Eh, true.
So, the son is in jail with no bail. Apparently, they feel his guilt is a done deal. How do you you cut the throats of your mother and father? Can’t wrap my head around that.
Oh, I thought he had a $4 million bail. Did they just move to zero bail?
I heard no bail last night on the news, but that could be outdated or even incorrect.
From the New York Times at 9:07am today:
…Live Updates: L.A. District Attorney Considers Charges Against Reiners’ Son
Nick Reiner, 32, is being held without bail on suspicion of murder after his parents, the director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found dead in their home…
My sense is that Nick has been dealing with mental struggles his whole life. The drugs were not the issue. They were a way of self medicating. He’d take the drugs to calm his thoughts, get addicted, get clean, the mental struggles would come back, get back on drugs to calm his thoughts, and repeat. There was a line from “Being Charlie” which was:
In his mind at that moment, his parents were the source of the noise. Probably the recent argument caused the noise to get to unbearable levels. His ill brain wanted the noise to to stop. It came to the conclusion that getting rid of his parents would get rid of the noise. That’s not a rational solution, but in his mental state, it probably made logical sense to him.
Killing your parents is called parricide. It’s 2–3% of all murders in the U.S. One thing you need to understand is that the people you’re most likely to be killed by aren’t strangers you never met, who don’t live near you, and who differ from you racially/ethnically/politically/religiously/financially/etc. You are most likely to be killed by your husband or your ex-husband or your boyfriend or your ex-boyfriend or your wife or your ex-wife or your girlfriend or your ex-girlfriend or your parents or your children or your siblings or your other relatives or your neighbors or other people from your neighborhood or your co-workers or other people who are like you in some racial/ethnic/political/religious/financial/etc way. Yes it’s possible to be killed by someone robbing you or hating you because you differ from them in various ways, but that’s not as common as people with some similarity to you killing you.
I know, but I still can’t really envision it. I guess that, if they were truly horrible or I the devil incarnate, that could occur.
I’m thinking that being on trial for murder is going to be even more noise, so that could prove interesting. They’ll probably medicate him to ensure he is docile.
That’s why I said earlier that he needs to be (and probably is) on suicide watch.
Insanity is not a mental state most of us can really imagine accurately enough to empathize with in the technical sense of the term.
Maybe it made sense at the moment to him and was done cold-bloodedly. Maybe it was just rage, the same rage anyone can feel.
I have had a couple of encounters with folks so wasted on drugs that there was essentially no connection between the real world, what they perceived, and what they did. But they were still capable of doing stuff. Think monkey with a machine gun and you have the idea. There is really no connection between their behavior and anything you or I would label rational thought.
Can they do that? Seems to me that would be evidence that he’s not competent to stand trial.
Being bat shit crazy is not the same as being legally insane. To be adjudged legally insane, the defense would have to convince the jury that he was not aware of his actions during the time he murdered his own parents.
If he is not competent to stand trial it should never get to a jury let alone sentencing. To go to trial, a defendant must understand the proceedings. I suspect being drugged during trial is going to be a get out of jail free card on appeal.
For the sake of their other family, I hope this doesn’t go to a jury trial, but instead they’re able to reach a plea bargain to avoid that.
I don’t think “get out of jail free” is anywhere in his future. I expect about the best outcome he can hope for is “confined to a mental institution indefinitely for treatment.”
I hope you fast forwarded past the kissing scenes.
I agree that Conan and some of the guests could be witnesses.
Rob had to be embarrassed that his son was dressed and acting odd. Nick wouldn’t get in a glitzy party like that without his dad’s connections. Rob confronted him and the argument escalated Sunday.
I hope there’s no trial. A plea agreement with a double life sentence is the best outcome.
Link Rob Reiner's Son Nick Seemed Out of Place at Conan O'Brien's Christmas Party
According to a former LA prosecutor interviewed on Morning Edition today the change in bail is an indication that the DA is planning to charge with multiple homicide, which is an aggravating circumstance which mandates no bail and life without parole.
Also, insanity defense is off the table - the bar is extremely high in California and requires, among other things, an organic mental illness - not one brought on or exacerbated by drug use.
The fact that he has been in treatment since childhood may pay a factor in that, so don’t just discount it out. Maybe not insanity, but competence. I doubt that he goes to an actual jail, more likely a mental institution.