Mediator to decide whether Nick Reiner can use trust to pay for murder defenseDani Anguiano Fri, October 23, 2026 at 8:05 PM UTC
Nick Reiner during his arraignment in Los Angeles county superior court in Los Angeles, California, on 23 February.Photograph: Chris Torres/Reuters
The legal dispute over whether Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, can access a trust fund established for him by the couple decades ago will go to a mediator.
Reiner’s attorneys announced in court on Friday to a Los Angeles judge that all parties involved in the matter had scheduled “a global mediation” for December.
The 33-year-old Reiner has said he needs the funds in order to pay for his defense in the case, and that funding has been withheld for years, before their deaths, without legal justification.
“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this trust litigation,” his attorneys stated in a petition filed earlier this year. “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.”
Reiner is accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, Rob Reiner, an acclaimed director and actor, and photographer Michele Singer Reiner. Prosecutors allege that he fatally stabbed the couple in their Brentwood home last December, and fled the scene. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.
The high-profile private attorney Alan Jackson briefly represented him, but left the case because Reiner could not pay attorney fees, according to court documents. Reiner has indicated that he plans to rehire Jackson if he can access the trust.
Rob and Michele Singer Reiner set up individual trusts for each of their children with “unambiguous instructions” that Nick Reiner was supposed to receive half its money when he turned 30 and the remainder at 35, according to a court filing. Reiner never received funds and his attorneys allege that a trustee who oversaw the trust gave “a shifting series of excuses and justifications” to deny Reiner the money.
During Friday’s hearing, an attorney for a trustee asked the judge to allow payments from the trust to Reiner’s commissary account, Rolling Stone reported.
If the parties reach a settlement, it must be approved by a judge.
The contributed reporting
Source: Crime