Nick Reiner made his first appearance in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday morning, roughly three days after allegedly killing his parents — beloved Hollywood figures Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner — inside their Brentwood home.
Flanked by his attorney, Alan Jackson, and two other lawyers, Reiner was barely visible from the courtroom gallery during the brief hearing. He donned a blue suicide prevention smock frequently worn by defendants who pose a risk of self-harm.
Reiner, 32, was charged with two counts of murder on Tuesday, and could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said that no decision had been made on seeking capital punishment in the Reiners’ slayings. Such reviews normally take months.
A judge approved Jackson’s request Wednesday to continue Reiner’s arraignment to Jan. 7. He did not enter a plea.
“There are very very complex, serious issues associated with this case,” that need to be analyzed, Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing. Jackson did not answer any questions as reporters probed him about his client’s mental health and asked who was paying for his legal services.
“We ask that during this process you allow the system to move forward in the way it was designed. Not with a rush to judgment. Not with jumping to conclusions. But with restraint and with dignity,” he said.
Reiner will continue to be held in Los Angeles County jail without bail.
Prosecutors allege Reiner fatally stabbed his 78-year-old father and 70-year-old mother sometime in the early morning hours on Sunday. Their bodies were found in the master bedroom of their home around 3:40 p.m., authorities have said.
A massage therapist arrived at the couple’s home and, upon not receiving an answer, called their daughter, Romy Reiner, 27, who lives nearby. She discovered the gruesome scene and had a friend call 911, according to a source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office confirmed their deaths were the result of homicide, listing the cause as “multiple sharp force injuries” in its public database on Wednesday.
Nick Reiner, who lived in his parent’s guesthouse, checked into the Pierside Santa Monica hotel on Sunday after the killings, according to a law enforcement source who spoke about the case on the condition of anonymity. Hotel staff also confirmed he stayed there and that police had been present at the upscale hotel since Sunday.
But when police arrived at the hotel, Reiner wasn’t there.
Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Gang and Narcotics Division, along with a U.S. Marshals task force that typically searches for fugitives, tracked him down in South L.A. on Sunday night and took him into custody. Security camera footage from a gas station shows him with a red backpack slung over his shoulder and wearing a green and white tracksuit jacket and a baseball cap as he purchases a beverage before his arrest.
The footage later shows him across the street from the gas station as a throng of police vehicles speed toward him. He throws his hands up as officers approach him.
It is unclear how authorities linked Reiner to the killings.
For the record:
12:31 p.m. Dec. 17, 2025An earlier caption for this photograph said Nick was in the center and Jake at far right.
Rob Reiner, second left, poses with his wife Michele, left, and children Jake, center, Romy and Nick at the 41st annual Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall in 2014 in New York.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)
A beloved director and comedic actor, Rob Reiner was known for his work on iconic films including “When Harry Met Sally … ,” an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Stand By Me” and the mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap.” He also had a multi-episode guest role in the most recent season of “The Bear.” Rob and Michele met on the set of “When Harry Met Sally …” and had three children together. Rob also has a daughter from his previous marriage.
Nick’s siblings, Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner, on Wednesday issued their first public statement since their parents’ deaths.
“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. 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,” they said.
“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. 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.”
Nick Reiner was the middle child of the couple, and his struggles with addiction dating to his teen years were long documented. By 2015, Reiner had gotten clean, working with his father on “Being Charlie,” a semi-autobiographical film about a successful actor with political ambitions and a son addicted to drugs.
Reiner has been open about his struggles maintaining sobriety. In an August 2018 interview on “Dopey,” a podcast about addiction and recovery, he said he was taking the prescription stimulant Adderall and smoking pot “as a preventative measure” to stop himself from doing harder drugs. He described an incident about a year before his podcast appearance in which he trashed his parents’ guesthouse while “totally spun out on uppers.”
Authorities have not provided any details about a possible motive in the case. But family friends told The Times that Rob and Nick Reiner got into an argument at a holiday party at the home of talk show host Conan O’Brien on Saturday evening. Many party guests noticed Nick acting strange, the friends said, but it’s unclear what they were arguing about.
