Agree that’s the substantive point.
I could go either way on whether attorney Jackson is grandstanding.
I know this is late, but my great aunt was killed by her son. She was also stabbed. The understanding I have is that he was a drug addict and attacked his disabled mother over money.
I also suspect the lawyer’s comment was technically true. My first instinct was not that he was grandstanding, but more making it absolutely clear he wasn’t dropping his client because he couldn’t defend him.
It fits with the apparentl motivation behind the rest of the statement.
Or, more precisely I think, trying his best to ensure that his withdraw would not prejudice his (former) client. Absent any statement, I can imagine people (and therefore potential jurors) saying “Oh, the bug shot attorney withdrew! Well clearly this man is guilty and the big shot didn’t want a loas on his record…”
The early news reports indicated Nick has many years of private doctor care and rehabs.
Compiling those records and interviewing will be complicated by HIPAA. I’m not sure how it applies in criminal cases.
There should be a long medical record that the defense can build a case around.
I think the prosecution will fight hard to say he still knew right from wrong. Nick had enough control to go out and socialize at a party just before the murders.
Not complicated by HIPAA at all. It just needs a release by the patient. It’s only complicated if someone is trying to compel the release of information without the consent of the patient. Of course anything the defense got would have to be turned over in discovery.
I think that’s a valid observation. Jackson had an ethical obligation not to weaken or worsen the case of his former client.
Inside Nick Reiner’s life of privilege, pills and pain. Friends say Reiner bounced constantly between rehab centers and his family’s Los Angeles mansion, where he is accused of killing his parents, Rob and Michele.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/01/24/nick-reiner-profile/
Unpaywalled at:
They spent an enormous amount of money on rehabilitation facilities, and alternatively a nice lifestyle living at Rob Reiner’s guesthouse.
And he is still defended by the public defender.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable that he might have to rely on the public defender (not that there’s anything wrong with that). He may have had little money of his own, and I don’t believe he’s entitled to inherit his parents’ money. So his siblings would have to choose to pay for his defense, and I can understand that they might not want to do that.
The grand jury indictment is a major step toward trial and allows prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence is publicly aired.
Lying in wait means a suspect waited for or hid from victims in order to ambush them, and as an allegation it’s meant to show premeditation. A finding that he was lying in wait along with a murder conviction would make Reiner eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors said they haven’t decided whether to seek it.
It only took 8 months to finally get to an indictment. I’m curious to see what the defense strategy is at the trial. Not guilty by reason of insanity?
As it turns out, they left him a trust fund, which he is trying to use to re-hire Alan Jackson, the lawyer who briefly represented him before withdrawing due to Nick’s siblings being uninterested in continuing to fund his defense.
It seems the manager of the trust fund is trying to stop that:
Apparently California law has something the article calls a ‘slayer statue’ that the manager says blocks Nick from using the money for his criminal defense.
I saw that article and the fiduciary’s argument (why he should not have access to the money) makes sense. And I’m still sad at the loss of the Reiners, even though reviewing his filmography, the ones I remember best are from the 1990s.
Apparently his mental issues are fairly well-documented, over years. But as to whether they rise to the level of legal insanity—???
It’s possible that the mental issues would keep him from being sentenced to the death penalty. (Legal in California, though “paused” since 2006.)
Mental issues or not, his crime is heinous.
I can’t think of much more painful than what the Reiner family is going through. Suicide is often mentioned as one of the most painful things to have to endure when a loved one goes through with it(listen to Joan Rivers talk about it some time). The death of a child is obviously deeply scarring and a huge burden to have to keep going(listen to Joe Biden talk about it some time).
But a sibling killing both of your parents? Pain unimaginable. Both parents die violently together and your own loved one is the murderer.
That’s right up there with losing a child or suffering a suicide in the family. Terrible.
I don’t know how anyone could live day to day with such pain.