murdering his parents, the Hollywood fixtures and Democratic Party heavyweights Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
The son faces two counts of first-degree murder, with prosecutors requesting they be considered under “special circumstances,” in part because there were multiple murders. Special circumstances can add time to a sentence if convicted.
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Prosecutors Charge Nick Reiner With Murdering His Parents
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Nick Reiner, if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, although prosecutors have not said whether they would seek the death penalty. (Gov. Gavin Newsom has put a moratorium on executions, but the death penalty still exists in California.) Mr. Reiner has not yet entered a plea.
Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, announced the charges two days after Mr. Reiner’s parents were discovered dead at their home in Brentwood. Prosecutors said that Mr. Reiner killed them using a knife and that the coroner was still determining whether they died on Saturday or Sunday.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Hochman told a packed room of reporters that the case would be particularly difficult to prosecute because of the intimacy between the victims and the accused.
“These cases, involving family members, are some of the most challenging and most heart-wrenching cases that our office faces,” Mr. Hochman said.
He emphasized that, given the high-profile nature of the case, rumors and speculation were likely to spread, and he urged the public to use caution.
Chief Jim McDonnell of the Los Angeles Police Department told reporters on Tuesday that officers were called to the Reiners’ home on Sunday afternoon, and that Nick Reiner was arrested without incident near the University of Southern California later that night.
Nick Reiner had been expected to appear in court for the first time on Tuesday morning, but his lawyer, Alan Jackson, said that he would not be present, adding that his client had not been medically cleared to be transferred from jail.
The deaths have rocked Hollywood and resonated far beyond. Mr. Reiner had publicly struggled with addiction for years, and his parents had tried desperately to help him.
Dec. 16, 2025
Derrick Bryson Taylor
Here’s what we know about Nick Reiner, who has been charged in his parents’ deaths.
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Rob Reiner’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday.Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images
Rob Reiner, the celebrated Hollywood actor and director, and his wife, the producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, had tried everything they could think of to help their son Nick Reiner overcome his struggles with drug addiction.
For years, the younger Reiner had been caught in an endless loop of drug abuse, rehab and relapse. Initially, the challenges the Reiner family had experienced with their son were largely kept private. But as Nick grew older, he openly discussed his addiction.
On Sunday, hours after Rob and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their home in West Los Angeles, the police arrested Nick Reiner, now 32. On Tuesday, the county district attorney charged him with two counts of first-degree murder.
Here is what we know about Nick Reiner.
He has struggled with drug abuse since childhood.
Nick Reiner, who was born in 1993, is the middle of three children born to Rob and Michele Reiner. He has an older brother, Jake, and a younger sister, Romy.
Nick began to abuse drugs as early as 15, when he entered his first drug-treatment program. He later estimated that he had been in drug treatment 18 times as a teenager. He has been homeless more than once, and he once had a heart attack on an airplane because of his cocaine use.
In a 2018 interview, Nick Reiner recalled wrecking his parents’ guesthouse by “punching out different things” like a television and a lamp after being awake for days on cocaine. He also described having thrown a rock through a window at a treatment center.
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Nick Reiner at the premiere of his father’s movie “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” in September.Credit…Richard Shotwell/Invision, via Associated Press
Rob and Michele Reiner were sometimes at a loss about how to help their son. A close family friend remembered Michele speaking of her son’s struggles a few years ago. “We’ve tried everything,” she had said. “We don’t know what else to do.”
He and his father made a movie that resembled their stormy relationship.
“Being Charlie,” a drama co-written by Nick Reiner and directed by his father, was released in 2016. Loosely inspired by their relationship, the film follows Charlie, a Los Angeles teenager who abuses drugs and repeatedly clashes with his father, a big-time actor with political aspirations.
Rob Reiner told The Los Angeles Times in 2015 that he had some regret over how he had handled his son’s real-life crisis, including not listening to him after he had said a drug-treatment program was not working for him.
“We were desperate, and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son,” Rob Reiner said.
But the director said that making “Being Charlie” had helped repair his troubled relationship with Nick Reiner.
“It did make me understand him a lot more, and I think it made me a better father,” Rob Reiner said in an 2016 interview with AOL.
