With his previous attorney withdrawing from the case, arraignment was postponed Wednesday for Rob Reiner’s youngest son, who is charged with murdering the famed filmmaker and his photographer wife Michele in their Brentwood home.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teresa R. McGonigle ordered Nick Reiner, 32, to remain jailed without bail pending his next court appearance at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse for arraignment, which was delayed until Feb. 23 at the request of his new attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene.
Nick Reiner’s previous attorney, Alan Jackson, told the judge he needed to withdraw from the case, saying, “We feel we have no choice at this juncture.”
The announcement came shortly after Greene spoke briefly in the courtroom with Nick Reiner before the hearing began, with the deputy public defender asking for the arraignment to be delayed “one last time.”
Outside court, Jackson told reporters, “Circumstances beyond our control but more importantly circumstances beyond Nick’s control have dictated that sadly it’s made it impossible for us to continue our representation of Nick. I’m legally and I’m ethically prohibited from explaining all of the reasons why.”
He said the public defender’s office will “very capably protect Nick Reiner’s interests as he moves forward through the system” and said he and his team have “investigated this matter top to bottom, back to front.”
“What we’ve learned and you can take this to the bank is that pursuant to the laws of this state, pursuant to the law in California, Nick is not guilty of murder. Print that! Print that!” he added.
Minutes later, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters, “We are fully confident that a jury will convict Nick Reiner beyond a reasonable doubt of the brutal murders of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, and do so unanimously.”
Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said members of his office are “incredibly sorry and understand the pain and suffering that the Reiner family is going through as well as the entire Los Angeles community,” adding that “our hearts at the time go out to the entire family.”
Greene said Nick Reiner was “understanding that there was going to be a change in counsel,” but said she spoke with him for about 30 seconds and hasn’t had any in-depth conversations with him or had any contact with his family.
Reiner — who appeared in court in brown jail clothes — went along with the delay in his arraignment when asked by the judge if he understood his right to a speedy arraignment.
“Uh, yeah, I agree …,” he said.
People magazine reported Monday that Reiner has been removed from a suicide watch at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown L.A., though he remains in solitary confinement and under heightened supervision.
He was charged Dec. 16 with two counts of murder stemming from 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 Brentwood 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, opening him to a possible death sentence if prosecutors choose to pursue capital punishment. He is also facing an allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon — a knife.
The L.A. County Office of Medical Examiner classified the couple’s deaths as homicides, with both dying from “multiple sharp force injuries.”
The death certificates note they were killed “with knife, by another.”
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.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell declined last month to provide any details on what led to Nick Reiner being identified as the suspect.
In a statement released the day of their brother’s initial court appearance in December, Nick Reiner’s older brother, Jake, and younger sister, Romy, said, “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.
“We 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,” the two said. “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.”
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, along with being the director of films including “Stand By Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” “Misery,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
According to multiple reports, the couple’s 28-year-old daughter discovered her father’s body. One report suggested that a massage therapist had shown up at the couple’s home for a pre-scheduled appointment but got no answer at the door and contacted their daughter, who went inside the home and found Rob Reiner slain. She contacted authorities, who subsequently found Michele Reiner’s body in the house.
Sources told multiple outlets that Rob and Michele Reiner, along with Nick, attended talk-show host Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party the night before, and that Rob Reiner and his son got into a heated argument over his son’s odd behavior at the event. Rob and Michele Reiner wound up leaving the event, but it was unclear when Nick Reiner left. TMZ reported that Nick Reiner checked into a Santa Monica hotel around 4 a.m. the next day, and that blood was later found in the room.
It was reported last month that Nick Reiner had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was taking medications that made him “erratic and dangerous.”
Citing two sources with knowledge of the situation, TMZ reported that he had been under the care of a psychiatrist for mental illness, but that his behavior had grown more alarming in recent weeks.
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 Democrat 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.