Murder Defendant Sues to Access Parents' Trust Fund for Legal Defense

When you’re facing two counts of first-degree murder, accessing your inheritance becomes a lot more complicated—especially when the person controlling it refuses to cooperate.

Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old charged with stabbing his parents Rob and Michele Reiner to death in December, filed a petition this week demanding the trustee release money from a family trust his parents established back in 1992. The catch: he’s asking for funds he claims were supposed to be distributed when he turned 30. That was two years ago. Now, sitting behind bars awaiting trial, he’s running out of options—and apparently, running out of patience.

Here’s where it gets thorny. Nick had hired attorney Alan Jackson to fight the murder charges, and his siblings Jake and Romy agreed to help fund the legal defense. But when the trustee refused to pay Jackson’s fees, the lawyer stepped down from the case. Nick’s now stuck without a private attorney at a critical moment in his defense. In his petition, he emphasized that“time is of the essence”and that the trustee’s“delay and inaction”is jeopardizing his ability to mount an effective criminal defense. He’s seeking both an accounting and damages from the trustee.

The broader picture here underscores a grim reality: Nick currently has no other source of funding his legal fees or basic support while incarcerated. His siblings have made clear they won’t be fronting the money themselves. Jake posted a heartbreaking tribute in April about missing his parents at major life milestones—his wedding, meeting grandchildren, watching his career take off. There’s no indication either Jake or Romy are prepared to bankroll their brother’s defense, regardless of whether they believe in his innocence.

The preliminary hearing was pushed back to September, partly because autopsies on Rob and Michele still hadn’t been completed four months after their deaths. Nick has pleaded not guilty. Whether the court will force the trustee to release funds remains to be seen—but the timing suggests his legal team is feeling the pressure. You can argue about whether a defendant charged with murdering his parents deserves access to family assets, but there’s no escaping the fact that Nick’s defense now hinges on a bureaucratic battle over money his parents set aside decades ago, before any of this was imaginable.