December 18, 2025 • 7 mins
Rob Reiner's son Nick has been charged with two counts of murder. ABC News Legal Analyst Royal Oakes joins us to break down the case that is likely building against him.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back now here on the Ryan Gorman Show, and let's
go to the hotline and bring in the ABC News
legal analyst Royal Oaks for a breakdown of Nick Reiner's
first court appearance yesterday. So, Royal, what are the headlines
from this initial court appearance.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, the big headline is that the defense wanted to
put off the arraignment until January seventh, and they got
their wish. The judge a greed. So the hearing yesterday
was really short and sweet, not substantive at all. What's
going to happen now is that the defense will strategize
how are they going to use the mental state of
Nick Reiner to somehow get this case out gone or
(00:38):
reduced from a murder potential down to mandslaughter. And that's
the job of Alan Jackson, the high profile criminal defense
attorney that Reiner has retained.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
So he's facing two counts, Nick Reiner a first degree
murder of course, in the killings of his parents, Rob
Reiner and Michelle Reiner, and that would come along with
it either a life sentence or potent the death penalty
if that's the direction prosecutors choose. How could that mental
state and what you just said about the defense, how
(01:08):
could that play in and are they potentially We've seen
this before with some prosecutions. Are they going to high
year with first degree murder or how does that work
in California.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That's a big question. What's going to happen is that
the defense is going to try to use the mental
problems that Nick Reiner had as a way, first of all,
to make sure a jury who might have some sympathy
for him, even if they convict him of murder, they
won't go for the death penalty. But secondly, maybe more importantly,
the defense is hoping that murder will really not be
(01:44):
on the table because instead manslaughter would be a more
attractive option for the jury, manslaughter being yes, he intended
to kill, but he only did it because of the
mental illness of intoxication with drugs and alcohol. That is
the whole ball game. The family, I'm sure who's probably
assisted with retaining Alan Jackson, they don't want him to
(02:05):
sit in a prison cell for the next fifty years.
They want him either found not guilty by reason of insanity,
where he gets treatment he's confined to a metal hospital,
or do some time for manslaughter. But at the same time,
then get the metal treatment.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You know, we've talked a lot about the events leading
up to the murders, including Nick Reiner's bizarre behavior at
Conan O'Brien's Christmas party. That's all going to factor in
here into that case. Could people who attended that party,
like Bill Hater, for example, who apparently had an awkward
interaction with him, could they be called to testify in
(02:43):
this case?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Absolutely, you're going to see a star studded lineup of witnesses.
Now I don't know who was at this party other
than Bill Hayter, but you can bet a lot of
familiar names were there, with Rob Reiner on the guest list.
And so what's going to happen is that all of
the people who watched the confrontation with Bill Hayter, where
Nick Reiner allegedly tried to foist himself into a conversation
(03:07):
and was told hey, this is private, and then he
stormed off. And of course, more importantly, the confrontation between
Nick and his dad at the party. Everybody who saw
that is going to be called because it's either going
to help one side or the other to establish that
he was whacked out out of control. Maybe the jury
would say, well, you know, we're not going to blame
him because his mental illness was at work, or maybe
(03:28):
the witnesses will suggest that he appeared pretty darn normal.
He was just very intrusive and obnoxious. We don't know
what the testimony might be.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We're joined by ABC News legal analyst Royal Oaks talking
about the Nick Reiner case. His sister, who in the
immediate aftermath of discovering that her parents were murdered, apparently said,
you know, you need to look into my brother. That dynamic.
How powerful could that be in this case. Having this
(04:00):
sister testify to her experience with her brother and why
that was her initial instinct in the aftermath of the
gruesome scene that she saw at.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The house, well, and that could be huge, and that
testimony is going to be fair game. Another issue is
some outlets are reporting, and I don't know that this
has been confirmed, but some are reporting that in fact,
the mother, Michelle, was alive when the daughter arrived and
she passed away on the way to the hospital in
the ambulance. But during the trip, allegedly the mother said
(04:35):
it was the son, Nick who committed the crimes. If
that's confirmed, of course, all that is likely to come
in and be huge evidentiary points as well.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
What can you tell us about this defense attorney who's
representing Nick Reiner. This is a big name. He's defended
some very well known figures in the past.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Absolutely, he represented Harvey Weinstein in terms of the sex
abuse matters, Kevin Spacey, same allegations. He represented Karen Reid,
who in Massachusetts was not guilty of killing her boyfriend
not long ago. Back in the day when he was
with the District Attorney's office. He was the prosecutor in
one of the Phil Specter cases, perhaps both of them
(05:16):
as a matter of fact, and of course Specter was
convicted of murder. So yeah, he's a heavy duty guy.
