A Los Angeles County grand jury has indicted Nick Reiner, the son of filmmaker Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, on two counts of murder in the December stabbing deaths of his parents at their Brentwood home. The indictment was unsealed this week, and Reiner, 32, pleaded not guilty at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse.
The indictment adds special-circumstance allegations that were not part of the original criminal complaint filed in December: that the killings involved multiple murder victims and that Reiner acted by lying in wait before attacking his parents, along with an allegation of personal use of a deadly weapon, a knife. Special-circumstance findings are what make a murder case eligible for capital punishment or life in prison without parole under California law.
Rob Reiner, 78 — the director of "Stand by Me," "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally..." and "A Few Good Men," and a former co-star of the sitcom "All in the Family" — and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, a photographer and producer, were found dead on December 14, 2025, at their home on South Chadbourne Avenue in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Both had suffered multiple stab wounds; the Los Angeles County medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides.
Nick Reiner was arrested that same evening in the Exposition Park area, several miles from the family home, and the case was assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division. He was initially charged with two counts of murder in December; a scheduled preliminary hearing was postponed several times before prosecutors instead pursued a grand jury indictment, a procedural route that allows a case to move directly toward trial.
The allegations
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, the grand jury returned its indictment on July 20 and it was unsealed this week. District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the case in a statement as "a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing." Prosecutors said they have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty, which remains a legal option under the special-circumstance charges; the alternative maximum sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Reiner has been held without bail since his arrest. He was represented in the case's early months by defense attorney Alan Jackson, who withdrew in January after Reiner's siblings, who control access to family funds, stopped financing the defense; a public defender was then appointed, according to NBC News. Reiner had spoken publicly in past years about a long struggle with substance abuse dating to adolescence, including stints in treatment, and was for a period several years ago under a mental-health conservatorship.
What happens next
Reiner's arraignment on the indictment took place this week, when he entered pleas of not guilty to both murder counts and denied the special-circumstance allegations. The case, listed under number 26CJCF04440, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on September 15 in Department 108 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. No trial date has been set.
Neither the Reiner family nor Nick Reiner's attorneys have issued public statements responding to the indictment. Colleagues in the entertainment industry, where Rob Reiner spent more than five decades as an actor, director and producer, and where Michele Singer Reiner worked as a photographer and producer, have likewise largely declined to comment publicly on the pending case.
Under California law, an indictment reflects a grand jury's determination that sufficient evidence exists to proceed to trial — not a finding of guilt. Reiner is presumed innocent unless and until convicted at trial.
