Nick Reiner made a brief court appearance at a hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles in the murder case involving the deaths of his parents, the late director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner.
Reiner, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders in the deaths of his parents in February, wore a yellow jail smock and only spoke when asked if he would waive a deadline to hold a preliminary hearing, according to Variety, NBC News and the Los Angeles Times.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, Variety reports.
The murder case will not proceed until September, in part due to delays in the production of reports detailing the autopsies of his parents, officials said in court Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Chung reportedly said prosecutors have nearly two terabytes of discovery to provide to the defence and autopsy reports in the case had yet to be completed.
His next court appearance will be held on Sept. 15.
Reiner was arrested on Dec. 15 after his 78-year-old father and 70-year-old mother were found dead with stab wounds in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14, 2025, authorities said.
During Reiner’s court appearance in February, he only spoke to answer a question from the judge in the affirmative.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman spoke to reporters outside the courthouse following Reiner’s hearing.
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“This case is a death penalty-eligible case. Along those lines, we take the process in which we determine whether or not the death penalty should be sought extremely seriously and it goes through a very rigorous process,” Hochman said at the time.
“We have invited defence counsel to present to us — both in writing and orally — in a meeting, any arguments that they would like to make in consideration for our going forward or not going forward with the death penalty,” Hochman added.
Reiner was set to enter a plea in January at a hearing in Los Angeles, before his defence attorney, Alan Jackson, announced that he was withdrawing from the case. Reiner will now be represented by public defender Kimberly Greene.
“This morning I had to withdraw as Nick Reiner’s counsel. Circumstances beyond our control, but more importantly, circumstances beyond Nick’s control, have dictated that, sadly, it’s made it impossible for us to continue our representation,” Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse in January.
“Be very, very clear about this — my team and I remain deeply, deeply committed to Nick Reiner and to his best interests,” Jackson said. “In fact, we know, we’re not just convinced, we know that the legal process will reveal the true facts of the circumstances surrounding this case.”
“What we’ve learned — and you can take this to the bank — is that pursuant to the law in this state, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder. Print that,” Jackson added.
Following the news, Reiner’s family told the New York Times in a statement that they “have the utmost trust in the legal process and will not comment further on matters related to the legal proceedings.”
Last week, Jake Reiner, Nick’s brother, spoke out for the first time about the deaths of his parents in a personal essay titled “Mom and Dad.”
Two months after his brother pleaded not guilty, Jake shared details on Substack of the “living nightmare” he’s experienced since learning what happened to them.
Jake shared that on the afternoon of Dec. 14, he was at a celebration of life for one of his best friends — who died in October — when he received the news of his parents’ deaths.
“It was at that moment I received a call from my sister Romy telling me our father was dead. Minutes later, she called back telling me our mother was also dead,” Jake wrote.
“The 45-minute Lyft ride from downtown to the west side was unendurable. My world, as I knew it, had collapsed. I was in a trance.”
Jake said the only thing he could focus on was getting to his childhood home to “figure out what the hell just happened.”
In his post, shared on Friday, Jake wrote, “We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable.”
“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,” he added.
Jake said he was telling his story and that his sister Romy “will tell hers in her own way and in her time.”
“What the hell do you say to someone who is living through this reality? The truth is, there is nothing to say. I just ask for love and compassion — the same principles my parents lived by,” his post concluded.
—With files from The Associated Press
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