For his part, Nick Reiner told People that year that he had “very loving and supportive parents.”
He argued with his father the night before his parents’ bodies were found.
Nick Reiner attended a holiday party with his father at the home of the comedian Conan O’Brien the night before his parents were found to have been killed. One guest at the party, who asked not to be named to protect relationships, said that Nick and Rob Reiner had gotten into a shouting match at the party, and recalled the director telling his son that his behavior was inappropriate.
Another guest at the party, who also did not want to be named, said he had seen Nick Reiner hovering at the fringes of the gathering and that several guests had commented that he looked anxious and uncomfortable, in a way that unnerved them.
It was unclear what Rob Reiner and his son had argued about.
In the wake of their parents’ death, Jake and Romy Reiner have described their “unimaginable pain.”
“They weren’t just our parents,” the siblings said in a joint statement. “They were our best friends.”
He has been charged with murder.
Shortly after his parents’ bodies were discovered on Sunday, Nick Reiner was arrested near Exposition Park in Los Angeles. On Monday, he was booked on suspicion of murder.
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The bodies of the Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were discovered on Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office formally charged him with two counts of first-degree murder. The charges carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty or of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors said they had not decided which route they would pursue.
“Prosecuting these cases involving family members are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching cases that this office faces because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes involved,” said Nathan Hochman, the district attorney.
On Wednesday, Nick Reiner briefly appeared before a judge in Los Angeles Superior Court. He did not enter a plea, and his lawyer, Alan Jackson, requested that the arraignment be delayed until Jan. 7, to allow time to review all the evidence.
He is being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, a county jail in downtown Los Angeles.
His lawyer is one of L.A.’s most prominent.
Alan Jackson is a high-profile criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles. He has represented the onetime Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, the actor Kevin Spacey and Karen Read, who was acquitted this year of murder charges in the death of her boyfriend in Massachusetts.
Mr. Jackson was once a prosecutor in the major crimes division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He was the lead prosecutor in the murder case against the music producer Phil Spector, who was convicted in 2009.
He has said that “very complex and serious issues” associated with Nick Reiner’s case need time to be examined, and has asked people not to “rush to judgment.”
Reporting was contributed by Tim Arango, Brooks Barnes, Jill Cowan, Shawn Hubler, Julia Jacobs, Soumya Karlamangla, Melena Ryzik, Matt Stevens, Ali Watkins and Jason Zinoman.
Dec. 16, 2025
Matt Stevens and Tim Arango
Matt Stevens reported from Los Angeles, and Tim Arango from Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles.
The man representing Nick Reiner is one of the most well-known lawyers in Los Angeles.
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Alan Jackson in court defending Karen Read against a murder charge this year.Credit…Pool photo by Mark Stockwell
When the lawyer representing Nick Reiner emerged from a fifth-floor courtroom in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the journalists gathered there recognized him as one of the city’s most well-known criminal defense attorneys.
That lawyer, Alan Jackson, has represented the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, the actor Kevin Spacey and Karen Read, a woman who was acquitted this year of murdering her boyfriend in Massachusetts. Now he is representing Mr. Reiner, the suspect in the deaths of his parents, the Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
Early in his career, Mr. Jackson worked as a prosecutor in the major crimes division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He was the lead prosecutor in the murder case against the music producer Phil Spector, who was convicted in 2009.
On Tuesday, Mr. Jackson told reporters that Mr. Reiner would not appear in court, adding that his client had not been medically cleared to be transferred from the jail to the courthouse. He declined to answer questions about how he came to represent Mr. Reiner, who is in custody but has not been charged by the district attorney’s office.
Mr. Reiner, 32, was arrested late Sunday, hours after his parents were found dead inside their Brentwood home.
Dec. 16, 2025
Corina Knoll
The relationship between Rob and Nick Reiner was complicated, as their film project showed.
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Rob and Nick Reiner in New York City in 2016 while promoting their film “Being Charlie.”Credit…Laura Cavanaugh/FilmMagic
It was easy to contrast the personalities of Rob Reiner and his son Nick.
The father, gregarious and charismatic, was a natural at repartee. Passionate about his political convictions, he was self-assured, even voluble, sometimes commandeering a dinner party discussion.
