The youngest son of Hollywood filmmaker and political activist Rob Reiner appeared in court for the first time Wednesday to answer two murder charges he faces in the stabbing deaths of his parents, who were found dead in their Los Angeles home over the weekend.
The evidentiary hearing was rescheduled for Jan. 7 and Nick Reiner, 32, had no comment.
Bearded and wearing a blue protective vest, he appeared in court three days after his arrest and a day after being charged in one of the most shocking celebrity murder cases in the city’s history.
He is accused of fatally stabbing his parents, actor and director Rob Reiner, 78, and photographer and producer Michele Reiner, 70, early Sunday morning in the Brentwood neighborhood of west Los Angeles, then fleeing the scene.
The couple’s bodies were found on Sunday afternoon. Nick Reiner, who publicly admitted to struggling for years with drug addiction, was arrested that night in a downtown Los Angeles park near the University of Southern California campus.
Authorities said he was taken into custody without incident and booked on suspicion of murder at a downtown jail, where he remains held on bail.
If convicted, Reiner faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Prosecutor Nathan Hochman said prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty. Since 2019, California has had a moratorium on the execution of death sentences.
The death penalty remains in effect in California, but no one has been sentenced to death in the state since 2006, and Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order in 2019 establishing an indefinite moratorium on executions.
Prosecutors say a knife was used in the Reiner killings, but few other details have been provided about the circumstances of the killings. Authorities have not mentioned a possible motive or whether drug use was a factor.
Several media outlets reported that Nick Reiner had a heated argument with his parents Saturday night at a party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien.
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