Rob Reiner’s son Nick denied bail in first appearance in court

Five days after Rob and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Brentwood home, a basic timeline is emerging about the killings and the arrest, hours later, of their son Nick.

Reiner, 32, was charged with two counts of murder on Tuesday. He appeared in court Wednesday, when a judge postponed his arraignment until January.

The children of Rob and Michele Reiner broke their silence Wednesday, issuing a statement thanking the public for their support in the days since their brother was arrested on suspicion of murdering their parents.

Jake and Romy Reiner asked that speculation about the case “be tempered with compassion and humanity.”

A group of Rob Reiner’s closest friends released a joint statement Tuesday praising the legendary film director’s masterful storytelling and remembering him as a “passionate, brave citizen” who did everything he could to make the world a better place.

“His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant,” the statement reads. “For the actors, he loved them. For the writers he made them better.”

Rob Reiner’s son Nick was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents after the Hollywood legend and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their Brentwood home Sunday.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that officers responded to the Reiner home at about 3:40 p.m. Detectives from the elite Robbery-Homicide Division “worked throughout the night” and took Nick Reiner, 32, into custody.

When word came of Rob Reiner’s senseless death, America fell into familiar rites of mourning and remembrance. A waterfall of tributes poured in from the twin worlds — Hollywood and politics — that the actor, director and liberal activist inhabited.

Through the shock and haze, before all but the sketchiest details were known, President Trump weighed in as well, driving by his diarrhetic compulsion to muse on just about every passing event, as though he was elected not to govern but to serve as America’s commentator in chief.

Families in town for the holidays trickled in and out of the Pierside Santa Monica hotel on Tuesday afternoon on their way to the nearby pier.

A hotel staff member who declined to provide their name because they were not authorized to speak to the media said police had been actively investigating the scene since Sunday and were still on site at the hotel as of Tuesday afternoon. The worker said they were aware that Nick Reiner checked in late Saturday or early Sunday for an overnight stay.

Construction worker Jay Geiss watched news crews set up near the hotel while workers unloaded a palette of drywall at a building site on 2nd Street.

“I think police are trying to keep a low profile so they don’t mess with the hotel business,” he said. “That’s where he checked in and everyone is saying it’s where they found the bloody shower and sheets.”

McDonald’s employees on 2nd Street have a clear front door view of the Pierside from across the street. Apart from stray camera crews, multiple employees confirmed they hadn’t seen unusual activity in the area.

“We were wondering why all these cameras were standing there just recording an empty hotel,” one employee said.

It was supposed to be a weekend of celebration for Rob and Michele Reiner.

They attended Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party Saturday and planned to meet Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday night.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman announced on Tuesday that he would be filing murder charges against Nick Reiner, who allegedly killed his parents in their Brentwood home over the weekend.

“Today, I’m here to announce that our office will be filing charges against Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and photographer-producer Michel Singer Reiner,” Hochman said. “These charges will be two counts of first degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders. He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife.”

If convicted on all counts, Reiner faces life without parole or the death penalty.

A decision has not yet been made on whether prosecutors will pursue capital punishment, Hochman said.

Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead in their home over the weekend.

Their son was arrested and booked into county jail Sunday morning.

“He was found with good, solid police work, investigative tools used by robbery, homicide and gang and narcotics division detectives with the US Marshal Service Task Force involved as well,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.

The bodies of Rob and Michele Reiner were found in their bedroom, police said.

At the Los Angeles Police Department’s weekly Tuesday meeting, Asst. Chief Dominic Choi told commissioners that the couple’s bodies were found in the bedroom of their Brentwood home.

The Reiners were killed over the weekend and their son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested in connection with their slayings.

Nick Reiner was staying at the Pierside hotel in Santa Monica on Sunday, the same day his parents were found stabbed to death inside their Brentwood home, a source familiar with the investigation confirmed to The Times.

The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Nick Reiner’s presence at the hotel was part of the LAPD’s investigation into the killings of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.

A hotel employee said he had “no information” when reached by The Times on Tuesday. Representatives for the hotel have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Los Angeles police responded to the Reiner home in the 200 block of Chadbourne Avenue about 3:40 p.m. Sunday. Hours later, at around 9:15 p.m., authorities caught up with Nick Reiner in South Los Angeles near USC and took him into custody, according to a law enforcement source.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman and Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday to provide an update on the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner, according to a news release.

