January 7, 2026 • 12 mins
This is a developing story: Nick Reiner was supposed to enter a plea in court today. Instead, his famed attorney stepped down. But on his way out, he told reporters that Reiner is "not guilty" in the deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner. Amy and T.J. go over the details from inside the courtroom and where the case goes from here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, folks. Sit is Wednesday, January seventh, and the
news he was coming on this day. Nick Reiner is
not guilty, according to his ex lawyer trying to piece
that together on what was a pretty stunning day in court.
Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rose. The
(00:24):
death of Rob Reiner and his wife was December fourteenth.
Don't have that right. So here we are. It's ben
sever week. He still hasn't entered a plea and we
thought we were finally going to hear it today and
then boom, he needs a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, we were all waiting for this arraignment hearing, this
long awaited arraignment hearing. It's almost been a month since
Rob and Michelle Reiner were brutally stabbed to death. And
so yes, we were waiting to hear. Is Nick Reiner
going to plead not guilty by reason of insanity or
give some sort of indication as to where his defense
(00:56):
was going. A lot of folks were waiting to hear
what we would find out, And what we found out
was what we weren't expecting at all. That his high
profile LA attorney who represented Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey
and just so many other high profile folks is now
no longer representing Nick Reiner.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We don't know why. Don't know why, but he came
in and told the judge had had no choice in
the matter, had to be done. The judge said okay
and allowed him to remove himself as counsel of records.
So Nick Briner case, this high profile, this big of
a deal double murder, has a public defender right now,
(01:40):
and that public defender is going to be the one
who stays with him at least through the arraignment. It
sounds like, don't know if he'll good another lawyer, but
ropes this. Even if you don't know who this lawyer is,
you know this lawyer. He's a LA dude, Right, there's
just some LA lawyers who represent high profile folks. He
looks every bit that part with the sue and that
(02:01):
he's just that guy. So when we heard that Nick
Reiner hired this guy, like, wow, what defense is he
going to come up with? Because we knew it was
going to be something.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yes, and when you have that kind of a lawyer
with that kind of a name and that kind of
book hailing from LA, you know it's going to require
that kind of money, because not everybody can hire Alan
Jackson to defend them. And it turns out now it
looks like we don't know the official reason why he
stepped away. But I did tell you I was reading
(02:33):
in the New York Times and I think this is interesting.
They this is how they put it. It may suggest
that the Reiner family, Nick has two siblings. Of course,
we know that they spoke out after the deaths of
their parents. They say that this move may suggest that
the family has distanced itself from Nick Reiner and his
legal case, at least financially. They're suggesting this was a
(02:56):
money issue, and if Nick Reiner didn't have the financial
support of his siblings or at least members of the
Reiner family who do have access to money, then he
is left without the ability to pay a high profile attorney.
That is one possibility.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
This is going to be expensive, and this is going
to go on for months, could be years that you
need this representation. And I was surprised when he got
this guy, but I was so curious to hear what
he was going to come up with. And we thought
maybe some breadcrumbs were put out there for it intanny defense.
But he this lawyer came out after stepping down, said
(03:33):
to reporters outside that Nick Reiner is not guilty of
these charges. What does he mean by that?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There have been a lot of reports that have been
leaked out about Nick Reiner's diagnosed or schizophrenia diagnosis that
happened within the last couple of years, that he was
on medication, that his medication had just been adjusted or
changed in the weeks leading up to the deaths of
his parents. It seemed as though with these probably specifically
(04:04):
positioned leaks of information, they were setting up the possibility of, yes,
some sort of insanity defense, that he was off his meds,
that he is schizophrenic, that he did not know what
he was doing. That seemed like that was where it
was headed. But now we are left with no answers.
