Prosecutors in Los Angeles on Tuesday formally charged Nick Reiner with murdering his parents, the Hollywood fixtures and Democratic Party heavyweights Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
The son faces two counts of first-degree murder, with prosecutors requesting they be considered under “special circumstances”, in part because there were multiple murders. Special circumstances can add time to a sentence if convicted.
Nick Reiner, if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, although prosecutors have not said whether they would seek the death penalty. (Governor Gavin Newsom has put a moratorium on executions, but the death penalty still exists in California.)
Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, announced the charges two days after Reiner’s parents were discovered dead at their home in Brentwood. Prosecutors said that Reiner killed them using a knife and that the coroner was still determining whether they died on Saturday or Sunday.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hochman told a packed room of reporters that the case would be particularly difficult to prosecute because of the intimacy between the victims and the accused.
“These cases, involving family members, are some of the most challenging and most heart-wrenching cases that our office faces,” Hochman said.
He emphasised that, given the high-profile nature of the case, rumours and speculation were likely to spread, and he urged the public to use
caution.
Chief Jim McDonnell of the Los Angeles police department told reporters on Tuesday that officers were called to the Reiners’ home on Sunday afternoon, and that Nick Reiner was arrested without incident near the University of Southern California later
that night.
Reiner appeared briefly in court on Wednesday morning, a day after he was charged with murder in the death of his parents.
Reiner had been scheduled to appear in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday for an arraignment, during which he was expected to enter a plea. But his lawyer, Alan Jackson, told the court that it was “too early” for a plea and that he had agreed with the prosecution to delay the arraignment. It is now scheduled for January 7.
New York Times News Service