Nick Reiner indicted, pleads not guilty to parents' murders

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) - Nick Reiner has been indicted in the murders of his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and Rob's wife, photographer Michele Singer Reiner.

The Los Angeles grand jury's indictment, which was reached in late July, was unsealed Wednesday.

Afterward, Nick Reiner, 32, pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with the special circumstances allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait. "Lying in wait" is an allegation of an ambush. Additionally, Nick Reiner faces a special allegation for the personal use of a deadly weapon, identified as a knife.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has alleged Nick Reiner stabbed Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, to death early in the morning of Dec. 14 at the couple's home in the affluent Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Nick Reiner lived with them.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office reported that the couple died from multiple sharp force injuries and that the manner of death was homicide.

When asked for comment, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office sent The Center Square a press release calling this a “profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted” by the very people Nick Reiner is accused of killing.

“The indictment unsealed today also adds a special circumstance allegation that the defendant committed the murders by means of lying in wait,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman in the press release. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case, it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”

The grand jury returned the sealed indictment on July 20 following confidential proceedings.

Securing an indictment allows the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to fast-track the case to trial, bypassing California's standard preliminary hearing phase where prosecutors would otherwise be required to present evidence in an open court setting.

Nick Reiner, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to return for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 15 in Department 108 of Los Angeles' Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

If convicted as charged, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said that Nick Reiner “faces death or life in state prison without the possibility of parole.”

A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made later, the D.A.'s office said.

Nick Reiner's father Rob Reiner is known for everything from acting in the hit CBS sitcom “All in the Family” to directing popular movies such as “The Princess Bride" and "A Few Good Men. His father, the late Carl Reiner, was a writer, producer and actor who created the 1960s sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show," in which Carl Reiner had a recurring role as fictional TV variety show host Alan Brady.

Michele Singer Reiner was a photographer who met Rob Reiner on the set of a movie he directed, "When Harry Met Sally." She went on to work on another film Rob Reiner directed, "Misery," and was a producer on "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues," a comedy about a heavy metal band, directed by Rob Reiner. The couple became married in 1989.