Alan Jackson said this specifically, I am legally and I
(04:27):
am ethically prohibited from explaining all the reasons why. I
know that's a question on everybody's mind. Why, yeah, why
are you now leaving?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And I actually don't know, I mean, attorney client something
in there, some agreement he can't speak on it. I'm
so curious, can you not just say, Look, he couldn't
afford me. You don't want to come out and say that,
but it might be the case. Is there some other
conflict of interest going on behind the scenes? Did he decide,
you know what, I can't help you that I can
do who knows well?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And we were talking talking about that, and you know,
you remember Alan Jackson represented Harvey Weinstein. That's probably one
of the more despicable clients that he had in terms
of what a lot of people look at when they
see who defense attorneys take on. So if he was
willing to take on Harvey Weinstein, it's hard to imagine
that somehow he wouldn't ethically be able to take on
(05:20):
Nick Grant. And that defense attorneys always say every single
person in this country, regardless of what they're accused of,
as heinous as it is, deserves a fair trial. So
I think most of those attorneys will absolutely swear by that,
and I'm sure Alan Jackson is of that same opinion,
because that is what defense attorneys do. They get into
the business knowing they're going to have to hold their
(05:41):
nose sometimes and maybe take some incoming for people questioning
how could you defend someone like X y Z. So
it's I doubt I highly doubt that someone of his
stature would shy away from a case like this because
of the notoriety of that.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I give you that for sure. This is how you
earn your money. This is how you get all the
cameras on you and you show what you can do. So, yeah,
this is the arena that these guys live for. So surprised,
surprise he got hired in the first place, and in surprise,
this is a shocker today because we were expecting something
different he was in court to that, I think you
read more about the descriptions of what Nick Reiner how
(06:18):
he appeared in court today.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yes, so those who were in the court room described
him as with a he had a newly shaved head,
he had a five o'clock shadow. But what was most
interesting to me is he was described as on the
verge of tears during this particular court appearance where his
attorney was saying, I am no longer representing Nick Reiner
(06:41):
and he was assigned this public defender. And yes, they
described him as very emotional, which, look, we have It
just seems like in recent months we've covered these high
profile cases and court hearings and even trials, and one
of the things that always stands out is so many
of these defendants are should lists. So when you see
(07:02):
someone and look, he is accused of murdering his parents,
I can't think of anything much worse than that, or
murdering members of your own family. You can understand as
a human why he would feel emotional. But he didn't
appear to be that way beforehand. Who knows what's going on.
Who knows if this was about his attorney, if maybe
remorse has set in, if he is guilty of the
(07:23):
crimes he's accused of, if maybe he feels now like
his whole family has turned their back on him. Who
knows what's going on. But it was described he was
described as being on the verge of tears.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And the only I saw several headlines as well that
described him at some point having a smirk on his face. Right,
so look different. A bunch of reporters in that room,
and everybody had an opinion and an observation about what
they saw in that room. But this is now Robes,
This is where do we go because this is now
(07:55):
the new trial of the year kind of a situation here,
and all ready we already seeing how complicated it might
end up being.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, I was waiting for this arraignment hearing at eleven
thirty in the morning. I had pulled up the live
camera on my computer, and they kept showing the press
that was sitting outside because they had nothing else to show.
Because things were getting delayed. People didn't know what was
going on. We weren't getting worried about what was happening,
So the cameras were pointed at the media and this
(08:24):
was as large of a gaglet of press as you
could imagine. So, yes, this is a huge spectacle. There
is so much public interest in this, and most of
it is in understanding the why and what happened and
now the whereas another why is your lawyer now no
(08:45):
longer able to defend you? And even more mysteriously hearing
the lawyer say I can't ethically tell you why. That's
even more confusing.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
But also came out and said my ex client is
not guilty. So not the day we were expecting day
of headlines out of there. But in all of this,
of course, there are two victims, Rob and Michelle Reiner.
