Nick Reiner is asking a court to grant him access to a trust fund set up by his parents so he can defend himself on charges he killed them, arguing the money was owed long before the slayings, according to court filings that were recently made public.
Reiner, 32, said he wants $558,000 that the trust was supposed to disburse three years ago so he can rehire prominent criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson to defend him against charges he killed Rob and Michele Reiner in the family’s Brentwood home last December, according to the filing.
In the filing, Reiner argues any order freezing him out from the funds would be unconstitutional, as it denies a “presumed-innocent man” access to his “own untainted money until after a trial at which his liberty will be decided.”
The filing was first reported Monday night by NBC. Jackson, who dropped out as Reiner’s counsel earlier this year and was replaced by the L.A. County Public Defender’s Office, declined to comment.
Reiner launched a court battle for the funds earlier this year, but those managing the trust argue he is barred from accessing it under what’s known as California’s Slayer statute, which prevents people from collecting inheritances or otherwise profiting off their crimes.
Reiner argues the statute doesn’t apply because he hasn’t been convicted, and the money he seeks was owed on his 30th birthday, in September 2023, before his parents were killed.
“This case is not about the far larger Reiner family trusts, which hold the assets of Nick’s parents’ estate and the inheritances they left their children,” his attorneys argued in the motion. “This case is about money Nick’s parents separately set aside for him alone and made irrevocable, to be paid to him on two fixed dates: one-half at 30, and the balance at 35.”
Reiner allegedly stabbed his parents in the middle of the night on Dec. 14. He was arrested in Exposition Park about 12 hours after his sister, Romy, discovered the bodies, police have said. A grand jury indicted Reiner on murder charges last month and upheld an allegation that he “lay in wait” to ambush his parents.
Prosecutors have offered no information about a possible motive in the case.
Reiner has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said last week he will not pursue the death penalty at trial.
The request for access to the trust fund money will be heard Oct. 23.
Joshua Ritter, a former L.A. County prosecutor, said he believes Reiner’s interpretation of the slayer law is correct, but wondered if the trust might have other safeguards that would prevent him from from accessing the funds, given his well-documented drug and mental health issues.
“The guy was a total wreck,” Ritter said. “You would imagine they built a trust with discretion.”
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