Conan O’Brien’s party guests likely to testify at Nick Reiner’s trial

Some of the celebrities and high-powered executives who gathered at Conan O’Brien’s annual holiday party on Dec. 13 are likely to be called to testify in the first-degree murder trial of Nick Reiner, especially if he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity in the fatal stabbing of his parents, legendary director Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner.

Rob and Michele Reiner brought their long-troubled 32-year-old son along to the party, where he reportedly displayed unsettling, asocial and erratic behavior, asking some attendees if they were “famous,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. Among the known guests were Jane Fonda and Bill Hader, the latter of whom had an uncomfortable encounter with Nick. A “mortified” Rob Reiner reportedly got into a heated argument with his son about his behavior before he and his wife apologized and left the party.

It’s believed that several hours later, in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, Nick Reiner attacked his parents in the bedroom of their Brentwood home, inflicting “multiple sharp force injuries” on them that killed them within minutes, according to Deadline, citing documents from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Given reports that Nick Reiner had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, in addition to dealing with a long-term drug addiction, his serious mental illness and his state of mind around the time of the killing are likely to be a major issue in the case, especially if it goes to trial. For that reason, people who were around Nick Reiner in the hours before the killings have become  important witnesses

“It’s very likely that some people from that party are going to end up on a witness list, either for the defense or the prosecution,” said R.J. Dreiling, a criminal defense attorney who was a former senior prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Dreiling added that police also would want guests’ statements about what they observed about Reiner’s behavior.

“If (Reiner) was exhibiting mental health issues, (the party guests) end up on the defense list,” Dreiling continued. “If he appeared to have his bearings straight, like, he was able to interact with people and have a straightforward conversation and was not hallucinating, he might end up on the prosecution side. It’s also highly possible you will have some people from the party on the defense list, and some on the prosecution list.”

TMZ has reported that Reiner was diagnosed in 2020 with schizoaffective disorder, a condition that can involves mania, depression and the delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking associated with schizophrenia. TMZ also has reported that his doctors, for reasons that have yet to be disclosed, recently changed his medication recently and he become unstable.

Rob and Michele Reiner had become increasingly anguished about their son’s condition, with Michele saying, “we’ve tried everything,” TMZ also reported. The couple moreover had expressed concern about leaving him home alone, which is the reason they asked if he could accompany them to O’Brien’s Christmas party. But once at the party, he made other guests feel “uneasy,” and his argument with his father prompted some guests to wonder if they should call 911, the Daily Mail reported. Before leaving the party, Reiner reportedly told friends he was “was petrified” that Nick could hurt him.

Now in custody, Reiner’s condition has not stabilized and his medication is not working properly, TMZ reported Friday. Sources told TMZ that Reiner is delusional and he believes that the people “who put him behind bars are engaged in a ‘conspiracy’ against him.”

According to reports, it’s looking likely that Reiner will plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and his lawyer will proceed with what’s considered to be a challenging defense strategy. Usually in a criminal trial, the burden is on the prosecution to persuade a jury that the defendant is guilty of a crime, Dreiling explained. But with a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity (NGI) defense, the burden is on the defendant to prove that, even if he committed the crime, he should be found acquitted because he was insane at the time of the act.

But California law sets a high burden of proof for a defendant to be declared legally insane at the time of a crime. For one thing, it takes more than a defendant saying he’s been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, such as schizoaffective disorder. The defendant also has to show that, “by reason of mental disease or defect,” he was incapable of either: “knowing the nature of his  act; understanding the nature of his act; or distinguishing between right and wrong at the time of commission of the crime.”

Dreiling agreed that an NGI defense often gets hung up on the question of whether the defendant can distinguish between right and wrong at the time of crime. A person can be seriously ill, and even hear voices and have delusions but still know it’s wrong to hurt another person, for example. “It usually comes in postpartum cases where the mom thinks that her child is possessed by the devil” and believes, at the moment, she has no choice, he said. It remains to be seen what Reiner thought or believed about his parents on the night they were killed. But “generally speaking, an NGI plea is an uphill battle for the defense,” Dreiling said.

Indeed, a widely cited study going back to 1991 showed that across eight states, including California, the insanity defense was raised in only about 1% of felony cases. In addition, only 26% of defendants raising the insanity defense were found not guilty by reason of insanity. But it should be noted that a successful NGI defense doesn’t lead to a defendant’s automatic release from custody. Defendants who are acquitted by proving they are insane are usually committed to a state hospital, where they have to remain — sometimes for years — until the danger has passed.

Dreiling added that Reiner’s mental illness could come into play in other ways, with his attorney arguing that he shouldn’t be convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances, which carries the potential sentence of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Instead, the attorney could argue that he should be convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter, which could lead to a lesser sentence.

According to a new Daily Mail report, Reiner’s grieving siblings, Jake and Romy, are not inclined to support any attempt by their brother to lessen his criminal responsibility for their parents’ murder. They believe his act was “despicable” and want to distance themselves from him. That’s the reason they decided to not use any money from their parents’ estate to hire a pricey private defense attorney to defend him.

High-powered defense attorney Alan Jackson had originally been retained to defend Reiner, but on Wednesday Jackson announced that he was withdrawing from the case due to “circumstances beyond” his and Reiner’s control. Reiner is now being represented by a public defender.

“He’s accused of taking their parents, now should he take their inheritance so he can get free from the consequences? That’s what everyone’s reaction has been,” a source told the Daily Mail. “(Nick) did this himself, he can deal with the consequences himself.”

Sources close to the Reiner family told the Daily Mail that Jake and Romy Reiner  “agonized” over the decision because it goes against the family’s ethos to never turn your back on a loved one. But the siblings made the decision together, with the full backing of their wider family.

Dreiling said that the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s office is staffed with attorneys who have lots of experience dealing with mental health cases. “There are a lot of really good lawyers in there,” he said.