Nick Reiner Argues His Trust Money Is From Grandfather Carl and Exempt From ‘Slayer Statute’
“Nick is not accused of causing his death,” the filing from Rob Reiner’s son’s legal team notes
Nick Reiner argued the “Slayer Statute” shouldn’t play a factor in whether he accesses his trust money, defending a large portion of the inheritance actually came from his grandfather, Hollywood legend Carl Reiner, and not his slain parents.
In new civil court documents, obtained and viewed by TheWrap, Reiner’s team fought to get access to the trust money that has been kept from the “Being Charlie” screenwriter. The 32-year-old Reiner, who has been charged in the killing of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, previously defended that he needed access to those funds to rehire powerhouse attorney Alan Jackson, who abruptly withdrew from the case in January due to lack of funding.
The fiduciaries for the trust hit back by citing the “Slayer Statute” as the reason for Reiner being denied access to the trust. For those unfamiliar, the law prohibits someone from receiving an inheritance from a person they have killed.
Yet, Reiner’s camp argued in the Friday documents that since “a substantial portion of the Trust came from Nick’s grandfather,” who died of natural causes in 2020 at the age of 98, this was not a valid argument.
“Nick’s grandfather died on June 29, 2020. Nick is not accused of causing his death,” the filing noted. “Money that was left to Nick by his grandfather is not money received by Nick from or through his parents. To the extent the funds Nick received from his grandfather are Nick’s personal assets, they remain Nick’s and should be segregated and released from this Trust. Even if they were properly held by the Trust, the Slayer Statute does not supply a basis for withholding them.”
Elsewhere in the filing, Reiner’s team also argued that a portion of the trust was due to be given to him on his 30th birthday, well before the death of his parents.
“This case is not about the far larger Reiner Family Trusts, which hold the assets of Nick’s parents’ estate and the inheritances they left their children,” the document stated. “This case is about money Nick’s parents separately set aside for him alone and made irrevocable, to be paid to him on two fixed dates: one-half at 30, and the balance at 35.”
The filing continued: “Nick turned 30 on Sept. 14, 2023. By the Successor Trustee’s own calculation, at least $558,000 became due and payable to him that day. His parents were alive. No one had accused him of anything. The Slayer Statute, the sole remaining basis for withholding this money, takes away what a person receives as a result of someone’s death.”
They also highlighted that Reiner has yet to be found guilty in a court of law.
Reiner’s team then asked the Court to “enter an order freezing a presumed-innocent man’s own untainted money until after the trial,” noting that by doing so it would “deny him representation he could otherwise afford.”
This update comes a month after Reiner was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder after his parents were stabbed to death in their Brentwood, Calif. home, adding a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait. Reiner was arrested in December just hours after his parents were found dead in their home and has been held without bail ever since.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman shared that Reiner will not be facing the death penalty for the killing of Rob and Michele Reiner.
“We did speak with Nick Reiner’s siblings,” Hochman said at the time. “They made their views very clear. We took their views into consideration in ultimately deciding not to seek the death penalty.”
“This decision reflects our careful judgment about the most appropriate path to take in this case and does not diminish the severity of these crimes,” he added in a statement. “I have spoken to the Reiner family and evaluated the mitigating and aggravating factors that are part of special circumstance murder cases. Seeking capital punishment should be reserved for the most egregious instances, and we determined after a thorough review that the death penalty was not the appropriate resolution in this case.”
If convicted, Reiner faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Currently, no trial date has been.
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