Listen to this article with reporter commentary
His son tended to be introverted, quieter. At social affairs, he contributed tidbits of conversation, but appeared unsure of himself and more comfortable shrinking into the background.
But those who knew them said they shared a sense of humor and that both could be contemplative and sensitive. And, after years of a relationship fraught with mistrust, they hoped somehow to reconnect.
It was 2015, and Nick had co-written a script loosely based on his experiences with addiction and numerous stints in rehab, a tumultuous journey that had begun seven years earlier. Rob, a director for three decades who had made iconic films like “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Princess Bride,” saw, if not a hit, at the very least an opportunity to bond. And so, he started preproduction on “Being Charlie,” beginning an experience that would put Rob and Nick’s own complicated relationship on display.
It wasn’t the first time Rob had been inspired by his son. In a 2010 appearance on the “Today” show, he recalled that when Nick was 11, he eagerly brought a book home from school. “Dad, let’s read this together,” he said. It was the young adult novel “Flipped,” and Rob soon turned it into a film.
But Nick’s descent into heroin and cocaine addiction, during which he was sometimes homeless, had created a chasm in the family, one that his sobriety could not heal. Rob and his wife, Michele, often blamed themselves, harboring regret for taking the advice of experts who pushed tough love.
Backing Nick’s script was a chance for Rob to show that he was finally listening — a motive for directing the film that he did not hide.
“‘Being Charlie’ was a passion project for Rob, and he made that movie for his son is all I can tell you,” Charles Berg, one of the film’s producers, said. “That was his gift back to the world — to acknowledge his son, to say, ‘I love you, and I want to share your story.’”
The film’s budget was about $3 million and shooting began that April in Salt Lake City. Cast and crew members were highly cognizant of the earnest tenor of the undertaking. Michele, a photographer and a steady presence on Rob’s sets, also staunchly supported the film, even insisting that the home of the main character, who was based on Nick, more accurately reflect her own house.
“It felt very personal, and it felt very intimate,” said Blythe Frank, an executive producer on the movie. “Everybody was invested in what was a kind of family project.”
Ms. Frank said it was clear that Rob hoped to help give his son a voice.
“I think he was really trying to understand him,” she said. “He was trying to bring him into the fold, give him an opportunity.”
At the same time, it was no secret that Rob and Nick were still reckoning with who they were to each other, a dynamic that played out in full view when the two would butt heads on set.
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Rob and Nick Reiner discussing “Being Charlie” in 2016.Credit…Adela Loconte/WireImage
Before filming one scene at a halfway house, Rob appeared fed up with Nick’s surly attitude, and the two got into an argument in front of about a dozen people, recalled Erik Aude, a stuntman who was on set that day.
“Nick was yelling, and his dad’s going off on him,” Mr. Aude said. “It was uncomfortable. It wasn’t something you want to stay in the room for. Honestly, you knew they were father and son because those are normal reactions, but they had no problem doing this in front of everyone.”
The disagreements tended to be about a difference in vision and wanting to get it right. But they would dissipate and Rob would take Nick to lunch, usually with the movie’s stars, Nick Robinson and Morgan Saylor.
Rob was also intent on shining a spotlight on his son throughout filming, going out of his way to defer to him on decisions or to champion and protect his screenplay.
Andy Fernuik, who played Thaniel, one of the men in rehab, recalled a scene in which, at the end of a scripted line, he threw in an extra couple words of slang. His co-stars laughed. But Rob grew irate.
“He started yelling at me, ‘No, you will not say that line any other way than how it’s written,’” Mr. Fernuik said.
Later, however, when no one was around, Rob came up to him with a grin and heartily shook his hand. It became a pattern: Rob’s public displeasure followed by an assurance of a job well done.
“The more it went on, the more I understood it was because he was doing everything to show his son how much he was going to shine,” Mr. Fernuik said.
Many times, however, it seemed as if Nick preferred not to take the reins from his father. He was 22 at the time and spoke little during casting calls and table reads, more inclined to observe what transpired. On set every day, he could often be found chain-smoking cigarettes between takes or spending time with his co-writer, Matt Elisofon, whom he had met in rehab, as well as two other friends.
