Nick Reiner will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder, after he was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents, the director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, the Los Angeles district attorney has said.
Nathan Hochman, the district attorney of Los Angeles, said the charges could carry the death penalty, and said that the counts against Nick Reiner include a special circumstance of multiple murders and a special allegation that he used a deadly weapon or knife to commit murder.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Hochman said the charges would be officially filed later today. Nick Reiner will brought to court to be arraigned on the charges after he has been medically cleared to be transferred from the jail, Hochman said.
“This case is heartbreaking and deeply personal, not only for the Reiner family and their loved ones, but for our entire city,” said Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles police department.
He added that the charges were not equal to evidence. “Evidence is something we will be presenting in a court of law to meet the standard of proof we meet at every criminal case, which is beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Detectives from the Los Angeles police department’s (LAPD) homicide division took Nick, 32, into custody on Sunday night, hours after his parents were found dead in their Brentwood home, the department announced on Monday.
The police said that on 14 December, around 3.40pm local time, LAPD officers responded to a call of a death investigation in the 200 block of South Chadbourne Avenue.
They said that once inside the residence, officers discovered two victims, who were later identified as Rob and Michele.
Authorities said that as a result of the initial investigation, it was determined that the Reiners were the victims of homicide and they said that the investigation “further revealed” that their son, Nick, “was responsible for their deaths”. Authorities did not provide any additional details.
Nick was located and arrested at around 9.15pm local time, police said, and was booked for murder. He was being held without bail.
The police said the case would be presented to the Los Angeles county attorney’s office on Tuesday for filing consideration.
Alan Jackson, Nick Reiner’s defense attorney, told reporters that his client had not received medical clearance to appear in court and would not do so before Wednesday.
It will be up to the DA’s office to charge Reiner with specific counts, according to CNN.
The Los Angeles district attorney’s office has until Wednesday to formally file the charges.
On Monday, the Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, confirmed that Nick had been “booked for murder” in connection with his parents’ killings and called the deaths “very tragic”.
Nick Reiner had previously struggled with addiction and mental health, and co-wrote a screenplay based on his experiences that was made into a 2015 film directed by his father. A family friend told the Los Angeles Times that Nick was living at the family property in Brentwood and that Michele Reiner was recently worried about his mental health.
The evening before the killings, Rob and Nick Reiner were heard arguing at a Christmas party at comedian Conan O’Brien’s home, media outlets reported.