L.A. County prosecutors are expected to file murder charges against the couple’s son, Nick Reiner, on Tuesday, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

A criminal complaint had not been filed as of 10:40 p.m., court records show.

Prosecutors must file charges against Nick Reiner by the end of the day. By law, criminal charges have to be filed within 48 hours of an arrest if a suspect is held in police custody. Otherwise they must be released with limited exceptions.

Jail records show Reiner was arrested at 9:15 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14.

Reiner was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning, but was not “medically cleared” to travel to the courthouse, according to his attorney, Alan Jackson. Reiner may appear in court tomorrow. Jackson described the situation as “day to day.”

Reiner is being held in Men’s Central Jail, which is overseen by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department did not immediately comment on Reiner’s medical status.

Nick Reiner has retained famed defense attorney Alan Jackson to defend him in connection with his parents’ slayings , Jackson confirmed while being followed by a throng of media in the downtown Los Angeles criminal courthouse Tuesday morning.

L.A. County prosecutors are expected to file murder charges against Reiner on Tuesday, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Reiner was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning, according to jail records, but Jackson said his client had not been “medically cleared” to be transported from Men’s Central Jail.

“Every inmate has to be medically cleared before they can be transported to court. He has not been medically cleared,” said Jackson, who declined to respond to questions about his client’s mental health or physical condition.

As of 9:30 a.m., Jackson said he was not aware of any charges being filed. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jackson is a former L.A. prosecutor and high-profile defense attorney who defended Harvey Weinstein on rape charges.

While Jackson and his partner, Mark Werksman, failed to win an acquittal for Weinstein at his 2022 trial in L.A., he has had major success in other high-profile trials. Earlier this year, Jackson secured an acquittal on second degree murder charges for Karen Read, who was charged with killing her boyfriend, a Boston police officer.

During an interview with late night host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday, former First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that she and Barack Obama were supposed to see the Reiners Sunday evening, the night they were killed.

“We’ve known them for many, many years,” she told Kimmel.

Obama then appeared to push back to President Trump’s comments on the couple’s death, which included calling Rob Reiner “deranged”.

“Let me just say this: Unlike some people, Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know,” Obama told Kimmel. “They are not deranged or crazed. What they have always been are passionate people who, in a time when there’s not a lot of courage going on, they were the kind of people who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about. And they cared about their family. And they cared about this country. And they cared about fairness and equity. And that is the truth.”

Actor and director Rob Reiner felt so passionately that every child deserves a rich education from an early age that he mused nearly three decades ago that he might be happy giving up filmmaking to devote the rest of his life to the cause of early childhood development.

Nick Reiner spent years struggling with addiction and with help from his father, Hollywood legend Rob Reiner, told his story to the world.

On Monday, Nick was booked into the L.A. County jail on suspicion of murder, hours after his father and mother, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead inside their Brentwood home.

Rob Reiner was 20 minutes into a video podcast promoting his new film — a semi-autobiographical tale of a famous dad and his drug-addicted son — when the interviewer asked what his son Nick, who co-wrote the movie, learned from it.

Reiner pointed just off-screen. Nick, then 22, had been there the whole time.

“He’s right here. You can ask him,” Reiner said in the 2016 interview with comedian Paul Mecurio about the film, “Being Charlie.”

Like many Angelenos, Jocelyn McAllister was shocked to hear of a double homicide in Brentwood, but then she checked herself.

“Are we so prejudiced that we would think this could only happen in a certain neighborhood?” she asked.

McAllister does not live in Brentwood but walked down the Reiners’ street on her way home from an appointment.

The revelation that the Reiners’ own son was arrested in connection with the killings undermined the sense of security that comes from tall fences and thick hedges.

“You see the hedges -- but what do you need hedges for when it comes to your own child?” McAllister said.

The Reiner’s’ deaths prompted McAllister to think about how families deal with issues of addiction and mental illness, no matter how wealthy they are. A mother of three, she found herself wondering Monday morning about how parents cope with a child who is homeless, for example.

