{"id":355458,"date":"2025-12-18T04:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355458\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T04:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:45:07","slug":"nick-reiner-makes-first-court-appearance-after-parents-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355458\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Reiner makes first court appearance after parents’ killings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Reiner briefly made his first court appearance Wednesday, a day after he was charged with fatally stabbing his parents<\/a>, 78-year-old filmmaker Rob Reiner and 70-year-old photographer Michele Singer Reiner, in a gruesome killing of two Hollywood icons.<\/p>\n

The Reiners\u2019 32-year-old son attended the court hearing behind a glass wall, in shackles and a jail suicide-prevention smock. He did not enter a plea, as had been expected, the Associated Press<\/a> reported. Instead, his arraignment was postponed to Jan. 7 while his lawyer emphasized the intricacies of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner family. We all recognize that,\u201d Nick\u2019s attorney, Alan Jackson, said outside the courthouse following the hearing. \u201cThere are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case. Those need to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson added a request for people to \u201callow the system to move forward in the way that it was designed to move forward: not with a rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but with restraint, and with dignity, and with the respect that the system and its process deserves and that the family deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officers discovered the Reiners\u2019 bodies Sunday in the main bedroom of their Los Angeles home, Los Angeles Police Department assistant chief Dominic Choi told police commissioners in a meeting Tuesday. They searched the residence and found no one else, Choi said.<\/p>\n

Hours later, police arrested Nick Reiner<\/a>, who has a long history of drug addiction<\/a> and disputes with his parents. He has been held in a county jail without bail.<\/p>\n

His brother, Jake, 34, and his sister Romy, 27, wrote in a statement Wednesday that the attack \u201cis something that no one should ever experience. They weren\u2019t just our parents; they were our best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWords cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,\u201d they said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county medical examiner Wednesday published initial death records for Rob and Michele Reiner, listing the cause as \u201cmultiple sharp force injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Reiner\u2019s directing and acting career spanned decades. He earned two Emmy Awards for \u201cAll in the Family\u201d and directed a run of indelible films<\/a>, including \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap\u201d in 1984, \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally \u2026\u201d in 1989 and \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d in 1987.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be in his hands as a filmmaker was a privilege but that is only part of his legacy,\u201d some of the Reiners\u2019 close friends, including Martin Short, Billy Crystal and Janice Crystal, said in a statement to the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cRob 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michele Singer Reiner worked as a photographer in the late 1980s, photographing Donald Trump for the cover image of his 1987 book \u201cThe Art of the Deal.\u201d She met Rob on the New York set of \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally \u2026\u201d The couple had been married for 36 years and often collaborated on projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong and determined, Michele and Rob Reiner devoted a great deal of their lives for the betterment of our fellow citizens… They were a special force together \u2014 dynamic, unselfish and inspiring. We were their friends, and we will miss them forever,\u201d the statement from close friends continued.<\/p>\n

Nick was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Tuesday, which included special factors that could increase his sentence if he\u2019s found guilty: multiple murders and use of a dangerous weapon, a knife. If convicted, the younger Reiner could face up to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty<\/a>. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Nick Reiner has publicly spoken about his long history<\/a> of substance abuse, rehabilitation efforts and rocky relationship with his parents. During a period of reconciliation, Nick and Rob collaborated on the semiautobiographical 2015 film \u201cBeing Charlie,\u201d which depicted the title character living on the street. The father and son were reportedly arguing on Saturday night, hours before the killings, at a holiday party hosted by Conan O\u2019Brien, during which Nick upset some guests with strange comments.<\/p>\n

During a Tuesday news conference, LAPD deputy chief Alan Hamilton said Nick was arrested \u201cwithout incident\u201d or resistance in the Exposition Park area near the University of Southern California campus.<\/p>\n

Authorities mostly declined to answer reporters\u2019 questions about the specifics of the crime at that event, and said they are waiting for the coroner to determine the time of death. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he doesn\u2019t expect significant delays for the case, but it will take time to consider the \u201crobust\u201d amount of discovery that will be brought to court.<\/p>\n

Maeve Reston, Emily Yahr, Sonia Rao, Ethan Beck, Amber Ferguson, Jada Yuan and Reis Thebault contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Reiner briefly made his first court appearance Wednesday, a day after he was charged with fatally stabbing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[176244,4055,176358,88,71335,174988,174323,18324,174324,91565,92],"class_list":["post-355458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-alan-jackson","tag-court-hearing","tag-dominic-choi","tag-entertainment","tag-los-angeles-police-department","tag-michele-reiner","tag-michele-singer-reiner","tag-nick","tag-nick-reiner","tag-rob-reiner","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}