Everybody keeping them in their thoughts these days. But we
did hear from the family in a brief statement today
(09:13):
will tell you exactly what they said, and we'll tell
you the next time Nick Reiner is expected to be
in court.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Stay here, Welcome back everyone. We are talking about another
developing story with a twist that we weren't expecting. Nick
Reiner was supposed to finally enter a plea. He finally
(09:38):
had his arraignment hearing following the murders of his parents
in December December fourteenth, in the early hours of December fourteenth,
that is when police say Rob and Michelle Reiner were
brutally stabbed. They have charged the Reiner's son, thirty two
year old Nick, with their murders. And today, yes, we
were expecting a plea of some sort. We were supposed
(10:00):
to hear what he had to say. We might, We
thought we might get the first idea of what his
defense could look like. But his high powered, high profile attorney,
Alan Jackson told the court in a very shocking statement
that he was no longer going to be representing Nick,
and a lot was made of what was happening inside
that courtroom. Something of note in I believe in just
(10:22):
the last couple of days leading up to this arraignment hearing,
there were some things that had happened for Nick that
seemed positive. He was taken off of suicide watch. He
didn't have that suicide vest on him like we had
seen him in before. He had been in solitary confinement,
so it seemed as though perhaps maybe even his mental
state was improving and we were going to start to
see his defense form and instead we got a very
(10:45):
very different situation in court today.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
He's going to need a different lawyer. We've covered cases
where people are winning on appeals or at least making
a case during appeal that I didn't have good representation,
and we've seen the public defenders just have a look,
I got another load of work over here. That's paying
me more money than you're paying me for being a
public defender and not putting a lot of time. He's
going to need none of the lawyer. This is a
(11:09):
double homicide case with a possibility of the death penalty.
We don't know yet, but he's been charged with special
circumstances will at least allow the prosecutors to pursue the
death penalty if they want. I think the hold up,
at least as far as everything I've read, is don't
know if the family they want to check to see
if the family is on board with the death penalty,
(11:31):
and by all accounts, no, they wouldn't be. So maybe
that's why we don't have that answer yet. But we
have another what month and a half before he's in court.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Again, February twenty third. Now is his new arraignment. I
mean he was supposed to be arraigned almost immediately after
he was arrested. That got postponed and it was did
you get the sense that it was something about mental
health issues?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yes, we were basically told he wasn't ready even to
be in a courtroom. So it was postponed till today
January seventh, and now this new delay until February twenty third,
so we will not hear him arraigned, hear his plea,
We won't get any of that now for another what
almost six weeks, and.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He sits he is not getting bailed, so he will
have to stay in jail. That certainly makes sense in
a case like this. But yes, folks want to hop
on give this update. It's been a day of developments today,
unexpected ones, but we are eyes on it all. We
always appreciate you listening to us, and again top right
corner on your Apple podcast app where you see our
(12:36):
show page. You click follow and you can get our
updates and we might have a couple more. It appears
today and with that always appreciates you spending some time
with us. Some TJ. Holmes on behalf of Amy Robot.
I'll talk to y'all soon.
Hey there, folks. Sit is Wednesday, January seventh, and the
news he was coming on this day. Nick Reiner is
not guilty, according to his ex lawyer trying to piece
that together on what was a pretty stunning day in court.
Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rose. The
(00:24):
death of Rob Reiner and his wife was December fourteenth.
Don't have that right. So here we are. It's ben
sever week. He still hasn't entered a plea and we
thought we were finally going to hear it today and
then boom, he needs a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, we were all waiting for this arraignment hearing, this
long awaited arraignment hearing. It's almost been a month since
Rob and Michelle Reiner were brutally stabbed to death. And
so yes, we were waiting to hear. Is Nick Reiner
going to plead not guilty by reason of insanity or
give some sort of indication as to where his defense
(00:56):
was going. A lot of folks were waiting to hear
what we would find out, And what we found out
was what we weren't expecting at all. That his high
profile LA attorney who represented Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey
and just so many other high profile folks is now
no longer representing Nick Reiner.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We don't know why. Don't know why, but he came
in and told the judge had had no choice in
the matter, had to be done. The judge said okay
and allowed him to remove himself as counsel of records.
So Nick Briner case, this high profile, this big of
a deal double murder, has a public defender right now,
(01:40):
and that public defender is going to be the one
who stays with him at least through the arraignment. It
sounds like, don't know if he'll good another lawyer, but
ropes this. Even if you don't know who this lawyer is,
you know this lawyer. He's a LA dude, Right, there's
just some LA lawyers who represent high profile folks. He
looks every bit that part with the sue and that
(02:01):
he's just that guy. So when we heard that Nick
Reiner hired this guy, like, wow, what defense is he
going to come up with? Because we knew it was
going to be something.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yes, and when you have that kind of a lawyer
with that kind of a name and that kind of
book hailing from LA, you know it's going to require
that kind of money, because not everybody can hire Alan
Jackson to defend them. And it turns out now it
looks like we don't know the official reason why he
stepped away. But I did tell you I was reading
(02:33):
in the New York Times and I think this is interesting.
