Nick Reiner, the youngest son of director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder after the famed Hollywood couple was found dead.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges on Tuesday afternoon, two days after the Reiners were found dead at their estate in Los Angeles’s Brentwood neighborhood. Their son was arrested near Exposition Park in Los Angeles late Sunday.
Hochman revealed that Reiner, 32, is accused of using a knife to carry out the alleged murders.
“These charges will be two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders. He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife,” he told reporters.
Now that prosecutors have decided to file charges Reiner is expected to appear in court and enter a plea.
“He is going through medical clearance, something that everybody who gets arrested and gets held in a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department jail goes through,” Hochman said. “Once he is medically cleared, he will be brought to court to be arraigned on these charges. At that point, he will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.”
If convicted, Reiner could face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. “No decision at this point has been made with respect to the death penalty,” Hochman said.
The coroner is still determining the couple’s exact time of death, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters. Police responded to the Reiners’ home around 3:40 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Reiner was initially scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday morning. But he did not receive medical clearance to move from the jail to the courthouse, his attorney Alan Jackson told The New York Times. He is being held without bail.
Reiner has a well-known history of drug addiction, a struggle that began when he was a teenager. He entered drug treatment programs on several occasions, beginning when he was 15. Reiner has said that he experienced homelessness a number of times due to his addiction.
Reiner also reportedly attended a holiday party with his parents on Saturday night, hours before their bodies were found. Sources told NBC News that Reiner was disruptive at the party, and that he behaved oddly after interrupting a conversation that involved comedian Bill Hader. The Independent has contacted Hader’s representatives for comment.
McDonnell called the case a “tragedy.”
“This case is heartbreaking and deeply personal, not only for the Reiner family and their loved ones, but for our entire city. We extend our deepest condolences to all of those who are affected by this tragedy,” he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
Major figures have been quick to share tributes to the iconic Hollywood couple on social media.
Author Stephen King wrote that he was “horrified and saddened by the death of Rob Reiner and Michele.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described Rob Reiner as “creative, funny, and beloved,” and called Michele Reiner an “indispensible partner, intellectual resource, and a loving wife.”
Former President Barack Obama also honored the famed director, writing on X: “Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people – and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.”
