Nick Reiner case in probate court as accused killer looks to access trust fund for defense
Nick Reiner appears with Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene during his arraignment in Los Angeles County Superior Court on February 23, 2026 in Los Angeles. (Chris Torres/Pool/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — The fight over Nick Reiner’s trust fund is expected to play out Monday in probate court in Los Angeles, with the 32-year-old looking to access money from the fund for his defense.
Nick Reiner is accused of fatally stabbing his parents, renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, in the family’s home in December.
An indictment unsealed last week charges Nick Reiner with two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait, according to prosecutors. He also faces a special allegation that he used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife. The 32-year-old pleaded not guilty and has been appointed a public defender.
Nick Reiner is now looking to access more than $500,000 he says he’s owed from a trust fund, saying he wants to use that money for his legal defense.
A financial steward for the trust fund argues that a piece of California law known as the “slayer statute” prevents a person from receiving trust fund money from a person they intentionally killed.
The steward said Nick Reiner is innocent until proven guilty, and if he’s found not guilty, he would get the money. However, if the funds were given to Nick Reiner now and he were later found guilty, there would be no way of getting the money back.
Nick Reiner remains held on no bond and is next due in court on Sept. 15 for a pretrial hearing. No trial date has been set.
Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife and youngest son, listens as his attorneys Dick Harpootlian, left, and Phil Barber speak during a judicial hearing at the Richland County Judicial Center in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan. 29, 2024. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The South Carolina Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh, who was found guilty of killing his wife and younger son, finding that the court clerk’s “improper external influence” on the jury denied him a fair trial.
Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate in 2021.
Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering them following a six-week trial, with jurors deliberating for nearly three hours before reaching a guilty verdict.
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Murdaugh must have a new trial, citing the actions of former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill, the court clerk who served during the double murder trial.
Hill “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense, thus triggering the presumption of prejudice, which the State was unable to rebut,” the court’s opinion stated. “As noted at the outset, Hill’s shocking jury interference was accomplished outside the presence and knowledge of the outstanding trial judge and superbly competent and professional counsel for the State and the defense.”
In a footnote, the justices said they “commend the post-trial court, which inherited Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial and was placed in the unenviable position of evaluating unprecedented jury interference by a clerk of court within the context of a murky area of law.”
Following the decision, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office will “aggressively” seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders “as soon as possible.”
“Let me be clear — this decision does not mean Murdaugh will be released,” Wilson said in a statement. “He will remain in prison for his financial crimes. No one is above the law and, as always, we will continue to fight for justice.”
Murdaugh was also convicted on several financial crimes following the murder trial and is serving a 27-year sentence on state charges and a 40-year sentence on federal charges related to those crimes.
In the murder trial, prosecutors made the case that Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a legacy of prominent attorneys in the Lowcountry region, killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial wrongdoings, while the defense argued that police ignored the possibility that anyone else could have killed them.
Murdaugh has continued to maintain his innocence. His defense alleged that jury tampering and evidentiary errors — including the inclusion of his financial crimes — denied him a fair trial.
Murdaugh’s attorneys contend that Hill tampered with the jury by “advising it not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other defense evidence, pressuring it to reach a quick guilty verdict, misrepresenting information to the trial court in an attempt to have the court remove a juror she believed to favor the defense.”
During oral arguments before the state Supreme Court justices on the matter in February, the defense alleged that Hill tampered with the jury to ensure a guilty verdict because, they claimed, it would help her sell more copies of a book she would go on to write about the high-profile case.
Murdaugh’s defense claimed that Hill influenced the verdict through remarks heard by some jurors during the trial, including in one instance to watch Murdaugh’s body language during his testimony, according to court filings.
“The clerk of court allowed public attention of the moment to overcome her duty,” Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said during the February hearing.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters countered during the hearing that Hill made a “few fleeting comments” over the course of a six-week trial that included nearly 90 witnesses and almost 600 exhibits, arguing that they weren’t enough to influence the verdict.
Chief Justice John Kittredge called Hill a “rogue clerk of court” during the hearing and said he wanted to make note that the “overwhelming majority” of clerks in the state are “dedicated, conscientious public servants” who “do not act like this.”
Hill resigned as the Colleton County clerk of court in March 2024, amid the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s investigation into allegations she may have abused her government position for financial gain.
She pleaded guilty in December 2025 to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office for showing photographs that were sealed court evidence to a reporter during the trial and then later lying about doing so on the stand during a hearing related to Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial.
The charges did not allege any jury tampering, and she denied any tampering with the jury during her testimony.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Police officers walk on patrol at the scene of a mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival on July 26, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. At least two people are dead and at least five are wounded after a mass shooting at the event at Seattle Center. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
(SEATTLE) — A 15-year-old is in custody and a second suspect is at large following a shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival that left three people dead and several wounded, officials said.
Authorities were dispatched to the scene at the Seattle Center at about 6 p.m. Sunday and found two people shooting at each other, according to the Seattle Police Department.
A 15-year-old has been detained and booked for investigation for firearms violations and first-degree assault, Mayor Katie Wilson said at a news conference on Monday.