“You can only do so much as a parent,” she said.

McAllister said she believed Rob Reiner would be remembered for the “lightness” of his movies, which brought her and many others happiness and laughs when she needed them.

“I heard someone say that people won’t remember you for who you are, but how you made them feel,” she said.

L.A. police announced that Rob Reiner’s son Nick had been arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents. Nick Reiner, 32, cycled in and out of rehab centers and experienced bouts of homelessness as a teenager.

Rob Reiner was a movie director who began as an actor who wanted to direct movies. The bridge between these careers was “This Is Spinal Tap” in 1984, his first proper film, in which he also acted. His original inclination, based on the music documentaries he had studied, had been not to appear onscreen, but he decided there was practical value in greeting the audience with a face familiar from eight seasons of “All in the Family” as Archie Bunker’s left-wing son-in-law, Michael “Meathead” Stivic.

Reiner’s television career began at 21, partnered with Steve Martin, writing for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” As an actor, his early years were characterized by the small parts and guest shots that describe the early career of many performers we come to know well. He played multiple characters on episodes of “That Girl” and “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” a delivery boy on “Batman,” and appeared on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Room 222.” His last such role, in 1971, the same year “All in the Family” premiered, was on “The Partridge Family” as a tender-hearted, poetry-writing, tattooed biker who becomes attached to Susan Dey‘s character and somewhat improbably takes her to a school dance. It’s a performance that prefigures the tenderness and humanity that would become a signature of his work as a writer, director and performer — and, seemingly, a person.

Nick Reiner was apprehended in South Los Angeles near a Metro station and USC on Sunday night, around 15 miles from the scene of his parents’ deaths, according to a law enforcement source.

Reiner, 32, who was arrested around 9:15 p.m., was found and taken into custody by officers with the L.A. Police Department’s Gang and Narcotics Division along with a U.S. Marshals task force that typically searches for fugitives, according to the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, and records.

Reiner, accused of murder in the stabbing deaths of parents Rob and Michele Singer Reiner, was not at the couple’s home when law enforcement initially responded to the 911 call around 3:40 p.m. Sunday reporting the scene of violence at the Brentwood residence.

He is being held in L.A. County jail without bail, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and jail records.

Actor Billy Crystal, a longtime friend and collaborator of Rob Reiner, was one of the first people family members reached out to after calling 911, according to sources familiar with the events.

He arrived at the scene Sunday evening to comfort family members, according to a family friend and a law enforcement source. Crystal was described as devastated by the violent turn of events and left the home in tears.

Reiner and Crystal met in the 1970s on the sitcom “All in the Family,” in which Reiner played a lead role and Crystal later joined as a guest star.

The friends later collaborated on “When Harry Met Sally,” directed by Reiner and starring Crystal as the romantic lead. Elements of the film were inspired by their own conversations and quirks.

For example, the late-night phone conversations that Harry and Sally share as they compare thoughts on “Casablanca” were drawn from Reiner and Crystal’s habit of comparing notes over the phone as they watched TV.

Rob Reiner, left, and Billy Crystal at the premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” on Sept. 9 at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles.

(Richard Shotwell / Invision/AP)

The pair spoke to The Times about the movie and their friendship in 1989, describing how they went from on-set pals to being part of each others’ support systems.

“Comedy might have been the initial thing that drew us together,” Reiner said, “but now there is so much more going on, it is almost like the comedy is almost secondary now, it really takes a tremendous back seat.”

Crystal concurred that they were two peas in a pod.

“Rob and I are like Spin and Marty,” he said, a reference to the “Mickey Mouse Club” serial. “If we lived next door to each other, we’d be connected with two paper cups and a string.”

The duo remained friends for decades and often appeared together at public events.

Nick Reiner, accused in the killings of his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner, spoke in 2018 about the fallout from his struggles with drug addiction — including relapsing, an airborne medical emergency, and trashing his parents’ guesthouse.

In a Dopey podcast interview seven years ago, then-24-year-old Reiner called in to the program to talk about his experience of relapsing on methamphetamine. The podcast focuses on addiction and recovery.

Reiner said he remembered that, about a year before, he was taking “cocaine and something else” and was up for days on end.