And of course a lot of people are wondering, gee,
why would the family participate? You know, presumably they're involved
in hiring the lawyer and paying him. People might say, we,
you know, why would you help Nick? The family probably
sees him remembering what he was like as a child
(05:39):
and seeing him as a victim of addiction and mental
health issues. And so although there's no attack on the
victims as we saw in the Menendez case, we think
they're abusers. Everybody loved Michelle and Rob Reiner in terms
of the family relationships. As a result, you know they're
probably going to fight like tigers to make sure that
(05:59):
he's not executed or sent to prison for life. Instead
he gets an outcome that will get in the help
he needs.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So is the next step the arraignment on January seventh,
and obviously the continued monitoring of Nick Rener, because you
know he did show up wearing a suicide prevention smock
at this court appearance.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, so what's going to happen is on January seventh.
Arraignment usually is pretty who humped? The charges are read,
and he inevitably says not guilty. Usually they don't try
to roll out an insanity defense at the arraignment. That
comes later after some strinks have examined. And now there's
a nuclear option for Alan Jackson. He can ask the
court for a competency hearing, meaning I want some psychiatrists
(06:44):
appointed by the court and others to figure out if
Nick understands what's going now, because if he doesn't can't help.
The lawyers meaning due process considerations say you may not
put him on trial, you lock him up, you give
him treatment that it has nothing to do with whether
or not he was saying that the murders, but a
competency hearing is going forward. Is he going to be
(07:04):
all there? And if Alan Jackson goes for that, it's
a risky maneuver because if he loses it and the
judge comes back and says, yeh, he's fine, that could
undermine a later argument that, well, he wasn't fine on
the night of the murders. All right.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
ABC News legal analyst Royal Oaks with us this morning.
Royal always appreciate time and insight. Thanks so much, Do
you bet?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thanks
Back now here on the Ryan Gorman Show, and let's
go to the hotline and bring in the ABC News
legal analyst Royal Oaks for a breakdown of Nick Reiner's
first court appearance yesterday. So, Royal, what are the headlines
from this initial court appearance.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, the big headline is that the defense wanted to
put off the arraignment until January seventh, and they got
their wish. The judge a greed. So the hearing yesterday
was really short and sweet, not substantive at all. What's
going to happen now is that the defense will strategize
how are they going to use the mental state of
Nick Reiner to somehow get this case out gone or
(00:38):
reduced from a murder potential down to mandslaughter. And that's
the job of Alan Jackson, the high profile criminal defense
attorney that Reiner has retained.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
So he's facing two counts, Nick Reiner a first degree
murder of course, in the killings of his parents, Rob
Reiner and Michelle Reiner, and that would come along with
it either a life sentence or potent the death penalty
if that's the direction prosecutors choose. How could that mental
state and what you just said about the defense, how
(01:08):
could that play in and are they potentially We've seen
this before with some prosecutions. Are they going to high
year with first degree murder or how does that work
in California.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That's a big question. What's going to happen is that
the defense is going to try to use the mental
problems that Nick Reiner had as a way, first of all,
to make sure a jury who might have some sympathy
for him, even if they convict him of murder, they
won't go for the death penalty. But secondly, maybe more importantly,
the defense is hoping that murder will really not be
(01:44):
on the table because instead manslaughter would be a more
attractive option for the jury, manslaughter being yes, he intended
to kill, but he only did it because of the
mental illness of intoxication with drugs and alcohol. That is
the whole ball game. The family, I'm sure who's probably
assisted with retaining Alan Jackson, they don't want him to
(02:05):
sit in a prison cell for the next fifty years.