“We believe this teenager opened fire in the crowd, but details are still under investigation,” Wilson said.
She added that no one has been arrested for investigation of homicide.
The other person alleged to be firing shots is unidentified and remains unaccounted for, police said Monday.
At least seven victims were caught in the crossfire, Wilson said.
The victims killed were identified by police as a 19-year-old man, a 44-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman.
Three injured victims — a 2-year-old boy, a 23-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman — were hospitalized, authorities said. The man and woman have since been discharged while the 2-year-old is in satisfactory condition, police said on Monday.
A fourth injured victim, a 40-year-old woman, had minor injuries and declined to be taken to the hospital, according to officials.
Police said they are also investigating a potential fifth wounded victim. A 27-year-old man with a gunshot wound went to a hospital in satisfactory condition and police said they are working to determine if this person was hurt in the shooting.
The shooting erupted during Bite of Seattle, an annual festival with food vendors and live music held at the Seattle Center.
The 15-year-old will appear in court on Monday, Wilson said.
ABC News’ Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
Payton Gendron (C) is escorted back into the courtroom by deputies after a disruption during sentencing in Buffalo, New York, Feb. 15, 2023. (Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images)
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — More than four years after he gunned down 10 Black people in a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, Payton Gendron’s federal trial reaches a crucial point on Monday in selecting a jury that will decide whether he lives or dies.
Gendron, who will turn 23 next week, has already pleaded guilty to state charges stemming from the May 14, 2022, attack at a Tops supermarket, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate. He is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gendron, according to his attorneys, has proposed pleading guilty to the 27-count federal indictment, including 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, but the Department of Justice has rejected his offer.
“The United States believes the circumstances in Counts 11-20 of the Indictment are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified,” federal prosecutors said in January 2024, when they announced the decision to pursue the death penalty against Gendron.
On Monday, about 1,200 potential jurors who filled out an initial questionnaire were summoned to appear at the U.S. District Court in Buffalo to complete a more extensive inquiry to determine whether they can serve as fair and impartial jurors.
Based on their responses, Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo, who is overseeing the case, and the attorneys involved hope to whittle the potential jury pool down to several hundred.
Those who make the cut will be brought back in August to be questioned by the lawyers and judge, who are hoping to seat 12 jurors and at least six alternates for the trial scheduled to begin in October.
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Garnell Whitfield, the former Buffalo fire commissioner, whose 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was killed in the supermarket attack, said he plans to attend Monday’s court proceedings.
Whitfield told ABC News that he’s hoping that the upcoming trial will expose those whom he says helped radicalize Gendron, including the social media companies that allegedly provided the addictive algorithms that fed Gendron’s hate of Black people.
“I’m more concerned with that than I am with him. He’s a dead man walking as far as I’m concerned,” Whitfield said.
Social media companies are not defendants in the trial, have not accused of any wrongdoing by prosecutors.
Whitfield and other relatives of those killed and wounded in the attack filed a lawsuit in May 2023 against several social media companies alleging they facilitated the teenage killer’s white supremacist radicalization by allowing racist propaganda to fester on their platforms. The outcome of the case is still pending in the state Supreme Court. The social media companies have denied all wrong doing.
During his sentencing in the state case in May 2023, Gendron apologized to the relatives of the victims, saying he was “very sorry for all the pain” he caused and “for stealing the lives of your loved ones.”
“I did a terrible thing that day,” Gendron said in court. “I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it. I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. I know I can’t take it back, but I wish I could, and I don’t want anyone to be inspired by me and what I did.”
Gendron planned the massacre for months — including previously traveling twice to the Tops store he targeted, a more than three-hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York — to scout the layout and count the number of Black people present, according to state prosecutors. Wearing tactical gear, body armor and wielding an AR-15-style rifle he legally purchased and illegally modified, Gendron committed the rampage on a Saturday afternoon when prosecutors said he knew the store would be full of Black shoppers.
The attack was caught on a Tops supermarket surveillance camera and a helmet camera worn by Gendron that he used to livestream on Twitch. Before the attack, he also posted a racist screed online containing the names of past mass shooters he admired.
Brian Buckmire, an ABC News legal analyst, said Gendron’s attorneys are aiming at seating jurors who can set aside the defendant’s guilty plea and decide the case based on the facts presented at trial.
“This is not a case of guilt or innocence; this is a case … of attempting to save his life,” he said.
Buckmire said that in the current phase of jury selection, potential members of the panel will likely be asked about their personal beliefs about the death penalty.
He noted that the judge in the case has already denied a request from the defense to move the trial from Buffalo in Erie County to Rochester in Monroe County.
“So, it’s deep in the heart of where all of this harm happened,” Buckmire said.
Buckmire said the defense is facing an uphill battle and will likely focus on trying to persuade the jury that Gendron should not be put to death.
“From a fact-based standpoint, it’s hard to say he’s not guilty,” Buckmire said. “I think the only argument here and the only strength of anything they can make out here is he doesn’t deserve the death penalty because of his age [and] the influences he had.”
