Within the years earlier than Rob and Michele Reiner had been killed, Los Angeles police made at the very least two visits to their dwelling in Brentwood.
On Feb. 25, 2019, officers performed a welfare test after somebody referred to as 911 at 9:51 p.m. Based on LAPD information reviewed by The Occasions, officers arrived on the handle at 10:12 p.m., accomplished the decision and reported the incident to an unidentified supervisor.
Then on Sept. 27, 2019, police responded at 4:24 p.m. to a psychological well being–associated name for service involving an unidentified man. Officers later knowledgeable a supervisor that they discovered “no indication of psychological sickness,” based on division information.
The calls had been pretty innocuous and sometimes wouldn’t elevate eyebrows.
However authorities now allege the couple’s son, who lived within the guesthouse on their property, fatally stabbed them of their main bedroom final month.
The psychological state of Nick Reiner, who struggled for years with substance abuse and had been prescribed a schizophrenia drug, has now taken middle stage in his authorized battle.
Prosecutors haven’t detailed their case, and Reiner’s authorized workforce has not offered his personal story. It’s nonetheless potential his protection might current compelling proof that Nick Reiner didn’t commit the killings. But when the case is powerful, the trial might revolve round Reiner’s psychological state and the size of sentence.
Prosecutors charged Nick Reiner, 32, with two counts of first-degree homicide with particular circumstances for the killings within the early hours of Dec. 14. Authorities haven’t provided a potential motive within the case.
Reiner is again in courtroom Wednesday and is now not thought-about to be a suicide danger. He has not but entered a plea.
Authorized specialists say Reiner’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, is probably going now working to guage his shopper’s historical past of psychological well being and way of thinking on the time of the crime. These findings may very well be the premise for discussions of a plea deal or the start of an madness protection, attorneys say.
There are additionally different defenses that Jackson might pursue based mostly on his psychological historical past and potential adjustments in his medicine and different elements that may not have been made public but, together with what might need triggered the killings, stated Laurie Levenson, professor of legislation at Loyola Legislation College and a former federal prosecutor.
“There’s lots nonetheless to be carried out to work this case up,” Levenson stated. “He can both attempt to go for a not responsible by cause of madness, or he might need testimony that he wasn’t in a position to type the psychological state for the crime due to his medicine and his prior psychological background.”
If his protection can show that Reiner couldn’t type the “intent to kill due to what’s taking place along with his medicine or along with his illness” then it may very well be a technique to get a lesser cost resembling second-degree homicide, Levenson stated. With first-degree homicide fees, prosecutors should present that the accused acted with premeditation or malice.
“It’s simply approach too early to say that that is an all or nothing case — that he’s going to be discovered responsible of homicide one or discovered not responsible. There are more likely to be different choices,” Levenson stated.
If convicted of first-degree homicide, Reiner is going through potential life in jail with out the potential for parole or the loss of life penalty. Prosecutors haven’t decided about whether or not they’ll search capital punishment within the case.
If Reiner is discovered not responsible by cause of madness then he would probably be dedicated to a psychological well being facility. And he would possibly in some unspecified time in the future have the ability to present that his situation has improved and have outpatient standing or be launched, Levenson stated.
Saul Faerstein, a scientific and forensic psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at UCLA, stated docs will probably attempt to piece collectively the times main as much as the killings to find out what sort of psychological state Reiner was in on the time.
“We’d need to know what was taking place on Friday or Saturday. Was he starting to decompensate? Was he performing out of character? Was he doing and saying issues that shocked folks or frightened folks? Was he saying issues that made no sense?” Faerstein stated.
Reiner’s capacity to test right into a resort and journey throughout Los Angeles the place he was seen at a gasoline station and finally arrested isn’t essentially an indication that he was of sound thoughts, Faerstein stated.
“These issues don’t require lots of cognitive perform, and they are often carried out even in a delusional state,” he stated.
There have been a couple of examples of circumstances in California by which fees have been diminished due to psychological well being elements.
In 2023, Bryn Spejcher was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing Chad O’Melia, a person she’d been courting, with kitchen knives inside his dwelling in Thousand Oaks. That they had been smoking marijuana out of O’Melia’s bong, which induced Spejcher to endure from cannabis-induced psychosis.
The Ventura County District Legal professional’s Workplace had initially filed a homicide cost in opposition to her, however diminished the cost to involuntary manslaughter after the prosecution’s specialists agreed that she was in a psychotic state introduced on by the marijuana intoxication. Prosecutors couldn’t show malice within the case.
Spejcher was sentenced to probation and neighborhood service. She’s within the technique of interesting her conviction, courtroom information present.
Michael Goldstein, a Los Angeles protection lawyer who represented Spejcher, stated that if Reiner attorneys can doc a historical past of psychological well being points, it might assist his possibilities.
“Primarily based on info which were revealed publicly, [not guilty by reason of insanity] seems to be a viable protection,” Goldstein stated. “If profitable, that will lead to long-term hospitalization. It’s nonetheless early within the course of and Mr. Jackson made it clear there are important points being explored. Time will inform.”
In a case in 2010, Jennifer Lynn Bigham was discovered not responsible of homicide and little one abuse by cause of madness after authorities stated she drowned her 3-year-old daughter in a tub at a relative’s dwelling within the Central Valley.
Medical doctors had decided Bigham was affected by extreme psychological sickness on the time of her daughter’s loss of life. After roughly three years of remedy in 2013, a choose ordered her to be launched from custody as a result of docs stated she was now not insane.
It’s potential, Levenson stated, that the protection will have the ability to current compelling proof of psychological dysfunction to prosecutors to resolve the case earlier than trial. It’s additionally potential the case will go to trial and he may very well be discovered not responsible by cause of madness and dedicated versus serving jail time.
Even when he’s dedicated, in the future any issues he’s recognized with may very well be handled and he may very well be launched, Levenson stated.
Although madness defenses in lots of circumstances usually are not profitable, based mostly on the info identified on the time, this case may very well be an exception, specialists say.
“It’s a fairly traditional of a scenario the place you could have what appears like a very horrific, perhaps premeditated homicide, and then you definitely begin studying extra about his background, that it doesn’t seem like he’s making this up, that there appears to be some medical historical past of this, the change in medicine, and unexpectedly you say, ‘Wow, this may be that uncommon case the place psychological protection, or an madness protection, will succeed,” Levenson stated.
