Need to know
Rob and Michele Reiner’s son Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and faces years behind bars. But could he face the death penalty for the crimes?
Everything to know about Nick Reiner’s charges and whether he faces the death penalty
- Rob and Michele Reiner’s son, Nick, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The 32-year-old was arrested on Sunday at 21:15 local time in Los Angeles and officially booked the following morning. He is accused of murdering his parents, who were found dead at their home in the Brentwood area. Both Rob and Michele had their throats slit.
- He has been remanded in custody since his arrest. On Tuesday, Nick was officially charged but was not given medical clearance to appear in court. He’s expected to make his first in-person appearance later today. But reports claim that he is now under the “supervision of the jail mental evaluation team” at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Downtown Los Angeles.
- On Tuesday, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that Nick had been formally charged. He said: “I’m here to announce that our office will be filing charges against Nick Reiner accused of killing his parents. These charges will be two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders. He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife.”
- The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Along with the two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors added special circumstances of multiple murders and a special allegation that the defendant used a dangerous weapon, a knife. The additions could mean a greater sentence.
- However, no decision has yet been made in respect of the death penalty. In the past year, there have been 46 executions in the United States, with a further two planned for this year. President Donald Trump has been vocal about his support for the death penalty. But, no prisoners in California have been executed since Clarence Ray Allen was given the lethal injection on January 17, 2006. Nathan Hochman explained that he would be willing to allow prosecutors to seek capital punishment. He did, however, say that these would be “exceedingly rare cases”.
- Nick is believed to have checked into the Pierside Santa Monica at around 4am after leaving a party, where he had argued with his father. Staff discovered that the shower was “full of blood” and there was a trail leading from his bed, with bedsheets also covering the windows. Nick and Michele’s dead bodies were discovered less than 11 hours later by their daughter, Romy, at 3:30pm on Sunday. He did not resist when he was arrested hours later in the Exposition Park area near the University of Southern California, about 14 miles (22.5 kilometres) from the crime scene, police said.
- READ THE FULL STORY HERE: Rob Reiner’s son Nick charged with brutal murder of parents
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
