Nick Reiner has been indicted in the killings of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, who were fatally stabbed inside the family’s Brentwood home last December.
Reiner, 32, made a brief appearance on the 13th floor of downtown Los Angeles’ criminal courts building on the newly released indictment, which replaces the original murder counts filed in 2025.
The new indictment includes the allegation of lying in wait, a special circumstance that makes a person at sentencing eligible for life without parole or the death penalty.
Rob and Michele were found stabbed to death on Dec. 14, and their son was arrested in Exposition Park roughly 12 hours later.
The indictment allows prosecutors to avoid a preliminary hearing and speeds up the process for the case to proceed to trial. It also avoids witnesses appearing publicly and testifying about the bloody circumstances and history of Nick Reiner.
“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”
Reiner pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait after the indictment was unsealed. The indictment returned July 20 also includes a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife.
A motive in the slayings has not been made public, though Nick Reiner had spoken publicly about his struggles with mental health and addiction.
The father and son worked together to create the 2015 film “Being Charlie,” in which characters that were thinly veiled versions of Rob and Nick explored how drugs could damage a relationship between a successful actor and his privileged son who was in the throes of addiction.
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