Actor-director Rob Reiner‘s youngest son — indicted on murder charges in connection with the deaths of the famed filmmaker and his photographer wife, Michele, in their Brentwood home — will not face the death penalty, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Reiner, who turned 33 on Monday, Sept. 14, is charged with the slayings of his 78-year-old father and 70-year-old mother, who were found dead about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 14 in the couple’s home in the 200 block of Chadbourne Avenue between Sunset and San Vicente boulevards.
The murder charges include the special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders and a new special-circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait.
“In deciding whether or not the DA’s Office was going to seek the death penalty, we have gone through a rigorous review, where we look at the aggravating factors as well as the mitigating factors,” Hochman told media outside the courthouse. “We have spoken to the victims’ family. We have spoken to prosecutors and law enforcement and have worked with the most senior people in the District Attorney’s Office.
“After a careful and thorough review of all these factors, the District Attorney’s Office will not be seeking the death penalty in this case,” he said. “That means the maximum sentence that Mr. Reiner will be looking at is life without the possibility of parole.”
Hochman said his office will leave a motion by the defense to seal the grand jury transcripts of the case to the discretion of the court, although prosecutors do not believe unsealing them will prejudice the case against the defendant.
Nick Reiner’s siblings, Romy and Jake, also oppose the unsealing of the transcripts saying they would suffer additional trauma if the details of the killings and the evidence collected are made public.
It is estimated that the trial will not occur until 2027.
“However, when the defense is ready to proceed, the government will be ready to proceed,” Hochman said.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta ordered the transcript to be conditionally sealed pending a hearing on the defense’s request.
Prosecutors Habib A. Balian and Jonathan Chung noted in a court filing on Monday that the prosecution has spoken with the Reiners’ other two children, who are asking for the grand jury transcript to remain sealed.
The prosecutors noted that Nick Reiner’s siblings “have expressed a strong desire for as much privacy as possible after these horrific and unimaginable murders” and that the two have “reasonably asserted that the disclosure to the public and the media of the details and evidence of the killing of their parents will cause them additional trauma and harm.”
The death certificates note the couple were killed “with knife.”
Nick Reiner was arrested by Los Angeles police in the Exposition Park area near USC less than six hours after his parents’ bodies were discovered. He remains behind bars without bail.
A hearing is scheduled Oct. 23 on Nick Reiner’s bid for access to a more than $1.5 million trust fund to help pay for his defense against the criminal charges.
Nick Reiner was initially represented on the murder case by prominent local defense attorney Alan Jackson, who left the case a short time later without specifying a reason for his departure. The petition states Nick Reiner’s inability to access the trust fund money left him unable to pay for Jackson’s services.
According to Nick Reiner’s nearly 140-page petition, he contends he has been denied access despite “unambiguous instructions” left by his parents on how to disburse the funds in the trust that was established in 1993.
“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths,” the petition states. “But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this trust litigation.”
Rob Reiner was best known for his iconic role as Archie Bunker’s liberal son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the classic sitcom “All in the Family” — a role for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards. He also directed films including “Stand By Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” “Misery,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
Nick Reiner has been open about his struggles with drug abuse over the years, even working with his father to produce a 2015 semi-autobiographical movie titled “Being Charlie,” based on Nick’s drug-addiction issues and the family’s struggles to cope.
In media interviews and podcast appearances, he previously described being in and out of rehab programs throughout his teen years, and spending time homeless in various states, including Texas, New Jersey and Maine. He also described an instance when he was high on cocaine for multiple days and trashed his parents’ guest house.
Rob Reiner — who was married for 10 years to actress/director Penny Marshall before they divorced in 1981 — married Michele Singer in 1989 after meeting her while he was directing “When Harry Met Sally.” Reiner often told the story about how his romance with Singer led him to change the ending to the movie — with the characters played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan reuniting rather than going their separate ways.
Rob Reiner was a vocal Democratic Party activist, helping to spearhead efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in California and to pass a 1998 initiative that created the First 5 California childhood-development services program, funded by a tobacco tax.