The son of Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and his wife, who is accused of killing his parents, has made a startling new request in court. Nick Reiner, 32, is demanding that he receive his hefty inheritance despite being charged with the murders of both of his parents.
Rob and his wife, Michele, were found stabbed to death in their home on December 14 last year, with their son Nick arrested shortly afterwards. He is currently being held without bail in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles as he awaits trial.
In court documents seen by the Daily Mail, Nick has now filed a petition requesting the $1.5 million set aside in a trust for him by his deceased parents. He claims he was supposed to receive half of the money when he turned 30 and the other half on his 35th birthday.
The current trustee is reportedly lawyer Paul Kanin, who Nick alleges has “offered a shifting series of excuses and justifications” for not releasing the money, the Mail reports, and that it had been indicated that he wouldn’t do so until the outcome of his trial is known.
The publication also reports that Nick is urging for a speedy result as he has no other source of funding his legal bills or basic supplies in jail. Nick, who is the second-born of the Reiners’ three children, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of first-degree murder.
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has previously declared that there is a possibility of the death penalty if Nick is found guilty. “This case is a death penalty eligible case,” he said. “Along those lines we take the process in which we determine whether or not the death penalty should be sought extremely seriously. That goes through a very rigorous process.”
“We will be looking at all mitigating and aggravating circumstances, and we have invited defence counsel to present to us both in writing and in a pleading, any arguments they would like to make in consideration going forward or not going forward with the death penalty. So that is an ongoing process.”
Along with Nick, Rob and Michele were parents to Jake, 34, and Romy, 28, who reportedly was the one who made the horrific discovery of the bodies. In April, Jake broke his silence on the couple’s tragic deaths in a heartbreaking essay published on Substack, which detailed how he first heard the news.
“I was in (Los Angeles’) Union Station at a celebration of life for one of my best friends, Christian Anderson, who died in October,” he wrote. “It was at that moment I received a call from my sister Romy telling me our father was dead. Minutes later, she called back telling me our mother was also dead.”
He continued: “The 45-minute ride from downtown to the west side was unendurable. My world, as I knew it, had collapsed. I was in a trance. The only thing I could focus on was that I needed to get to my childhood home. I needed to get to my sister. I needed to figure out what the hell just happened.”
Jake went on to explain that he felt “robbed of so many things” and that the circumstances of their deaths “simultaneously breaks my heart and enrages me”. “Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time,” he wrote. “It’s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare”.
Jake also briefly referenced his brother, Nick, who he said was “at the centre” of the tragedy. “We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” he wrote. “It’s almost too impossible to process.”
