Nick Reiner, charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents, legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, is now petitioning a Los Angeles court to release money from a trust they set up for him decades ago. He says he needs the cash to hire a lawyer. The trustee won't hand it over.
That is the grim legal twist now playing out in one of Hollywood's most disturbing crimes in recent memory. The 32-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty, wants access to at least $750,000 of a $1.5 million trust his parents created, the New York Post reported. His lawyers argue the money is already legally his, and that every day the trustee withholds it, his defense suffers irreparable harm.
Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead inside their Brentwood home on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested the following day. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.
The trust at the center of the dispute was established in 1993, AP News reported. Its terms allegedly required that Nick Reiner receive half the funds when he turned 30 and the remaining half at 35. Nick Reiner is now 32. His lawyers say he never received the first payout.
Trustee Paul Kanin, a lawyer, has refused to release the money. Nick Reiner's petition alleges Kanin has instead spent trust funds hiring attorneys to find reasons to hold on to the assets "for another two years", all of which, the petition claims, "violate the plain terms of the Trust."
The petition's language is blunt. "The harm is irreparable and it grows with each day the Trustee withholds funds that are already Nick's," it states. It adds that Kanin's refusal is "further jeopardizing my defense in the criminal matter."
The funding fight has already cost Nick Reiner his chosen defense counsel. High-profile attorney Alan Jackson took on the case but withdrew when the trust funds failed to materialize. Without the money, Nick Reiner was forced to rely on a public defender.
Jackson, however, has not walked away entirely. In a declaration filed alongside the petition, Jackson stated that his firm "stands ready, willing, and able to resume representation of Mr. Reiner" if the funds become available, Newsmax reported.
Nick Reiner's lawyers framed the stakes in constitutional terms. "Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own," the petition states, as Breitbart noted.
The petition also emphasized urgency. "Every additional week of delay is a week in which the counsel of his choice cannot investigate or prepare on his behalf, prejudice to his defense that cannot be undone," Nick Reiner's attorneys wrote.
Rob Reiner, the director behind films like When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men, and his wife Michele were found dead inside their $20 million Los Angeles mansion. The Brentwood address had long been associated with one of Hollywood's most prominent progressive voices. Rob Reiner was as well known for his political activism as for his filmmaking, a fixture of left-leaning celebrity culture who frequently weighed in on national politics.
The entertainment industry has produced no shortage of controversial moments involving prominent Hollywood figures in recent years. But the Reiner case stands apart. This is not a political dust-up or a social media controversy. Two people are dead, their son stands accused, and the legal system is now being asked to sort out a trust dispute born from the same family tragedy.
Nick Reiner remains jailed without bail. He has pleaded not guilty to both murder counts, the Washington Examiner reported. His petition was filed in what is described as a California probate court proceeding, though the court has not yet ruled on the request.
Paul Kanin's side of the dispute remains largely unheard. No public statement from Kanin or his counsel appears in the available reporting. The petition accuses him of paying lawyers with trust assets to block the distribution, but Kanin's rationale, legal, ethical, or otherwise, has not been publicly detailed.
There are legitimate legal questions here that no petition alone can resolve. Can a trust beneficiary accused of killing the trust's creators access those funds before trial? Does the so-called "slayer rule", which in many states bars a killer from inheriting from the victim, apply before a conviction? Those are questions for the probate court, and the answers could shape the trajectory of this case.
What is clear is that the defense team believes time is running out. Without money, they argue, Nick Reiner cannot hire the attorney he wants, cannot fund an independent investigation, and cannot prepare a defense adequate to the charges he faces. The petition says "time is of the essence."
For now, Nick Reiner sits in a Los Angeles jail cell with a public defender, a not-guilty plea, and a $1.5 million trust fund he cannot touch. The man and woman who created that trust for him are dead, and the state says he is the one who killed them.
Due process means everyone gets a defense. But there is something deeply unsettling about a man accused of taking his parents' lives turning around and demanding the inheritance they left behind to fight the charge.
