Overview
- Trustees have formally refused Nick Reiner’s request to access roughly $1.5 million in family trust assets and have lodged objections in Los Angeles probate court invoking California’s slayer statute.
- Reiner is fighting the block and has renewed a petition for an age-30 distribution of about $558,000 that he says is owed and would be used to hire private counsel and pay jail commissary costs.
- Prosecutors in an indictment unsealed this month charged Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances including lying in wait and use of a knife; he has pleaded not guilty.
- Trustees and their lawyers say the state already provides housing, food, medical care and an appointed public defender and that making the payout now would be irreversible if Reiner is later convicted; his lawyers say the statute requires a legal determination of guilt and he is presumed innocent.
- The probate fight remains active in Los Angeles Superior Court and Reiner’s criminal pretrial hearing is set for Sept. 15, a schedule that will shape whether he can use trust funds for private defense and who may ultimately receive the assets.