Nick Reiner entered a Los Angeles courtroom with a shaved head, brown jumpsuit, and shackles. He sat behind glass and let his public defender speak two words: not guilty. To two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for allegedly stabbing Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner to death in their Brentwood bedroom. This Hidden Killers Week In Review breaks down what that plea actually means—and why his siblings Jake and Romy are done.

That plea wasn't a claim of innocence. In California, pursuing an insanity defense requires a dual plea: not guilty AND not guilty by reason of insanity. The single plea keeps all options open. Door one: full insanity under M'Naghten—a longshot given Nick was arguing with his father at a party hours before the killings. Door two: diminished actuality using his schizoaffective disorder to argue he couldn't form specific intent. Door three: incompetence to stand trial.

Meanwhile, sources told TMZ directly: "Nick's defense is Nick's defense. They're not involved." The high-profile attorney Jake and Romy initially funded—Alan Jackson, known for the Karen Read acquittal—withdrew in January. Nick now has a public defender. Reports indicate his siblings won't attend the trial. In over two months, his only visitor has been his lawyer, Kimberly Greene.

After eighteen rehabs, a conservatorship, years of police visits to the family home—what brought two siblings to this point? Tony Brueski examines what Peter Lanza, the Roof family, and Kerri Rawson can teach us about families who finally stopped holding on.

Jake, Romy, and their half-sister Tracy Reiner are living a question the legal system can't fully answer: what do we owe people who refuse to be helped, and what do we owe the people they destroy?

The death penalty remains on the table.

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In the latest development in the Nick Reiner murder case, siblings Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner have reportedly ended all financial support for Nick's defense — and sources say neither will attend his trial.

Nick Reiner, 32, pleaded not guilty on February 23rd, 2026 to two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the stabbing deaths of his parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner at their Brentwood home on December 14th, 2025. He remains in custody without bail. The Los Angeles County DA has not ruled out seeking the death penalty. His next court appearance is April 29th, 2026, where a preliminary hearing will be scheduled.

Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner initially hired prominent criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson — who represented Karen Read in her high-profile acquittal — shortly after the murders. Jackson withdrew in January citing undisclosed reasons he said were legally and ethically impossible to explain. Public defender Kimberly Greene entered Nick's not guilty plea at his February 23rd arraignment and is now his sole representation. Reports indicate she is the only person to have visited Nick during his more than two months in custody.

A source with direct knowledge told TMZ: "Nick's defense is Nick's defense. They're not involved."

This channel covers every development in the Reiner case in depth — the legal strategy, the mental health history, the conservatorship that ended in 2021, the alleged schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, the medication change one month before the murders, and what the road to trial looks like now that Nick faces it largely alone.

Nick's next hearing: April 29th, 2026. Subscribe for full coverage as this case develops.

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Romy Reiner is twenty-eight. She got a call that her parents weren't answering the door for a scheduled appointment. She went to check on them. She found her father's body. She called 911.

And then she learned her brother was a suspect.

We've covered Nick Reiner's mental health history, his legal options, his not guilty plea. But this episode is about the people who have to live with what happened. Jake Reiner, thirty-four. Romy Reiner, twenty-eight. Tracy Reiner, sixty-one. Three siblings who woke up one morning with parents and went to bed that night as orphans.

These aren't just grieving children. They occupy three roles simultaneously: primary mourners with no parents above them to defer to, victims' next of kin with legal standing under Marsy's Law, and the family of the accused. All three. At once. For the rest of their lives.

Days after their parents' deaths, Jake and Romy released a statement: "Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. They weren't just our parents; they were our best friends."

Sources say the siblings have completely cut Nick off. They're not visiting him in custody. But Nick isn't dead. He's awaiting trial. His name will be in headlines for years. The siblings can't grieve him like a loss—they can only carry what he allegedly did.

Sources also say they don't want the death penalty for their brother. But experts note family input is "meaningful but not controlling." They may express their wishes and still watch prosecutors go another direction.

The trial could be over a year away. Through all of it, Jake, Romy, and Tracy will have to figure out how to be a family without the two people who made them one.

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