Prosecutors said on Sept. 15 they have ruled out seeking the death penalty in the murder case against Nick Reiner, accused of fatally stabbing his parents, Hollywood filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer-producer Michele Singer Reiner, in their home in December.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office had taken into account the wishes of the slain couple’s two surviving children, Jake Reiner, 35, and sister Romy Reiner, 28, as well as unspecified mitigating factors, in reaching its decision.
“We did speak with Nick Reiner’s siblings; they made their views very clear,” Hochman told reporters outside a downtown Los Angeles courthouse.
“This decision reflects our careful judgment about the most appropriate path to take in this case and does not diminish the severity of these crimes,” the DA said in a statement.
The maximum penalty Reiner now faces if convicted would be life in prison without the possibility of parole, Hochman said, adding that a trial was unlikely to begin before next year.
The announcement came shortly before Nick Reiner, 33, appeared in court for a hearing during which prosecutors also officially informed the presiding judge they would not seek capital punishment in the case.
The defendant, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, sat beside his lawyer, shackled to his seat dressed in brown jail garb during the hearing, and answered “yes” in a soft voice to several procedural questions from Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta.
His parents, Rob Reiner, 78, and wife Michele Reiner, 70, were found stabbed to death on Dec. 14 in their mansion in the upscale West LA neighborhood of Brentwood, marking one of the most shocking celebrity homicide cases in Los Angeles history.
Nick Reiner, who has acknowledged a years-long struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues, was arrested later that day and charged with the killings. He was widely reported to have quarreled with his parents while the three were attending a holiday party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien the night before the couple were slain.
He was formally indicted by a grand jury earlier this month.
Although capital punishment remains on the books in California, nobody has been put to death in the state since 2006, and Governor Gavin Newsom imposed an indefinite moratorium on executions in 2019.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; editing by Bill Berkrot)
