A mediator will decide whether Nick Reiner can use money set aside by his parents to defend himself when he stands trial for their murders.
Lawyers for Reiner and the trust told a judge Friday morning they have reached an agreement for “global mediation” that will begin in mid-December. A judge would still have to approve the terms of any settlement.
Reiner, 32, has said he wants $558,000 that the trust was supposed to disburse in 2023 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. Jackson withdrew as Reiner’s counsel due to the financial issue and was replaced by L.A. County Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene.
Authorities say Reiner stabbed his parents to death in their Brentwood home last December. A motive in the killing has not been made public. Reiner was indicted on murder charges earlier this year and faces life without the possibility of parole if convicted at trial. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said last month he will not pursue the death penalty in the Reiner case.
Representatives for the trust have argued Reiner is barred from accessing the fund due to California’s so-called Slayer Statute, which blocks convicted killers from profiting from their crimes in various ways, including through inheritance claims.
Reiner’s legal team has argued the statute doesn’t apply because he hasn’t been convicted. The money he is seeking was also covered by a disbursement he was supposed to be given on his 30th birthday, in September 2023, more than two years before the murders, according to his lawyers. They have said that Reiner simply didn’t claim the money at the time.
“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 a motion filed earlier this year. “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.”
Lauriann Wright, an attorney representing the current trustee, said she believes the parties can come to an agreement for disbursement of some of the funds Reiner would have been eligible for prior to the murders, but anything beyond that will be “harder to settle.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ruben Garcia set a March 2027 court date to decide whether to approve the settlement.
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