Rob Reiner’s Son Nick Facing First-Degree Murder Charges, Eligible for Death Penalty

Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed two counts of first-degree murder against Nick Reiner, the son of legendary Hollywood director Rob Reiner and photographer-producer Michele Singer Reiner. Authorities say Nick killed his parents in a gruesome double-slaying at the family’s home on Sunday.

If convicted as charged, Nick, 32, would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or potentially the death penalty, DA Nathan Hochman said at a press conference announcing the charges Tuesday.

Hochman said Nick Reiner “also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife.” He said his office was still considering whether to seek the death penalty. Gov. Gavin Newsom currently has a moratorium on executions in the state.

Officials declined to discuss whether Nick had a history of mental illness, separate from his admitted struggles with addiction. “If there is evidence of mental illness, it will be presented in court and in whatever detail the defense seeks to do that,” Hochman said.

Defense lawyer Alan Jackson confirmed to Rolling Stone on Tuesday that he is representing Nick and that his client had not been “medically cleared” to be transported to court as of Tuesday. Jackson, a former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, previously represented Harvey Weinstein at his California criminal trial.

Police responded to the Reiners’ Brentwood home around 3:40 p.m. Sunday for a death investigation. The Reiners’ daughter Romy, 28, discovered the grisly scene, Rolling Stone previously confirmed.

Police said Tuesday that a manhunt for Nick led them to Exposition Park, near the University of Southern California, where they took Nick into custody without incident around 9:15 p.m. Sunday. They declined to answer questions about a possible motive. Nick remained in custody without bail pending his first court appearance, set for Wednesday.

Rob Reiner, who played Meathead in the groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family before his extraordinary run as the director of beloved 1980s movies This is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally…, Princess Bride, and A Few Good Men, previously worked with Nick on the 2016 movie Being Charlie. Nick co-wrote the script, loosely based on his struggles with heroin addiction, and Reiner directed the film.

Nick told People magazine in 2016 that he was only 15 when he first went to rehab for his drug addiction. He said more than a dozen future stints at recovery centers followed, and he experienced homelessness in Maine, New Jersey, and Texas.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Reiner and his wife said they desperately tried to help their son but made some mistakes along the way. “The program works for some people, but it can’t work for everybody,” Reiner said. “When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate, and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”

Michele added that the couple was “so influenced by these people. They would tell us he’s a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.”

Being Charlie tells the story of the troubled, drug-addicted son of an actor with political aspirations in California. In a video interview with AOL’s BUILD Series in 2016, Rob Reiner called the movie the most personal and “satisfying creative experience” of his career.

“The fact that we were dealing with things that Nick had gone through and how I had related to it, and how his mother had related to it… It forced me to have to see more clearly and understand more deeply what Nick had gone through. And I think it forced him to see things that I had experienced during this process. And it definitely brought us closer together,” Reiner said. “It did make me understand him a lot more.”

Nick called the movie a “bonding” experience with his dad.

From Rolling Stone US.