Nick Reiner appeared in court on Wednesday for the first time since being charged with the murder of his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
The 32-year-old, charged with two counts of first-degree murder, waived his right to enter a plea, and his next hearing will be on January 7.
Investigators are still piecing together the whereabouts of Nick following the death of his parents – whose slain bodies were found in the master bedroom of their Brentwood mansion on Sunday afternoon.
The troubled screenwriter – who has struggled with drug addiction and mental illness over the years – was arrested without incident later that evening around 9.30pm, about 15 miles away.
The tragedy occurred after an apparently eventful Christmas party at the home of the comedian Conan O’Brien on Saturday night, crowded with people in show business and neighborhood friends.
There, sources claimed they saw Nick behaving erratically, and overheard father and son having an explosive argument, in which Rob apparently rebuked him and said that his behavior was inappropriate.
Mystery persists surrounding the spat at the festive party, as well as Nick’s movements over the next 24 hours, leading to him in custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.
Outside the court, his defense lawyer Alan Jackson only added to the puzzle when he said that there were ‘very complex and serious issues associated with this case’ and urged the public not to rush to judgment.
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Nick Reiner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bail in Los Angeles. He is seen at the premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues in September
From left: Reiner, Michele, their daughter Romy, son Nick, Maria Gilfillan and son Jake Reiner in the last known photograph of the family, taken at the Spinal Tap II premiere in September
What did Nick Reiner and his father argue about?
Nick Reiner’s history of addiction and the toll it’s taken on his relationship with his family is no secret.
The Reiners expressed remorse over how they had handled their son’s struggles with drugs in a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times.
‘When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son,’ Rob Reiner said.
Michele added: ‘We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he’s a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.’
In 2016, aged 22, Nick claimed he had already gone to rehab 17 times and had been left repeatedly homeless after refusing help.
‘I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas. I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun,’ he told People magazine.
‘If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless,’ he said, seemingly referring to his family.
Over the years, however, it seemed father and son mended their fractured relationship, especially after working together on ‘Being Charlie’, a 2015 film inspired by Nick’s battle with addiction.
But the pair apparently came to blows in front of Hollywood’s biggest stars at O’Brien’s mansion in the Pacific Palisades on Saturday, December 13.
Rob, 78, and his wife Michele, 70, apparently left early after the argument unfolded, according to TMZ.
Moments before the fight, Nick was apparently ‘freaking everyone out’ and ‘acting crazy’, repeatedly asking guests if they were famous, a source told People magazine.
He was lurking on the fringes of the holiday gathering, apparently acting anxious and uncomfortable in a way that deeply unsettled partygoers.
As well as arguing with his parents, Nick allegedly ‘stormed off’ after getting into a tense chat with comedian Bill Hader.
A source claimed to NBC News that Nick ‘interrupted Hader’ at the party and was allegedly left annoyed when the SNL comic told him he was ‘in the middle of a private conversation’.
The source claimed after Hader’s alleged comment: ‘Nick just stood there and stared before storming off.’
Rob had rebuked his son, telling him that his behavior was inappropriate for a guest in someone else’s home, according to the New York Times.
But different sources have competing accounts. According to a person close to the family, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, ‘the episode was being overblown.’
Nick’s behavior, he said, was not unusual to the Reiners, who had grown used to it over the years. For this reason, they wouldn’t have left early because of their son’s conduct.
The Reiners pictured with their children Jake (middle), Romy and Nick (right) in 2014
Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead on Sunday. Pictured in March in Los Angeles
Seen with his father during an interview on May 4, 2016, in New York City
When did the Reiners die?
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said the coroner had not yet determined whether the Hollywood couple had died on Saturday night or Sunday.
It was Sunday afternoon when a masseuse turned up at the white-gated mansion in Brentwood for a scheduled appointment with Rob and Michele, who had planned to have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama and others in just a few hours.
When the massage therapist received no answer at the gate, they called the couple’s 27-year-old daughter, who lives across the road in the affluent neighborhood.
After the call, Romy quickly visited her parents’ house with a roommate, and went inside their bedroom, where she saw her father’s body.
She instinctively ran outside, screaming, prompting her roommate to call 911.
Emergency services arrived to provide medical aid at about 3.30pm.
Romy sped back into the house to search other rooms for her mother, not yet realizing that Michele’s body also was in the master bedroom.
It was only after paramedics arrived did an emergency worker break the news that both of her parents had been killed.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office cited the couple’s cause of death as ‘multiple sharp force injuries’ in its public database.
Police have not indicated if they have forensic evidence linking Nick to the crime, or whether they’ve located a murder weapon.
