Lying-in-wait special circumstance makes defendant eligible for death penalty
A Los Angeles County grand jury indicted Nick Reiner, 32, on Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder in the December stabbing deaths of his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner at their Brentwood home, the district attorney’s office said.
The indictment charges Reiner with two counts of murder enhanced by a special circumstance: murder by means of lying in wait. The special circumstance makes Reiner eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they will seek capital punishment. Reiner has pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail since his arrest shortly after the killings.
“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a Wednesday statement. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”
Prosecutors have accused Reiner of stabbing the couple in their Brentwood home in December and then fleeing the scene. He was arrested shortly afterward. A date for the trial has yet to be set.
Rob Reiner had been regarded as a Hollywood luminary who directed films that became cult classics, including “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Princess Bride.” Both Rob and Michele Reiner dedicated themselves to fundraising for Democratic causes.
In April, the couple’s eldest son, Jake Reiner, addressed his parents’ deaths for the first time publicly in a Substack essay. “We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” he wrote. “Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it. It’s almost too impossible to process.”