They want him either found not guilty by reason of insanity,
where he gets treatment he's confined to a metal hospital,
or do some time for manslaughter. But at the same time,
then get the metal treatment.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You know, we've talked a lot about the events leading
up to the murders, including Nick Reiner's bizarre behavior at
Conan O'Brien's Christmas party. That's all going to factor in
here into that case. Could people who attended that party,
like Bill Hater, for example, who apparently had an awkward
interaction with him, could they be called to testify in
(02:43):
this case?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Absolutely, you're going to see a star studded lineup of witnesses.
Now I don't know who was at this party other
than Bill Hayter, but you can bet a lot of
familiar names were there, with Rob Reiner on the guest list.
And so what's going to happen is that all of
the people who watched the confrontation with Bill Hayter, where
Nick Reiner allegedly tried to foist himself into a conversation
(03:07):
and was told hey, this is private, and then he
stormed off. And of course, more importantly, the confrontation between
Nick and his dad at the party. Everybody who saw
that is going to be called because it's either going
to help one side or the other to establish that
he was whacked out out of control. Maybe the jury
would say, well, you know, we're not going to blame
him because his mental illness was at work, or maybe
(03:28):
the witnesses will suggest that he appeared pretty darn normal.
He was just very intrusive and obnoxious. We don't know
what the testimony might be.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We're joined by ABC News legal analyst Royal Oaks talking
about the Nick Reiner case. His sister, who in the
immediate aftermath of discovering that her parents were murdered, apparently said,
you know, you need to look into my brother. That dynamic.
How powerful could that be in this case. Having this
(04:00):
sister testify to her experience with her brother and why
that was her initial instinct in the aftermath of the
gruesome scene that she saw at.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The house, well, and that could be huge, and that
testimony is going to be fair game. Another issue is
some outlets are reporting, and I don't know that this
has been confirmed, but some are reporting that in fact,
the mother, Michelle, was alive when the daughter arrived and
she passed away on the way to the hospital in
the ambulance. But during the trip, allegedly the mother said
(04:35):
it was the son, Nick who committed the crimes. If
that's confirmed, of course, all that is likely to come
in and be huge evidentiary points as well.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
What can you tell us about this defense attorney who's
representing Nick Reiner. This is a big name. He's defended
some very well known figures in the past.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Absolutely, he represented Harvey Weinstein in terms of the sex
abuse matters, Kevin Spacey, same allegations. He represented Karen Reid,
who in Massachusetts was not guilty of killing her boyfriend
not long ago. Back in the day when he was
with the District Attorney's office. He was the prosecutor in
one of the Phil Specter cases, perhaps both of them
(05:16):
as a matter of fact, and of course Specter was
convicted of murder. So yeah, he's a heavy duty guy.
And of course a lot of people are wondering, gee,
why would the family participate? You know, presumably they're involved
in hiring the lawyer and paying him. People might say, we,
you know, why would you help Nick? The family probably
sees him remembering what he was like as a child
(05:39):
and seeing him as a victim of addiction and mental
health issues. And so although there's no attack on the
victims as we saw in the Menendez case, we think
they're abusers. Everybody loved Michelle and Rob Reiner in terms
of the family relationships. As a result, you know they're
probably going to fight like tigers to make sure that
(05:59):
he's not executed or sent to prison for life. Instead
he gets an outcome that will get in the help
he needs.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So is the next step the arraignment on January seventh,
and obviously the continued monitoring of Nick Rener, because you
know he did show up wearing a suicide prevention smock
at this court appearance.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, so what's going to happen is on January seventh.
Arraignment usually is pretty who humped? The charges are read,
and he inevitably says not guilty. Usually they don't try
to roll out an insanity defense at the arraignment. That
comes later after some strinks have examined. And now there's
a nuclear option for Alan Jackson. He can ask the
court for a competency hearing, meaning I want some psychiatrists
(06:44):
appointed by the court and others to figure out if
Nick understands what's going now, because if he doesn't can't help.
The lawyers meaning due process considerations say you may not
put him on trial, you lock him up, you give
him treatment that it has nothing to do with whether
or not he was saying that the murders, but a
competency hearing is going forward. Is he going to be
(07:04):
all there? And if Alan Jackson goes for that, it's
a risky maneuver because if he loses it and the
judge comes back and says, yeh, he's fine, that could
undermine a later argument that, well, he wasn't fine on
the night of the murders. All right.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
ABC News legal analyst Royal Oaks with us this morning.
Royal always appreciate time and insight. Thanks so much, Do
you bet?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thanks
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