EXCLUSIVE: The Courtroom Strategy War — Why the Reiner Slayings 'Death Penalty' Talk May Mean Less Than It Appears
The most terrifying words in the Nick Reiner filing may be the most strategic.
With Hollywood still reeling from the brutal double homicide of famed director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, the case against their accused son Nick Reiner has already entered a second, quieter phase: the strategy war over what the prosecution is going to try to prove in court.
Nick, 32, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office with two counts of first-degree murder, alongside special-circumstance allegations, and the use of a dangerous weapon, namely, a knife.
It’s the “special-circumstance allegations” that are key. In California, special-circumstance murder is what changes first-degree murder from “25-to-life.”