By Steve Gorman and Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Prosecutors said on Tuesday they have ruled out seeking the death penalty in the murder case against Nick Reiner, accused of fatally stabbing his parents, Hollywood filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer-producer Michele Singer Reiner, in their home in December.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office had taken into account the wishes of the slain couple’s two surviving children, Jake Reiner, 35, and sister Romy Reiner, 28, as well as unspecified mitigating factors, in reaching its decision.
“We did speak with Nick Reiner’s siblings; they made their views very clear,” Hochman told reporters outside a downtown Los Angeles courthouse.
“This decision reflects our careful judgment about the most appropriate path to take in this case and does not diminish the severity of these crimes,” the DA said in a statement.
The maximum penalty Reiner now faces if convicted would be life in prison without the possibility of parole, Hochman said, adding that a trial was unlikely to begin before next year.
The announcement came shortly before Nick Reiner, 33, appeared in court for a hearing during which prosecutors also officially informed the presiding judge they would not seek capital punishment in the case.
The defendant, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, sat beside his lawyer, shackled to his seat dressed in brown jail garb during the hearing, and answered “yes” in a soft voice to several procedural questions from Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta.
ORIGINS OF CASE
His parents, Rob Reiner, 78, and wife Michele Reiner, 70, were found stabbed to death on December 14 in their mansion in the upscale West LA neighborhood of Brentwood, marking one of the most shocking celebrity homicide cases in Los Angeles history.
Nick Reiner, who has acknowledged a years-long struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues, was arrested later that day and charged with the killings. He was widely reported to have quarreled with his parents while the three were attending a holiday party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien the night before the couple were slain.
He was formally indicted by a grand jury earlier this month, clearing the way for prosecutors to bring the case to trial without the extra step of having to convince a judge that sufficient evidence exists to establish probable cause.
Hochman said Nick Reiner’s siblings have urged the court to keep the grand jury transcripts sealed to avoid public disclosure of details of their parents’ killings that would “cause them additional trauma.”
The judge said his final decision on whether to unseal the transcripts would await further proceedings on any motion the news media may bring to make the records public.
The next hearing on the case, including pleadings on the matter of grand jury transcripts, was set for October 7.
Rob Reiner, a prominent Democratic Party activist and donor, gained fame as a co-star in the 1970s hit television comedy “All in the Family” and later directed popular films including “When Harry Met Sally,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride.”
Hollywood paid tribute to the couple at Monday night’s Emmy Awards show. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis called Rob Reiner “generous and kind and funny as hell” and noted that he won a posthumous Emmy a week earlier for his guest comedic appearance as a restaurant consultant on “The Bear.”
The win set a new Emmy record for the longest gap between acting awards, with Rob Reiner’s last Emmy coming 48 years ago for his “All in the Family” role as Mike “Meathead” Stivic, the son-in-law and liberal foil of the lead character, working-class bigot Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor.
The previous record holder was his father, the television comedy pioneer Carl Reiner, who won Emmys 37 years apart.
Although capital punishment remains on the books in California, nobody has been put to death in the state since 2006, and Governor Gavin Newsom imposed an indefinite moratorium on executions in 2019.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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