The Reiner Murders | The Trial Of Nick Reiner

Hidden Killers Podcast

Rob Reiner directed some of the most beloved films in American history. On December 14, 2024, he and his wife Michele were stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their daughter found the bodies. Their son Nick was arrested that night. This podcast covers the case from arrest through trial — but the real story starts seventeen years earlier. Nick Reiner went to rehab at fifteen. By nineteen, he'd been through seventeen programs. Homeless in three states. Heroin. Meth. His parents had every resource imaginable — money, connections, access to the best treatment in the country. They followed the protocols. They trusted the experts. They did everything right by the system's standards. And the system gave them nothing. Because here's what nobody wants to say out loud: in America, if your adult child is addicted, mentally ill, or dangerous, your legal options are essentially zero. You can beg. You can pay. But you cannot force treatment. Their autonomy is protected. Your safety is not. The Reiners lived that nightmare for almost two decades. It ended the way these stories sometimes do — with two people dead and a family destroyed. This isn't true crime as entertainment. No breathless narration. No shock-jock nonsense. Just rigorous, fact-based coverage with legal experts, former prosecutors, defense attorneys, and behavioral analysts breaking down the evidence, the strategy, and the questions that actually matter. We're following this case because it exposes something broken in how we handle mental illness, addiction, and families in crisis. The Reiners had every advantage. It didn't save them. New episodes as the case develops.

  1. Why Did Nick Reiner’s Own Siblings Stop Paying for His Defense?

    3d ago

    Why Did Nick Reiner’s Own Siblings Stop Paying for His Defense?

    Jake and Romy Reiner buried their parents. Then they hired a defense attorney for the brother accused of killing them. And then they stopped. That decision — and what came after it — is the center of the most revealing chapter in this case yet. After Alan Jackson withdrew from Nick Reiner’s defense, sources say the family was “disgusted” and described Nick’s behavior behind bars as “erratic” and “threatening.” Jake called the ordeal “a living nightmare.” The family reportedly said they could not “bankroll chaos.” Nick’s response was not acceptance. It was a 136-page probate petition demanding over $1.5 million from the trust fund his parents created for him in 1993. A separate civil legal team. A demand the court call the distributions “mandatory and unconditional.” A filing that says Nick “loved his parents” and that their murders are “not at issue.” And a request for commissary money for soap and socks alongside a seven-figure demand designed to get Alan Jackson back in the courtroom. Tony Brueski tears this petition apart, traces the pattern of entitlement through Nick’s entire adult life, and explains why California’s slayer statute may be the final word on whether Nick Reiner ever sees a dollar of his parents’ money. Everyone around Nick has drawn the same line. His siblings. The trustee. The family. This episode is about a man who has never once in his life respected a boundary — and what happens when the law draws the last one. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #JakeReiner #RomyReiner #TrustFund #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #SlayerStatute #BrentwoodCase

    24 min
  2. Rob And Michele Reiner's Money Could Pay Their Accused Killer's Lawyer

    3d ago

    Rob And Michele Reiner's Money Could Pay Their Accused Killer's Lawyer

    For everyone following the Reiner case who has asked the question out loud — how is this even possible? — this episode is the answer. Rob and Michele Reiner built a trust for their son Nick when he was a baby. It was an act of love, made decades before anyone could imagine how it would be invoked. Now Nick, who has pleaded not guilty to killing them, is asking a court to release more than $1.5 million of that money to pay the defense attorney fighting the charges. If the petition succeeds, the gift Rob and Michele created becomes the war chest used in the trial over their own deaths. Jake and Romy Reiner already said no once — they initially agreed to fund their brother's defense, then reversed. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins us to explain what saying no a second time actually looks like: a formal opposition that drags grieving siblings into a probate war against their own brother before the murder trial even begins. Faddis lays out their real options — opposing the petition, asking a judge to freeze the trust until the verdict, leaning on California's slayer statute, which prevents a killing from paying — and he's honest about which of those options actually work and which just feel like fighting back. He also addresses the scenario this community fears most: the money released, spent, and unrecoverable, followed by a conviction. Is there any path to clawing it back — or would Rob and Michele's final gift be gone for good? We owe this family clear answers, not outrage. Faddis brings them. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #ReinerCase #MicheleReiner #JakeReiner #RomyReiner #TrueCrime #SlayerStatute #EricFaddis #HiddenKillers

    18 min
  3. Why Didn't Nick Reiner Ever Get The Money His Parents Promised?