Officers searched the house ‘to determine whether there were any additional victims or suspects,’ but they found none, said assistant chief Dominic Choi.
He added that ‘information developed during the early stages of the investigation’ had led them to view Nick as a person of interest.
When the paramedics arrived, Romy apparently didn’t suggest her brother Nick was a suspect, but told them he lived in the property’s guesthouse.
Investigators subsequently went there, but did not find him.
Just two weeks before her parents’ murders, Romy shared heartwarming vacation photos on Instagram, writing that she was ‘thankful for family’. Pictured with her father
Michele and Rob Reiner smile in a snap with their children Jake, Romy and Nick (behind)
Footage shows the Nick Reiner, wearing a black cap and a red backpack, queueing up and purchasing the drink before cops apprehended him
Where did Nick go after the Christmas party?
On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Alan S. Hamilton said authorities were investigating Nick’s ‘travels from when we think he left the party, all the way to when he was arrested’.
Around 11.16pm on Saturday, the 32-year-old was seen strolling past a local gas station half a mile from his parent’s house, in footage obtained by the New York Post.
The screenwriter was wearing a baseball cap and carrying a backpack, and seemed to be walking in a direction away from the mansion.
For five hours, there is no trace of Nick’s movements.
He is understood to have checked in to the Pierside Santa Monica hotel around 4.15am Sunday morning.
He checked into room 207 at the $400-a-night boutique, beachfront hotel, about 1,000 ft away from the world-famous Santa Monica Pier, and a five-minute walk to the LA Metro line that goes directly to the Exposition park area where he was eventually arrested by cops.
When hotel staff came into Reiner’s hotel room later on Sunday morning, the shower was said to be ‘full of blood’, with splatters across the bed.
The windows in the room were covered by bed sheets, detectives found when they arrived at the hotel on Monday to collect evidence.
But photos of the corridor taken on Wednesday showed that there was no crime scene tape blocking off the room where Nick stayed.
CCTV footage taken on Sunday night at an Arco gas station near Exposition Park in South Los Angeles shows Nick entering the station’s store briefly.
Wearing a black cap and a red backpack, he approaches the store at about 8.20pm, from the direction of the nearby Expo/Vermont train stop, and enters for a moment before swiftly turning around and exiting.
Nick appears to scan the area outside before deciding to go back into the gas station.
He is seen queuing up and purchasing a sports drink, an hour before he was arrested across the street at 9.15pm.
It was not clear how the police found him, but officers said he was arrested without incident.
Rob Reiner’s son checked into room 207 at the Pierside Santa Monica around 4am on Sunday
Photos of the outside of the room taken on Wednesday showed that there was no crime scene tape blocking off the room where Reiner stayed
A bathroom inside a Pierside hotel suite like the one Nick would have had in room 207
Rob, Romy and Jake on a red carpet in Los Angeles on May 13 this year
Rob Reiner with his daughter Romy and wife Michele pictured in Los Angeles in October 2017
Rob and Nick pictured at AOL Studios in New York on May 4, 2016
Rob Reiner directed a handful of legendary films in a variety of genres before his death, including This is Spinal Tap, Misery, A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally and Stand by Me.
Michele was a producer, photographer and actress, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production house.
Jake and Romy, the two other children the couple had together, released their first statement since their parents’ deaths:
‘Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day.
‘The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience.
‘They weren’t just our parents, they were our best friends.’
Nick had been expected to appear in court for the first time on Tuesday morning, but he was not present and his lawyer, Jackson, said that his client had not been medically cleared to be transferred from jail.
After waiving his right to enter a plea on Wednesday, Reiner’s next arraignment hearing is scheduled for January 7.
The delay could be in order to allow for time to perform a psychiatric evaluation on the defendant, according to a criminal defense attorney.
‘The psychiatric evaluation is generally done before arraignment to see if he is even fit to stand trial,’ Seth Zuckerman, a former prosecutor who is now a criminal defense lawyer, told the BBC.
Media inside the courtroom could not see Nick throughout the brief hearing because he was sitting out of sight, but he appeared to be wearing a blue suicide prevention vest used to restrain people in custody.
The 32-year-old could face the death penalty because the two murder charges include a special circumstance of committing multiple murders – which increases the possible punishment.
Speaking outside the court, defense lawyer Jackson said there were ‘very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case’ that need to be thoroughly and carefully dealt with.
‘We ask that during this process, you allow the system to move forward in the way that it was designed to move forward, not with a rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but with restraint and with dignity, and with the respect that this system and this process deserves, and that the family deserves,’ Jackson said.
He added that ‘nothing happened today substantively’ in the case.
