Nick Reiner Murder Case: Why Insanity Defenses Are Tough to Win

Nick Reiner has long been open about his struggles with drug abuse and mental health. But legal experts say it would still be very difficult for his defense lawyers to argue that he is not responsible for the deaths of his parents.

Reiner, 32, has been charged with two counts of murder after allegedly killing his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, at their Brentwood home on Sunday. His mental state seems likely to be a major theme of the case.

“When these kinds of things happen, there’s almost inevitably a mental health issue at the forefront,” said defense attorney Michael Artan.

But drug abuse alone is not enough to make a claim of insanity. Reiner’s lawyers would have to show he suffered from a separate psychiatric disorder that prevented him from telling right from wrong.

“The law doesn’t want to excuse drug-induced criminal conduct,” said Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense lawyer who has worked on insanity cases. Gorin said that an insanity plea is “an uphill battle for most defendants.”

“In my experience, jurors come in prejudiced against the defendant,” he said. “They believe the insanity defense is used as an excuse. It’s rarely used successfully.”

Reiner made a brief appearance in court on Wednesday, agreeing to postpone his arraignment to Jan. 7. Outside court, his defense attorney Alan Jackson declined to comment on his client’s mental health.

Reiner was initially expected to go before a judge on Tuesday, but was not medically cleared to be transported from the jail. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos said he took that as a sign that Jackson may argue that his client is not competent to stand trial — a separate issue from an insanity plea.

“To me that’s a red flag that it’s a competency issue,” Geragos said, noting that issue often arises in parricide cases.

To make that argument, Reiner’s lawyers would have to show that he does not understand the proceedings and is incapable of participating in his defense. He would then be sent for treatment at a state facility until he is well enough to be tried.

An insanity defense, by contrast, pertains to the defendant’s mental state at the time of the crime. It would be raised during an insanity phase of the trial. If successful, Reiner would be sent to a psychiatric institution instead of prison.

“The defense of insanity is actually really tough to win,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School. “It depends on what experts have to say. Does he have a mental disease or defect? Is it such that he didn’t know what he was doing or he didn’t know it was wrong?”

Drug use would only be helpful to the defense if it had done permanent and verifiable brain damage, Levenson said. A drug-induced episode would not qualify.

Nick Reiner discussed his drug addiction several times on podcasts and in interviews during promotion of “Being Charlie,” the 2015 film he co-wrote about his experiences. On the Dopey Podcast in 2018, he described destroying his parents’ guest house while high on cocaine and other drugs.

“Everything in the guest house got wrecked,” he said, saying he went “crazy” after his parents told him to leave.

On a 2016 podcast hosted by recovery writer Anna David, he said he been in 18 rehabs between the ages of 15 and 19. He said that at one facility, he threw a rock through a window in an effort to prove he needed medication.

“I was insane,” he said. “And I said, ‘I’m insane.’ And they said, ‘No, you’re not.’ I was like, ‘Well, they’re not taking my word for it. I might as well demonstrate what crazy is.'”

The defense team will likely comb through Reiner’s treatment records for evidence of delusional behavior or psychotic episodes.

“Often drug-addicted people are mentally challenged before they start taking drugs,” said attorney Stuart Goldfarb, who represented the porn star Ron Jeremy. “There’s going to be an enormous amount of discovery of his medical history before the defense attorneys decide exactly which way they’re going to go.”

Reiner’s mental health could also come up early in the proceedings if his lawyers seek bail. They could ask that he be ordered to a psychiatric facility, where he would get better care than he would in county jail.

Even if Reiner’s defense team does not pursue an insanity defense, his mental health could be used to argue for conviction on a lesser offense, like second-degree murder or manslaughter.

“We don’t know if he was thinking clearly enough to be guilty of the intent you need for first-degree murder,” Levenson said.