Nick Reiner failed to appear in court after he was arrested following the stabbing deaths of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
Nick’s attorney Alan Jackson told reporters on Tuesday, December 16, that his client has yet to be “medically cleared” to appear in court. Nick, 32, could make his first appearance as early as Wednesday, December 17, but it will be decided on a “day-to-day” basis.
Jackson refused to reveal who is paying Nick’s legal fees — including if the Reiner family is financially involved.
The Los Angeles Police Department Parker City Jail confirmed to NewsPlop on Monday, December 15, that Nick, 32, was in custody on a murder charge after Rob and Michele were stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home on Sunday, December 14. He was being held on $4 million bail.
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The LAPD initially confirmed that Rob, 78, and Michele, 68, were found dead “from apparent stab wounds.”
During a press conference, Deputy Chief Alan S. Hamilton said that the LAPD “is currently conducting an ongoing investigation into the two deaths at Rob Reiner’s Brentwood home.” However, he said they were avoiding “classifying the investigation” as a murder at the time.
Just hours after news broke about Rob and Michele’s deaths, multiple outlets reported that Nick was an alleged person of interest in the case and that he was being questioned by detectives about his parents’ deaths.
Nick had been open about his complicated relationship with his parents in the past, and he even explored their dynamic amid his personal struggles in the 2015 film Being Charlie. Nick co-wrote the script with Matt Elisofon, which was inspired by his struggles with addiction and homelessness. Rob directed the film, while Cary Elwes starred as the father figure and Nick Robinson portrayed the troubled son.
“When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen,” Rob told the L.A. Times in 2015 about offering his son an apology following years of ups and downs. “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.”
The following year, Rob and Nick appeared on a 2016 episode of Paul Mecurio’s “2 Chairs and a Microphone” podcast. After the host brought up Being Charlie, Rob invited Nick onto the podcast to discuss the project.
“I think I’m lucky in the sense that I have parents that care about me,” Nick said at the time. “Because of that, when I would go out and do things like drugs and stuff like that, I’d feel a tremendous amount of guilt.”
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Nick continued, “I’d think, ‘They’re thinking about me right now. They want me to do good.’ … Some people don’t have parents that have any interest in them.”
“[What] he just said really got me, which is that deep down he trusted that we loved him and that we were there for him,” Rob told his son in response. “I think that’s where we made the mistake. We didn’t trust that he had that in him.”
Also during the podcast, Nick discussed how his experience of growing up in a famous family contributed to his addiction struggles.
“I don’t think this is any different than most people going through their teenage years, but I think that I had no identity and I had no passions,” he said. “I have a famous dad and a famous grandpa and that fame sort of informs who you are so I wanted to etch out my own identity with a more rebellious, angry, drug-addicted sort of persona.”
In addition to Nick, Rob and Michele shared son Jake, 34, and daughter Romy, 28. The When Harry Met Sally director was also the father to daughter Tracy, whom he adopted during his first marriage to his late ex-wife, Penny Marshall.