They this is how they put it. It may suggest
that the Reiner family, Nick has two siblings. Of course,
we know that they spoke out after the deaths of
their parents. They say that this move may suggest that
the family has distanced itself from Nick Reiner and his
legal case, at least financially. They're suggesting this was a
(02:56):
money issue, and if Nick Reiner didn't have the financial
support of his siblings or at least members of the
Reiner family who do have access to money, then he
is left without the ability to pay a high profile attorney.
That is one possibility.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
This is going to be expensive, and this is going
to go on for months, could be years that you
need this representation. And I was surprised when he got
this guy, but I was so curious to hear what
he was going to come up with. And we thought
maybe some breadcrumbs were put out there for it intanny defense.
But he this lawyer came out after stepping down, said
(03:33):
to reporters outside that Nick Reiner is not guilty of
these charges. What does he mean by that?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There have been a lot of reports that have been
leaked out about Nick Reiner's diagnosed or schizophrenia diagnosis that
happened within the last couple of years, that he was
on medication, that his medication had just been adjusted or
changed in the weeks leading up to the deaths of
his parents. It seemed as though with these probably specifically
(04:04):
positioned leaks of information, they were setting up the possibility of, yes,
some sort of insanity defense, that he was off his meds,
that he is schizophrenic, that he did not know what
he was doing. That seemed like that was where it
was headed. But now we are left with no answers.
Alan Jackson said this specifically, I am legally and I
(04:27):
am ethically prohibited from explaining all the reasons why. I
know that's a question on everybody's mind. Why, yeah, why
are you now leaving?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And I actually don't know, I mean, attorney client something
in there, some agreement he can't speak on it. I'm
so curious, can you not just say, Look, he couldn't
afford me. You don't want to come out and say that,
but it might be the case. Is there some other
conflict of interest going on behind the scenes? Did he decide,
you know what, I can't help you that I can
do who knows well?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And we were talking talking about that, and you know,
you remember Alan Jackson represented Harvey Weinstein. That's probably one
of the more despicable clients that he had in terms
of what a lot of people look at when they
see who defense attorneys take on. So if he was
willing to take on Harvey Weinstein, it's hard to imagine
that somehow he wouldn't ethically be able to take on
(05:20):
Nick Grant. And that defense attorneys always say every single
person in this country, regardless of what they're accused of,
as heinous as it is, deserves a fair trial. So
I think most of those attorneys will absolutely swear by that,
and I'm sure Alan Jackson is of that same opinion,
because that is what defense attorneys do. They get into
the business knowing they're going to have to hold their
(05:41):
nose sometimes and maybe take some incoming for people questioning
how could you defend someone like X y Z. So
it's I doubt I highly doubt that someone of his
stature would shy away from a case like this because
of the notoriety of that.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I give you that for sure. This is how you
earn your money. This is how you get all the
cameras on you and you show what you can do. So, yeah,
this is the arena that these guys live for. So surprised,
surprise he got hired in the first place, and in surprise,
this is a shocker today because we were expecting something
different he was in court to that, I think you
read more about the descriptions of what Nick Reiner how
(06:18):
he appeared in court today.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yes, so those who were in the court room described
him as with a he had a newly shaved head,
he had a five o'clock shadow. But what was most
interesting to me is he was described as on the
verge of tears during this particular court appearance where his
attorney was saying, I am no longer representing Nick Reiner
(06:41):
and he was assigned this public defender. And yes, they
described him as very emotional, which, look, we have It
just seems like in recent months we've covered these high
profile cases and court hearings and even trials, and one
of the things that always stands out is so many
of these defendants are should lists. So when you see
(07:02):
someone and look, he is accused of murdering his parents,
I can't think of anything much worse than that, or
murdering members of your own family. You can understand as
a human why he would feel emotional. But he didn't
appear to be that way beforehand. Who knows what's going on.
