Nick Reiner Is Charged with Stabbing His Parents to Death. Now He Wants $1.5 Million from Their Trust to Pay for His Defense
The $1.5 million Nick Reiner wants comes from a personal trust his parents created for him back in 1993, when he was a child. His petition, filed June 8 in Los Angeles Superior Court, argues he was entitled to half of it at 30 and the rest at 35, and that the trustee has no right to hold it back over the murder charges.
His attorneys lean on a single line: “Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own.” They also note the trust is separate from the larger Reiner estate, which some reports value near $200 million.
Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele, around 70, were found in the master bedroom of their Brentwood home on December 14, 2025, killed by multiple stab wounds. Their daughter discovered the bodies. Nick, 32, was arrested that night and has been held since, charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances.
The night before, all three had been at a Christmas party at Conan O’Brien’s house, where some guests reportedly saw the parents and son arguing. O’Brien later said he was “in shock for quite a while.”
California’s slayer rule bars a convicted killer from inheriting from the victim. Nick’s lawyers say it doesn’t reach him: the distributions came due before the deaths, the money sits in a pre-existing trust, and he hasn’t been convicted. If he is, he faces the death penalty or life without parole.