    3d ago

    Why Didn't Nick Reiner Ever Get The Money His Parents Promised?

    Before anyone asks what happens to Rob and Michele Reiner's money, there's a harder question hiding inside this Nick Reiner case update: why didn't he ever get it while they were alive? The trust they created for Nick as a baby promised — in writing his own petition calls "mandatory and unconditional" — that half of more than $1.5 million was his at thirty. He turned thirty more than two years before that terrible night in Brentwood. According to the petition, the money never came. Not a partial payment. Nothing. Whatever Rob and Michele knew, whatever they feared, whatever conversations happened behind the doors of that family — the people responsible for the trust kept it closed while two parents who had spent decades and a fortune trying to save their son were still here to explain why. Now Nick, who has pleaded not guilty to killing them, is asking a court to hand over all of it — to rehire attorney Alan Jackson, and even to cover socks and soap at the jail commissary. And the community following this family's heartbreak is left holding two feelings that don't fit together: the instinct that he should never touch their money, and the knowledge that in this country, an accusation is not a conviction. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis helps us sit with both. He examines what the years of withholding tell us, whether the petition's presumed-innocence argument holds legal water, the quiet scenario where a judge could grant everything without a hearing if no one objects — and whether he, personally, would take Nick Reiner's case. For everyone who loved Rob and Michele's work, this one is hard. We go through it together. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #ReinerCase #MicheleReiner #TrueCrime #TrustFund #BrentwoodCase #EricFaddis #HiddenKillers #JusticeForRobAndMichele

    16 min
  4. Why Is One Reiner Brother Grieving While The Other Reportedly Retaliates?

    May 25

    Why Is One Reiner Brother Grieving While The Other Reportedly Retaliates?

    Jake Reiner said he'd trade every Dodger game and every Broadway show for one more hour with his parents. He wrote it in a Substack essay that reads like a son saying goodbye in the only way left available to him — publicly, permanently, with nothing held back about who Rob and Michele were and what they meant. From inside Twin Towers, his brother Nick is reportedly doing the opposite. According to sources cited by Globe magazine, Nick is allegedly planning a revenge tell-all designed to name names and cause maximum damage to the family members who've walked away from him. Not to explain what happened. Reportedly to settle scores with the people who spent years trying to save his life. The gap between those two responses is the emotional center of this case. One brother mourning parents he describes as irreplaceable. The other reportedly weaponizing their memory from behind bars. Multiple sources describe Nick as delusional in custody — almost childlike, reportedly unable to understand why he's incarcerated, screaming about his innocence at night. His schizoaffective disorder diagnosis is documented. A reported medication change occurred roughly a month before the alleged killings. The defense attorney quit. Jake and Romy have reportedly severed all contact. Robin Dreeke breaks down what the behavioral picture actually looks like — someone described as childlike and confused who is simultaneously reportedly plotting to humiliate his surviving siblings. Whether that contradiction means the tell-all is a symptom of the condition or evidence of calculated thinking is a question that cuts directly into the most likely defense strategy. The listener questions go deeper: what does a medication change mean in context, can an insanity defense succeed here, and the hardest one — what do you do when you've done everything for someone and it still ends like this? The question nobody has answered: is the reported tell-all Nick's idea, or did someone with access to him put it in motion? Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #ReinerCase #JakeReiner #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #RobinDreeke #BrentwoodMurders #TwinTowers

