Jonathan Kearsley: US correspondent on Rob and Michele Reiner’s son being charged with murder following the pair's death

The son of Hollywood director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele has been charged with murdering his parents - found dead in LA on Sunday.

Reiner is famed for directing the iconic When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men, among others.

32-year-old Nick Reiner is charged with two counts of first degree murder, with a special circumstance of multiple murders. 

US correspondent Jonathan Kearsley says these charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, or the death penalty.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of mind
for New Zealand business ladies stick to playing football. Jonathan
Kursley is a US correspondent with US Jonathan.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good afternoon, Ryan, A good afternoon do you and the
listeners right across the network.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So Rob Ryaner's son Nick has been charged with the
murder of his parents. What can you tell us about that?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
These charges dropped formerly a couple of hours or so ago.
They've been announced by the Los Angeles dicrity attorney just
before that, and they are two counts off murder in
the first degree. Now they are very very serious. They
are the most serious of murder charges and they carry
with them the most serious penalty that been life in
prison with no parole or the death penalty. Now they
have said that they haven't decided not whether or not

(00:45):
to pursue the death penalty yet and that that will
be made in conjunction with the victims' families. That is
normal protocol for a case where these charges and the
death penalty is a possibility, is the prosecutors will always
go to the family and say this is this what
you want? But what you've got to a very very
sad set of circumstances where Nick Reiner, who has suffered
years of mental health issues and drug abuse and had

(01:07):
been open about that. He'd worked with a movie with
his father about the very issues of addiction, and he'd
opened up about the disconnect he felt with his father,
particularly as a child, and Rob Ryiner had spoken about
the issues that he felt as a father trying to
deal with a son who was dealing with significant mental

(01:27):
health issues. And now Nick has been charged with their murders.
We've just seen some footage released within the last half
an hour or so ago showing Nick Rhiner with a
backpack slung over his shoulder going into a service station
just a matter of hours after the alleged killings took place.
It is then the police swooped on him on Sunday night,
US time. They took him into custody, and they have

(01:50):
been pretty methodical LA police with this. They always said
they were going to be from the outset, and they
have been, and now they've laid these charges. There was
going to be a court hearing today but that was scrapped.
And interestingly, Nick Hiner has hired a very high profile
defense attorney, Al Jackson, who was among his clients Harvey
Weinstein and also Kevin Spacey as well, So this is

(02:10):
a high profile defense attorney. He's now going to be
representing Nick Rhiner when he eventually gets through court, but
that's going to be delayed while they essentially carry out
mental health assessments to see if he's fit to be
moved from the facility where he is being held into
a court room.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Jonathan Trump and Venezuela, He's continuing to put the squeeze
on a bit of a blockade going on here on
some oil tankers going to and fro.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, essentially as sanctioned oil tankers going in and out
of Venezuela. He's essentially putting in a block a, promising
essentially the US will continue to clamp down on this issue.
We saw them seize a tanker last week. And he's
now also moved in huge amounts of US military hardware
into the area around the Caribbean and Venezuela, and is

(02:57):
essentially saying to Nicholas Maduro, olderly authoritarian leader inside Venezuela,
get out, get out of the job. It had been
reported he'd offered him a deal essentially leaves the country
that Maduro rejected, and as a result, while the President
is making this all about drug trafficking and saying that
you know that there had been drug boats coming out

(03:19):
of Venezuela towards the United States, That's how all of
this started. Now it is that Venezuelan oil is making
its way to Rana to other parts of the world,
and he's trying to stop that too. This is now
a United States versus Venezuela approach, and that's exactly what
this is. And the United States has a huge military
hardware there. I'm not suggesting that they're going to use it,
but the President keeps suggesting that some sort of ground

(03:40):
assault could be possible. He's alluded to that over many
many times, as recently as last week. But now this
move to sanctioned oil tankers is just yet another move
trying to tighten the belt. This is a real economic
foot on the throat, if you like, of Nicholas Maduro.
Oil is a hugely important factor for the vende whale

(04:00):
and economy, and if he stops that or he's going
to cause Maduro some serious domestic pain.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Now this is a fascinating story because there are two
different accounts from one interview with Vanity Fear, This is
Susie wilds Trump's chief of staff. So the article sort
of implied to she said all this bad stuff about
Trump and you know, a lot of his cabinet, and
then she comes out and says on it's all taken
out of context. So who's right?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, that's exactly the question who is right in this
because Susie Wild sat down with Vanity Fair over the
course of eleven interviews for what was essentially a feature
piece about her, and now she's essentially saying that this
was all the hit jobs. She was quoted as saying
that Trump has an alcoholics personality even though he doesn't drink,

(04:46):
said that JD. Vance was a conspiracy theorist. He sort
of tongue in cheek responded that to that today and
then you had Susie Wills herself take straight to social
media this morning, as did many of the cabinet members,
and Susie essentially said, the article published earlier this morning
is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the

(05:09):
finest president, White House staff and cabinet in history. She
said the context was disregarded, so look who to believe? Well,
she's probably said part of it. There's no doubting that
it's quoted in there. She's not denying the quotes that
were actually said, it's that she's saying they were taken
out of context. So I suppose the question is now
is what was the context?

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, Jonathan appreciate that. Jonathan Kurzley, a US correspondent. For
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