The last detail in this case is not cinematic — it is administrative: prosecutors say they are still waiting on the coroner's report. And yet the stakes, already grotesque, have escalated into the most blunt American question of all: whether the state should try to kill the man it says killed Rob and Michele Reiner.
Rob Reiner, 78, the director behind The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were found dead at their Brentwood home in Los Angeles on Dec. 14, 2025. Their son, Nick Reiner, 32, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special-circumstance allegations that make the case eligible for life without parole — or the death penalty.
Inside the Nick Reiner Murder Trial Update
Nick Reiner appeared in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday and pleaded not guilty. The judge set April 29 as the next court date, linked to the preliminary-hearing schedule — a procedural stage where prosecutors preview evidence and a judge decides whether the case should proceed.
The Reiners' bodies were discovered after police were called to the home on South Chadbourne Avenue, in Brentwood, around 3:40 p.m., according to the LAPD. Detectives say Nick Reiner was located and arrested at approximately 9:15 p.m. that same day. The medical examiner said both victims died of 'multiple sharp force injuries,' and authorities have described the killings as a stabbing.
A Death Sentence
Outside court, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman did not pretend the decision would be casual. 'This case is a death penalty eligible case,' he told reporters, adding that his office takes the process 'extremely seriously' and that it goes through 'a very rigorous process.' Hochman also said the case remained 'on track' and that prosecutors had turned over 'the bulk of discovery' to the defense while they 'are now waiting for the coroner's report.'
That one phrase — 'death penalty eligible' — lands differently in California than it would in, say, Texas. Executions have been under a governor's moratorium since 2019, after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a halt and withdrew the state's lethal injection protocol. So yes, capital punishment is still legal on paper, but the machinery is deliberately jammed.
And yet Hochman has also made clear he wants the option back in play: in March 2025, he rescinded the previous DA administration's categorical policy against seeking the death penalty, saying it would be considered only after extensive review and in rare cases. The Reiner case — two killings, one defendant and allegations involving a knife — sits squarely in the kind of 'special circumstance' territory prosecutors point to when they argue a case is among the worst.
Away from the legal arguments is the part that does not fit neatly into any courtroom exhibit: the surviving family. In a statement released after the deaths, Rob and Michele Reiner's other children, Jake and Romy Reiner, described 'unimaginable pain' and said their parents 'weren't just our parents; they were our best friends.'
Conan O'Brien, who saw the couple at his holiday party shortly before they were killed, put a human voice on the whiplash. 'To have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they're gone... I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward,' he said. In this case, 'shock' is not a dramatic flourish — it is the only honest word left, as prosecutors and defense lawyers wait for a document that will help decide whether the state asks for death, or settles for the long, punishing substitute of life.