“I started punching out different things in my guesthouse. ... I started with the TV and then I went over to the lamp and then progressed,” Reiner said on the podcast. “Everything in the house got wrecked.”

That prompted him to leave Los Angeles for a recovery center in Boston in an effort to get sober.

But on his plane ride to Boston, Reiner said he was on meth and suboxone, a prescription medication to treat opioid addiction, and while airborne he said he had a heart attack.

“I literally passed out on the plane and I woke up in a hospital [in Boston],” he said.

After the hospital in Boston, Reiner said he ended up in a sober living home in Maine. But the goal of recovery was in vain because he said he just wanted to go home.

“Wanted to go back to my old life of smoking weed, kind of taking some pills, like doing whatever I wanted,” he said.

Months before his slaying, Rob Reiner talked about the power of forgiveness after the “horrific” assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

“Horror. An absolute horror,” the director, actor and political activist said when asked about the shooting in a TV interview with Piers Morgan. “I unfortunately saw the video of it and it’s beyond belief what happened to him, and that should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are. That’s not acceptable.”

Whether you sat across the table from him or across the aisle, Rob Reiner left no doubt about what he cared about and was willing to fight for.

I had lunch with him once at Pete’s Cafe in downtown L.A., where he was far less interested in what was on his plate than what was on his mind. He was advocating for local investments in early childhood development programs, using funds from the tobacco tax created by Proposition 10 in 1998, which he helped spearhead.

Family friends of the Reiners who did not want to be identified because of the nature of the crime said the couple’s 28-year-old daughter, Romy, was the first on the scene Sunday afternoon.

L.A. Police Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said that the initial 911 call came from inside the house. Law enforcement sources told The Times that there was no sign of forced entry into the home in the 200 block of Chadbourne Avenue.

The sources also said the Reiners had injuries consistent with being stabbed.

Nick Reiner was not at the home when police arrived, according to the law enforcement sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly. He was later found at an undisclosed location and taken into custody at 9:15 p.m. Sunday.

Romy Reiner, is the youngest child of filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner.

Unlike her father and brothers, Romy has largely remained out of the public eye and has not pursued a known career in film or television, making only occasional appearances at family events and tributes.

In a 2015 interview at the Toronto Film Festival, she told The Times that Nick was her best friend. The family came to the festival to promote “Being Charlie,” a scripted film based on Nick’s struggles with addiction.

“I was there for all of it,” Romy said. “It’s weird but good to see it on the screen.”

The film was directed by Rob and written by Nick. It tells the story of a father who is a successful actor and a son who has lost himself to a life of drugs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke about his relationship with Rob and Michele Singer Reiner on Monday, saying he had been on a Zoom call with as recently as a few weeks ago.

“I’m just reminded about how consistent they’ve been, how constant they’ve been for the cause of not just protecting democracy, but promoting well-being — social justice, racial justice, economic justice,” Newsom said.

The governor recalled feeling isolated when he supported same-sex marriage as San Francisco mayor in 2004, saying Rob Reiner was one of the first people to reach out with support.

“That’s how I got to know him,” Newsom said, adding that the filmmaker “had my back at a time when a lot of members of my own party, the Democratic Party, didn’t. And so he’s been a friend for decades.”

Newsom made the comments during a virtual news conference Monday announcing a California-led public health initiative.

“It just breaks my heart,” Newsom added. “We don’t know enough. But if indeed it’s a member of their own family, how do you unpack that?”

I think about Rob Reiner almost every time I put on my socks.

I am old enough to remember the famously hilarious (and largely improvised) bit from “All in the Family” in which Reiner’s Mike “Meathead” Stivic and Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker argue about the correct order of donning footwear — both socks first (Archie’s method) or sock/shoe, sock/shoe (Mike’s).

Local and national political leaders slammed President Trump’s polarizing statement on the sudden deaths of Rob and Michele Singer Reiner.

On Monday, Trump said on Truth Social that the couple’s deaths were reportedly due to the anger Reiner “caused others through his incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome.”

In response, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump a “sick man” in a post on X.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the Reiners’ deaths a tragedy.