    43 min
  5. The Reiner Siblings Made a Decision About Nick That Stunned Everyone

    May 9

    The Reiner Siblings Made a Decision About Nick That Stunned Everyone

    They call him "Satan incarnate." They've cut all contact. They've severed financial support. And the Reiner siblings — Jake, Romy, and Tracy — are telling prosecutors not to seek the death penalty against their brother Nick for the alleged stabbing murders of their parents Rob and Michele. Not because they've forgiven him. Because their father was opposed to capital punishment his entire life, and they're honoring that — even now, even for this. This week's review brings together the most powerful Reiner case conversations — centered on the family navigating a grief that no legal proceeding can resolve. Jake Reiner wrote an essay that tens of thousands of people read. About Dodger games. About his mom's laugh and his dad's bad jokes. About the fear his parents must have experienced before they were allegedly killed. It was specific, personal, and devastating — the kind of writing that only comes from someone carrying something they can't put down. Nick, meanwhile, has reportedly told Globe magazine he wants to write a book about his parents. Exposing them. The man who stood in a courtroom and could barely manage one word allegedly wants to control the public narrative about the people he's accused of killing. The distance between those two impulses — Jake writing from love, Nick reportedly writing from grievance — tells you everything about where this family broke. The autopsies on Rob and Michele still aren't complete. The case won't reach a preliminary hearing for months. Nick's documented history of schizoaffective disorder and a prior conservatorship suggest the defense strategy is already forming. Eric Faddis breaks down what the family is facing — not just legally, but as human beings watching the slowest, most painful process imaginable grind forward while the person who allegedly destroyed their family sits in a cell reportedly planning a book deal. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #JakeReiner #BrentwoodMurders #ReinerFamily #DeathPenalty #ReinerCase #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers

    31 min
  6. Rob Reiner's Values Are Being Tested by His Own Family's Tragedy

    May 5

    Rob Reiner's Values Are Being Tested by His Own Family's Tragedy

    Rob Reiner spent decades in the public eye standing for something. He was vocal about justice, about human rights, about the belief that the state should not execute its citizens. He was unapologetic about those positions. And now, months after his alleged murder, those values are being tested in the most personal way imaginable — by his own children, in a case involving his own accused killer. Sources confirm that Jake, Romy, and Tracy Reiner have told prosecutors they oppose the death penalty for their brother Nick. The same brother insiders describe as "Satan incarnate" to the surviving family. The same brother they've reportedly cut off entirely — no attorney, no visits, no financial support. They aren't protecting Nick because they've made peace with what he allegedly did. They're reportedly protecting him because their father would have wanted it that way. And that distinction — between mercy for a person and fidelity to a principle — is the emotional core of this episode. Tony Brueski walks through what happened at Nick's most recent court appearance, where the case was pushed to September while autopsy reports remain incomplete. He examines Jake's devastating Substack essay — the most personal account from inside this family's grief — and contrasts it with Globe magazine's reporting that Nick is allegedly planning a revenge tell-all from behind bars. Jake wrote about the fear his parents felt. Nick reportedly wants to explain why they had it coming. The legal timeline is crawling. The preliminary hearing hasn't been scheduled. The death penalty decision remains unmade. But the family is already living inside the consequences — honoring two people's legacy while the person accused of ending their lives allegedly tries to tear it apart from a cell at Twin Towers. This is the Reiner case at its most human and its most impossible. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #JakeReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #ReinerChannel #ReinerCase #TrueCrime #BrentwoodMurders #DeathPenalty #HiddenKillers