Once, when Rob took exception with what the wardrobe department had chosen for the Thaniel character, he loudly voiced his disapproval. Then he stopped himself and called over Nick to ask his opinion.
“Nick was like, ‘Dad, I don’t know,’ and Rob says, ‘What do you mean you don’t know? Is this what you want onscreen?’” recalled Mr. Fernuik.
Both Rob and Nick could be intense, but those who knew them said it mostly seemed as if they were trying to work out the difficult feelings between them.
There were also some heavy moments of grief where Rob was forced to relive the past. In one scene, the movie’s main character relapses in a bathroom at Venice Beach. Rob became emotional while directing, tearing up.
Nick would later talk about the entire moviemaking experience as one that opened his eyes to his father’s talents.
“I was like, Wow, he really knows a lot,” he said during an interview in 2016 at AOL’s headquarters in New York City. “It made me feel closer to him.”
Rob, in the same conversation, said the process had made him a better father, having been forced to understand more deeply just what Nick had gone through. “It was intense, it was difficult at times, but it was also the most satisfying, creative experience I’ve ever had.”
Both made references to a disconnect that had existed for a while.
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Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner in 2005 with their children Jake, Romy and Nick. Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Rob had bonded with his oldest son, Jake, over baseball, and the two were known to take trips around the country visiting stadiums, some of which had Rob throw out the first pitch. Jake had also, after a stint as a TV news reporter, taken the plunge into acting. Eerily, one of his latest bit parts was in “Monsters: the Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” a Netflix series about two brothers who killed their parents.
Early on, Rob had also described his affection for his youngest child, Romy, how he couldn’t help but sing her medleys at bedtime. “I see myself a little bit different with Romy than I was with the boys,” he told The Los Angeles Times when his daughter was 9 months old. “I’m talking much more to her, interacting much more early on.”
Jake, now 34, and Romy, 27, both seemingly had a loving and playful relationship with their father, posting pictures with him on social media. “Happy Father’s Day to the man who I could talk to forever and also the man who I can sit in silence with and be perfectly content,” Romy wrote in a 2021 caption.
At 32 years old, Nick came across in some ways like the middle child who feels both lost in the shuffle and like the misfit. “We tried to mold him instead of celebrating his oddballness,” Rob told The New Yorker regretfully in 2016.
There was also the sense that Nick felt the weight of his father’s shadow, a pressure that Rob could comprehend as the child of the actor Carl Reiner. “I do understand him wanting to forge his own way,” Rob said in a 2016 interview with NPR. “I do know what that’s about, I went through it, and he’s brilliant and talented and he’s going to figure out his path.”
The Reiners’ candor during their press tour gave the impression that the dark days were behind them. During filming, Romy had posted a photo to Instagram with Nick. “love U,” it read. Jake later shared a photo of the siblings with the caption, “The trio.”
The entire family was spotted together in Los Angeles in September at the premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” a film Rob directed.
And then, an unraveling into the unthinkable.
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The Reiners in September at the premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.”Credit…Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
On Sunday, the bodies of Michele and Rob were found inside their Brentwood home. They had been fatally stabbed. Nick was arrested and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents.
Friends and acquaintances now struggle to even speak about the family.
“They were my friends, and I’m dealing with it,” said Christopher DeMuri, a retired production designer who worked with Rob on three films, including “Being Charlie.”
At that time, he had witnessed a father and son attempting to communicate with each other to the best of their abilities.
“Their relationship was troubled, and they were trying to figure it out,” he said, “and in the movie, they did.”
Corina Knoll
Audio produced by Tally Abecassis.
Dec. 15, 2025
Jin Yu Young and Mark Walker
What we know about the death of Rob Reiner and his wife.
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Police officers outside the home of Rob Reiner in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Sunday night.Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images
Rob Reiner, the award-winning Hollywood actor and director, and his wife, the producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death in their home in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Their younger son, Nick Reiner, made a brief appearance in court on Wednesday morning on two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents. His lawyer, Alan Jackson, told the court that it was “too early” for his client to enter a plea and that he and the prosecutors agreed to delay the arraignment, which is now scheduled for Jan. 7.