“In moments of loss, decency matters,” Bass said on X. “Donald Trump’s response in this moment shows there is no bottom, no depth he will not sink to, even in the face of grief.”

Trump’s bizarre criticism came as many are still mourning the deaths of the couple and the news that their son Nick Reiner was booked on suspicion of homicide early Monday morning.

Some Republican leaders have also called out Trump for his comments.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has been at odds with the president, said on X that this was “a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.”

In her post, Greene said that many families deal with a family member who has drug addiction and mental health issues.

“It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder,” she said.

In interviews, Nick Reiner — who had struggled with addiction for years — has described his experience of cycling in and out of rehab centers as well as homelessness in his youth.

At the time of his parents’ deaths, Reiner was living in a guesthouse on their property. In recent weeks, his mother had expressed concerns about Nick’s mental health, family friends told The Times.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) said the president’s comments about Reiner were “inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered.”

“I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid?” Massie said on X. “I challenge anyone to defend it.”

Less than a day after Rob Reiner, a fixture in Hollywood and a political activist, was found dead with wife Michele Singer Reiner, President Trump went on social media and blamed the deaths on Reiner’s “anger.”

The president said the couple’s death was “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome.”

“He was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

The couple was found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Sunday. On Monday morning, police arrested Rob Reiner’s son, Nick, 32, on suspicion of murder.

Hours after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found dead in their home in what is shaping up to be a heartbreaking family tragedy, our president blamed Reiner for his own death.

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS,” President Trump wrote on his social media platform. “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

Over his five-decade career, Rob Reiner — who was found dead Sunday at his Brentwood home along with his wife, Michele — never stayed put, roving from music spoofs (“This Is Spinal Tap”) to horror movies (“Misery”), political thrillers (“A Few Good Men”) to coming-of-age dramas (“Stand by Me”) and romantic comedies both glibly teenaged (“The Sure Thing”) and bracingly adult (“When Harry Met Sally…”). Reiner bobbed and weaved and, in the process of entertaining himself, directed at least one of everyone’s favorite movies.

If I was marooned on an island and could bring only one film from the entire history of Hollywood, I’d choose Reiner’s 1987 adventure “The Princess Bride.” That swashbuckler perfectly executes each of the above genres — and fantasy, too. It’s everything you’d want from the movies in one title, all in under 100 minutes.

Rob Reiner was born into the lineage of comedy thanks to his father, television pioneer Carl Reiner, and he first gained recognition as an actor, including his Emmy-winning role on “All in the Family.” And while there is certainly a streak of humor through almost all of his films, what marks Reiner’s work as a director is his astonishing versatility, able to switch styles from one project to the next with remarkable ease. The run of films that begins with his feature directing debut, 1984’s “This Is Spinal Tap,” on through 1986’s “Stand by Me,” 1987’s “The Princess Bride,” 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally...,” 1990’s “Misery,” 1992’s “A Few Good Men” and 1995’s “The American President” is simply breathtaking for its mastery across the spectrum of popular Hollywood moviemaking.

Movies

Rob Reiner, ‘When Harry Met Sally’ director, ‘All in the Family’ actor and political activist, dead at 78

Rob Reiner, a Hollywood scion who directed films including ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘The Princess Bride,’ was found dead with his wife Sunday in Brentwood. He was 78.

Dec. 15, 2025

More details are emerging about the killing of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, on Sunday. Their son Nick has been arrested on suspicion of murder, though police have provided few details.

Here is a timeline of what we know:

Rob Reiner was known to millions as a TV actor and film director.

But the Brentwood resident, known for the classic films “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally...,” was also a political force, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes and a Democratic Party activist who went beyond the typical role of celebrities who host glitzy fundraisers.

In the world that Rob Reiner built, amplifiers went “up to 11.” People readily ordered “what she’s having.” Courtrooms couldn’t “handle the truth,” comedy and drama traded places seamlessly and liberal ideals born in the 1960s and ‘70s formed the gold standard of politics.

A writer, director, producer, actor and political activist whose career in Hollywood spanned more than six decades and included some of the most iconic titles in movie history, Reiner was found dead Sunday afternoon with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, at the home they shared in Brentwood. He was 78.