    15 min
  7. Nick Reiner: When Saving Someone Becomes the Thing That Destroys You

    May 3

    Nick Reiner: When Saving Someone Becomes the Thing That Destroys You

    Rob and Michele Reiner spent years trying to save their son. Rehab. Financial support. Patience. Second chances. They co-wrote a film together about a father and son working through addiction. They showed up at every stage of his struggle. They kept the door open when most families would have locked it. And according to prosecutors, on the night of December 14, 2025, they were allegedly stabbed to death in their own home by the person they refused to give up on. Nick Reiner, 32, faces two counts of first-degree murder with a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders. He has pled not guilty. He is held without bail at Twin Towers Correctional Facility. His original defense attorney walked away from the case. He has a reported schizoaffective disorder diagnosis. Sources say a medication change happened roughly a month before that night. He has been described as delusional and almost childlike in custody — reportedly screaming innocence at night, allegedly unable to understand why he is locked up. And yet, according to reports, he is allegedly planning a revenge tell-all from behind bars. Not to explain what happened. Not to grieve. Reportedly to name names, expose what he calls family secrets, and cause maximum damage to the siblings who have cut contact with him. Jake and Romy are gone. The attorney is gone. And the person reportedly plotting retaliation from a jail cell is the same person sources describe as unable to process his own reality. Jake Reiner wrote publicly about who his parents actually were. He described them as guiding lights, best friends, the people who made everything possible. He said he would trade every Dodger game and every Broadway show for one more hour. His grief is the kind that does not perform — it just bleeds onto the page. Retired FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke takes listener questions on all of it — the medication timeline, whether the reported tell-all is strategy or symptom, whether an insanity defense can work in a case carrying these allegations, and the question that anyone who has ever loved someone through addiction and mental illness has faced in the worst hours of their life: when does trying to save someone become the thing that puts you in danger? Rob and Michele Reiner reportedly never stopped trying. That is the most devastating part of this entire case. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #ReinerCase #JakeReiner #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #BrentwoodMurders #RobinDreeke #TrueCrimePodcast

    43 min
  8. Nick Reiner: The Family Is Still Waiting for Answers

    May 1

    Nick Reiner: The Family Is Still Waiting for Answers

    Rob and Michele Reiner are gone. Their daughter found them. Their son was arrested hours later. And over four months after the most violent night imaginable, the system hasn't even finished documenting what was done to them. The autopsy reports are still pending.  The preliminary hearing got pushed to September. Nick Reiner sat in a Los Angeles courtroom in a yellow jail smock, consulted with his public defender, and said one word. The family — Jake, Romy, and Tracy — has already lost both parents to violence and is watching the legal process unfold around a brother charged with taking them. Every delay is another wound. Every continuance is another stretch of time spent waiting for a system that moves on its own schedule, not the family's.  Eric Faddis, criminal defense attorney and former felony prosecutor, walks through what the delays mean, what the defense may be building, and the agonizing reality of a case where the accused is family, the evidence is still being assembled, and the question of whether anyone will ever truly understand what happened inside that Brentwood home remains unanswered. This is the conversation for the people following this case who feel what the Reiner family is going through and refuse to look away. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #BrentwoodMurder #TrueCrime #JakeReiner #HollywoodMurder #DeathPenalty #HiddenKillers #Justice

    15 min
3.7
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Rob Reiner directed some of the most beloved films in American history. On December 14, 2024, he and his wife Michele were stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their daughter found the bodies. Their son Nick was arrested that night. This podcast covers the case from arrest through trial — but the real story starts seventeen years earlier. Nick Reiner went to rehab at fifteen. By nineteen, he'd been through seventeen programs. Homeless in three states. Heroin. Meth. His parents had every resource imaginable — money, connections, access to the best treatment in the country. They followed the protocols. They trusted the experts. They did everything right by the system's standards. And the system gave them nothing. Because here's what nobody wants to say out loud: in America, if your adult child is addicted, mentally ill, or dangerous, your legal options are essentially zero. You can beg. You can pay. But you cannot force treatment. Their autonomy is protected. Your safety is not. The Reiners lived that nightmare for almost two decades. It ended the way these stories sometimes do — with two people dead and a family destroyed. This isn't true crime as entertainment. No breathless narration. No shock-jock nonsense. Just rigorous, fact-based coverage with legal experts, former prosecutors, defense attorneys, and behavioral analysts breaking down the evidence, the strategy, and the questions that actually matter. We're following this case because it exposes something broken in how we handle mental illness, addiction, and families in crisis. The Reiners had every advantage. It didn't save them. New episodes as the case develops.

You Might Also Like