A Los Angeles judge will hear arguments Oct. 21 on whether grand jury transcripts in the Nick Reiner murder case should stay sealed. A second hearing Oct. 23 will decide whether Reiner, 33, can access more than $1.5 million from a family trust to pay for his defense.
Reiner is accused of stabbing his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, to death in their Brentwood home in December 2025. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Oct. 21 date was set at an Oct. 7 status conference before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta, Spectrum News reported. Both prosecutors and the defense want the transcripts kept from public view, but Judge Ohta will make the final call. KTLA reported that unnamed parties are pushing for the transcripts' release.
Reiner's siblings, Jake and Romy, also oppose unsealing. Prosecutors Habib Balian and Jonathan Chung wrote in a court filing that the two siblings "have expressed a strong desire for as much privacy as possible after these horrific and unimaginable murders."
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Oct. 7 that his office would leave the sealing question to the court's discretion and does not believe unsealing would prejudice the case.
The trust fund fight
The Oct. 23 hearing centers on a nearly 140-page petition filed by Reiner's legal team seeking access to a trust established in 1993 as part of the Reiners' estate plan. Each of the couple's three children has a separate trust. Reiner's attorneys argue the distributions are mandatory and unconditional: half when he turned 30, the rest at 35.
Trust trustee Jodi Pais Montgomery contends Reiner gave a prior trustee consent to withhold the roughly $585,000 distribution he was due at age 30 in 2023. Reiner disputes that in a court filing, stating he never authorized any trustee to withhold his distribution.
The dispute turns on California's "slayer statute," which bars a person from inheriting from someone they killed. Reiner's team argues the statute does not apply because he has not been convicted.
Defense attorney Anita Wu objected when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ruben Garcia postponed the hearing from August to October, arguing the delay was hurting Reiner's ability to prepare his defense, Spectrum News reported.
How the case got here
Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were found dead around 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2025, at their home in the 200 block of Chadbourne Avenue. The LA County Medical Examiner ruled both deaths homicides caused by "multiple sharp force injuries."
LAPD arrested Nick Reiner near USC in the Exposition Park area less than six hours later. He remains jailed without bail.
A grand jury indictment returned July 20 and unsealed Aug. 12 replaced the original criminal complaint. The charges include special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder while lying in wait, plus an allegation that Reiner personally used a knife.
Hochman announced Sept. 15 that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. The maximum sentence if convicted is life without the possibility of parole.
Public defender Kimberly Greene said in a statement that Reiner has a serious mental illness and a long history of struggling with self-medication.
Reiner was initially represented by defense attorney Alan Jackson, who left the case without publicly stating a reason. The trust petition states Reiner's inability to access the fund left him unable to pay for Jackson's services.
No trial date has been set. The Westside Current reported proceedings are not expected to begin before 2027.
