Nick Reiner seeks money for defense in his parents' killings from trust they established for him

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Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents — acclaimed director Rob Reiner and film producer Michele Reiner — is asking a Los Angeles court to release funds from a trust his parents established for him, to pay for his legal defense.A petition filed by Reiner’s civil attorneys in a Los Angeles County court on Monday says that trustees overseeing the funds have denied them to him without legal justification, and the 32-year-old defendant needs them.

“Time is of the essence,” he told the trustee earlier this year.In December 2025, Reiner was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents days after the beloved Hollywood power couple was found slain at their Brentwood home.Family friends told The Times that Rob and Nick got into an argument at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party just hours before the couple’s murder.

Many party guests noticed Nick acting strangely, the friends said.Nick Reiner, who has struggled with addiction for years, was living in a guesthouse on his parents’ property, a family friend said, and his mother had become increasingly concerned about his mental health in the weeks leading up to her death.‘Family murder cases are heartbreaking for everyone, including attorneys on both sides ...

This case should be tried in the courtroom, not in the press,’ writes an L.A.Times reader.“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths,” reads the petition.

“But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation.Nick’s criminal defense attorneys will present those facts in the criminal case; this Petition neither requires nor invites this Court to weigh in on them.

Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own.”According to court documents obtained by The Times, Rob and Michele Reiner es...