Nick Reiner could be blocked from using his trust fund to finance his defense against allegations that he fatally stabbed his famous father and mother, if the fund’s trustee succeeds in stopping any payouts.
Reiner was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday on two counts of murder, charges that could send him to prison for life if he is convicted at trial.
According to the indictment, prosecutors claim he waited inside the $13.5 million Los Angeles home of his parents, Rob and Michele, in December before cutting their throats as they slept.
The 32-year-old initially retained prominent attorney Alan Jackson, known for representing Karen Read and Kevin Spacey, but later said he could no longer afford to keep him on the case.
Since then, Reiner has been represented by a public defender and is seeking access to the trust in hopes of bringing Jackson back onto his legal team.
Rob and Michele established the trust for their youngest son when he was an infant, and its value has climbed to about $1.6 million over the past three decades.
Jodi Pais Montgomery, the professional fiduciary responsible for managing the trust, has refused to release any money while Reiner remains accused of killing his parents.
In opposing the payments, the trustee pointed to California’s “slayer statute,” a law designed to prevent someone from inheriting assets from a person they “feloniously and intentionally” killed.
A Los Angeles County grand jury indicted 32-year-old Nick Reiner on murder charges in relation to the stabbing killings of his parents. He has pleaded not guilty
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office announced the charges, alongside another allegation that he used a dangerous and deadly weapon when he allegedly killed the This Is Spinal Tap director, 78, and his mother, 70
‘California has enacted no exception permitting a killer’s inheritance to be used for criminal defense costs,’ its lawyer Lauriann Wright wrote in court papers.
The fund would instead be paid to Reiner’s siblings Romy and Jake, to whom Montgomery also has a fiduciary responsibility, the filing stated.
Though Reiner is presumed innocent, the payments from his fund would be ‘irreversible,’ Wright wrote.
Public defender Anita Wu countered that as Reiner was not convicted, the law didn’t apply.
‘The slayer statute requires a determination, not a mere accusation. Nick is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing,’ she said.
A hearing on Monday will seek to determine the trust issue.
Reiner’s bid to loosen his trust’s purse strings is in addition to a demand he made in June for an unpaid $558,000 he was due on his 30th birthday.
Wright in her filing claimed Reiner was aware he could receive the payout at the time, but opted not to.
Rob Reiner (second from left) and his wife Michele Singer Reiner (left) with their children Jake, Romy and Nick in 2014
Wu on Friday countered that the trustee could not ‘retroactively erase’ the payment and filed a declaration from Reiner.
‘I did not give my consent to any trustee of my trust to withhold, defer or retain my age-30 distribution indefinitely as “property of the trust”,’ it read.
Reiner was not due to receive any more money from the trust until he turned 35, but Wu noted he could be paid early for ‘support, maintenance, health and education.’
The money would allow him to buy basic items at the jail commissary as well as fund his defense.
Reiner in June claimed the trustee ‘has offered a shifting series of excuses and justifications’ for not turning over the funds.
These included ‘unsubstantiated “concerns” about Nick’s so-called competence to “manage a trust”‘ despite the terms his parents set up.
Nick (center) claims his siblings, Romy and Jake, supported his effort to use the trust fund to pay for Jackson
He argued he needed Jackson to avoid ‘further jeopardizing my defense in the criminal matter’ as he has no other source of funding for his legal bills or basic supplies like soap and socks while behind bars.
‘Every additional week of delay is a week in which the counsel of his choice cannot investigate or prepare on his behalf – prejudice to his defense that cannot be undone,’ Reiner’s lawyers claimed.
‘The harm is irreparable and it grows with each day the trustee withholds funds that are already Nick’s.
‘In the meantime, for reasons unknown to Petitioner, the Trustee continues to deplete Nick’s funds by paying lawyers to raise one reason after another for holding on to Nick’s money for another two years, all of which violate the plain terms of the Trust.’
Reiner had earlier been seen having a loud argument with his father at a holiday party thrown by Conan O’Brien hours before his parents’ bodies were found, reportedly by his sister
Reiner has pleaded not guilty to six felony charges, two of first-degree murder, two of special circumstances involving multiple murder, and two counts of special circumstances using a deadly weapon.
He was earlier seen having a loud argument with his father at a holiday party thrown by TV host Conan O’Brien hours before his parents’ bodies were found by his younger sister, Romy.
Reiner has a long history of mental health and substance abuse issues and was living in a guesthouse on the grounds of his parents’ home at the time.
The new indictment added the claim that Reiner lay in wait for the chance to kill his parents, a special circumstance that could make him eligible for life without parole or even the death penalty if he is convicted.
Nathan Hochman, the LA County District Attorney, has said that the death penalty is on the table for Reiner if he is convicted.
Reiner has been locked up without bail since his arrest and will next face court in September.
