Nick Reiner Appears Before Judge; Family Breaks Silence After Tragedy

The chil­dren of film­mak­er Rob Rein­er and his wife, pro­duc­er Michele Singer Rein­er, have spo­ken pub­licly for the first time fol­low­ing the deaths of their par­ents.

Their 32-year-old son, Nick Rein­er, made a brief appear­ance in court after pros­e­cu­tors filed mur­der charges against him. Author­i­ties said the cou­ple were found dead inside their South­ern Cal­i­for­nia res­i­dence on Sun­day, Dec. 14.

After Nick Reiner’s court appear­ance, his sib­lings, Romy and Jake Rein­er, released a state­ment to the media on Wednes­day, describ­ing the loss as “hor­rif­ic and dev­as­tat­ing.” They said their par­ents were not only their fam­i­ly but also their clos­est friends, and expressed grat­i­tude for the sup­port and con­do­lences they have received from peo­ple around the world.

The Los Ange­les Coun­ty Med­ical Examiner’s Office issued pre­lim­i­nary find­ings on Wednes­day, Dec. 17, stat­ing that the deaths were ruled homi­cides caused by mul­ti­ple sharp-force injuries.

Pros­e­cu­tors announced Tues­day that Nick Rein­er has been charged with two counts of mur­der, includ­ing a spe­cial cir­cum­stance alle­ga­tion involv­ing mul­ti­ple vic­tims. Author­i­ties allege he fatal­ly stabbed his par­ents before flee­ing the scene, lat­er being tak­en into cus­tody sev­er­al hours lat­er near down­town Los Ange­les. Addi­tion­al alle­ga­tions include the per­son­al use of a dead­ly weapon.

Los Ange­les Coun­ty Dis­trict Attor­ney Nathan Hochman said no deter­mi­na­tion has been made regard­ing whether the death penal­ty will be sought. Nick Rein­er is expect­ed to under­go med­ical eval­u­a­tion before his arraign­ment, which is sched­uled for Jan­u­ary.

Defense attor­ney Alan Jack­son, who rep­re­sents Rein­er, told reporters that his client has not yet been med­ical­ly cleared to ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in court pro­ceed­ings.

Friends and col­leagues from the enter­tain­ment indus­try also released a joint state­ment hon­or­ing Rob Reiner’s lega­cy, describ­ing him as a gift­ed sto­ry­teller and ded­i­cat­ed advo­cate, and not­ing that both he and Michele Singer Rein­er devot­ed much of their lives to pub­lic ser­vice and the arts.