Who knows if this was about his attorney, if maybe
remorse has set in, if he is guilty of the
(07:23):
crimes he's accused of, if maybe he feels now like
his whole family has turned their back on him. Who
knows what's going on. But it was described he was
described as being on the verge of tears.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And the only I saw several headlines as well that
described him at some point having a smirk on his face. Right,
so look different. A bunch of reporters in that room,
and everybody had an opinion and an observation about what
they saw in that room. But this is now Robes,
This is where do we go because this is now
(07:55):
the new trial of the year kind of a situation here,
and all ready we already seeing how complicated it might
end up being.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, I was waiting for this arraignment hearing at eleven
thirty in the morning. I had pulled up the live
camera on my computer, and they kept showing the press
that was sitting outside because they had nothing else to show.
Because things were getting delayed. People didn't know what was
going on. We weren't getting worried about what was happening,
So the cameras were pointed at the media and this
(08:24):
was as large of a gaglet of press as you
could imagine. So, yes, this is a huge spectacle. There
is so much public interest in this, and most of
it is in understanding the why and what happened and
now the whereas another why is your lawyer now no
(08:45):
longer able to defend you? And even more mysteriously hearing
the lawyer say I can't ethically tell you why. That's
even more confusing.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
But also came out and said my ex client is
not guilty. So not the day we were expecting day
of headlines out of there. But in all of this,
of course, there are two victims, Rob and Michelle Reiner.
Everybody keeping them in their thoughts these days. But we
did hear from the family in a brief statement today
(09:13):
will tell you exactly what they said, and we'll tell
you the next time Nick Reiner is expected to be
in court.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Stay here, Welcome back everyone. We are talking about another
developing story with a twist that we weren't expecting. Nick
Reiner was supposed to finally enter a plea. He finally
(09:38):
had his arraignment hearing following the murders of his parents
in December December fourteenth, in the early hours of December fourteenth,
that is when police say Rob and Michelle Reiner were
brutally stabbed. They have charged the Reiner's son, thirty two
year old Nick, with their murders. And today, yes, we
were expecting a plea of some sort. We were supposed
(10:00):
to hear what he had to say. We might, We
thought we might get the first idea of what his
defense could look like. But his high powered, high profile attorney,
Alan Jackson told the court in a very shocking statement
that he was no longer going to be representing Nick,
and a lot was made of what was happening inside
that courtroom. Something of note in I believe in just
(10:22):
the last couple of days leading up to this arraignment hearing,
there were some things that had happened for Nick that
seemed positive. He was taken off of suicide watch. He
didn't have that suicide vest on him like we had
seen him in before. He had been in solitary confinement,
so it seemed as though perhaps maybe even his mental
state was improving and we were going to start to
see his defense form and instead we got a very
(10:45):
very different situation in court today.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
He's going to need a different lawyer. We've covered cases
where people are winning on appeals or at least making
a case during appeal that I didn't have good representation,
and we've seen the public defenders just have a look,
I got another load of work over here. That's paying
me more money than you're paying me for being a
public defender and not putting a lot of time. He's
going to need none of the lawyer. This is a
(11:09):
double homicide case with a possibility of the death penalty.
We don't know yet, but he's been charged with special
circumstances will at least allow the prosecutors to pursue the
death penalty if they want. I think the hold up,
at least as far as everything I've read, is don't
know if the family they want to check to see
if the family is on board with the death penalty,
(11:31):
and by all accounts, no, they wouldn't be. So maybe
that's why we don't have that answer yet. But we
have another what month and a half before he's in court.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Again, February twenty third. Now is his new arraignment. I
mean he was supposed to be arraigned almost immediately after
he was arrested. That got postponed and it was did
you get the sense that it was something about mental
health issues?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yes, we were basically told he wasn't ready even to
be in a courtroom. So it was postponed till today
January seventh, and now this new delay until February twenty third,
so we will not hear him arraigned, hear his plea,
We won't get any of that now for another what
almost six weeks, and.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He sits he is not getting bailed, so he will
have to stay in jail. That certainly makes sense in
a case like this. But yes, folks want to hop
on give this update. It's been a day of developments today,
unexpected ones, but we are eyes on it all. We
always appreciate you listening to us, and again top right
corner on your Apple podcast app where you see our
(12:36):
show page. You click follow and you can get our
updates and we might have a couple more. It appears
today and with that always appreciates you spending some time
with us. Some TJ. Holmes on behalf of Amy Robot.
I'll talk to y'all soon.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Robach
T.J. Holmes
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