Nick Reiner was indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury on murder charges in the killings of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. The indictment added a lying-in-wait allegation, and it was unsealed on Wednesday after being returned on July 20.
That added allegation matters because it changes the case prosecutors can present. It also makes Reiner eligible for the death penalty, even though prosecutors have not decided whether to seek it.
Nathan Hochman on the indictment
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the case “a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,”. He also 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,”.
The grand jury route lets prosecutors skip California’s preliminary hearing process. That shifts the case from an early court review toward trial preparation, with the indictment now doing the work that a preliminary hearing would otherwise have handled.
Rob and Michele Reiner
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were stabbed to death in their home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles on December 14. Nick Reiner was arrested hours later and charged two days later. The indictment also includes an allegation that he used a knife in the killing.
The indictment did not say how or why Reiner was lying in wait. That leaves the prosecution with a sharper charge and the public with the same open question that has followed the case from the start: what happened before the killings inside the home.
