Category: Breitbart
Nick Reiner will be charged with murder in the killing of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner: Prosecutors
Prosecutors said Nick Reiner will be charged with murder in the killing of his parents, famed moviemaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, the New York Times reported.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced the charges Tuesday, the Times said, adding that the Reiners were found stabbed to death Sunday afternoon in their Brentwood, California, home.
When hotel staff entered Nick Reiner’s room later on Sunday morning, they found the shower ‘full of blood’ and blood on the bed.
Hochman said his office will file two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance alleging multiple murders, NBC News reported.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Times said, adding that Hochman said no decision has been made with respect to the death penalty.
Hochman added that Nick Reiner used a knife to kill his parents, the paper said, but the district attorney wouldn’t provide any details about the murder weapon, including if and where it had been recovered.
“That will actually be evidence we’ll present in court,” Hochman said, according to the Times.
More from the paper:
Nick Reiner, 32, did not appear in court on Tuesday because he had not been medically cleared to be transferred to the courthouse from the jail, his lawyer, Alan Jackson, told reporters at the courthouse. The screening is a requirement to ensure that detainees do not need medical treatment, and Nick Reiner, once medically cleared, will be brought to court for arraignment, Mr. Hochman said. At that time, Nick Reiner will enter a plea.
Blood allegedly was found in a hotel room Nick Reiner checked into hours after arguing with his famed moviemaker father at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party, which took place Saturday.
Nick Reiner’s behavior alarmed guests at the party, the New York Times reported, citing two attendees who asked not to be named in order to maintain relationships.
More from the Times:
Rob and Nick Reiner got into a shouting match at the party in West Los Angeles, said one of the attendees, who recalled Rob Reiner telling his son that his behavior was inappropriate. The attendee, who did not speak to the Reiners at the party, said that people seemed to be very aware of Nick Reiner’s history with drug abuse, which the family has discussed publicly.
Another attendee said that he did not witness the dispute, but he recognized Rob Reiner in the crowd and noticed the younger Reiner hovering at the fringes of the informal gathering. The guest said that he and other attendees were worried and that several people commented to him on Nick Reiner’s behavior, saying he looked anxious and uncomfortable in a way that deeply unsettled them.
The Reiners were upset and embarrassed about their son’s behavior at the party and expressed worries about his health, NBC News reported, citing another person.
What’s more, Nick Reiner was alleged to have interrupted a conversation involving comedian Bill Hader, NBC News added. When Hader told Nick Reiner that the conversation was private, the source told the news network that Nick Reiner appeared to pause and stare before “storming off.” Hader did not return a request for comment, NBC News also said.
Nick Reiner hours later used his credit card to check into the Pierside Santa Monica hotel around 4 a.m. Sunday, TMZ reported, citing sources with direct knowledge.
Eyewitnesses who saw Nick Reiner check into the hotel told TMZ he seemed “tweaked out,” but there were no visible signs that he had been in a violent confrontation, and there were no bloodstains or cuts on his body.
TMZ added that Nick Reiner’s reservation was for one day, but he never formally checked out.
When hotel staff entered Nick Reiner’s room later on Sunday morning, they found the shower “full of blood” and blood on the bed, TMZ reported, adding that the room’s window was covered by bedsheets.
LAPD Robbery-Homicide detectives went to the hotel Monday to gather evidence and interview employees, TMZ said, adding that Nick Reiner was located and arrested about 20 miles away in Exposition Park, near downtown Los Angeles.
Reiner was arrested around 9:15 p.m. Sunday night; authorities were called for medical aid to the Reiner home around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, where the bodies of his parents were found.
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JD Vance Turns Tables On Reporter Asking About Susie Wiles’ Alleged Accusation That He’s A ‘Conspiracy Theorist’
‘I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true’
‘Truly wicked’: Trump administration blasts Obama judge over praise of illegal alien who raped disabled American woman
The Trump administration blasted U.S. District Judge Judith Levy over the weekend for her “truly wicked” praise and deferential treatment of a predator who stole into the United States multiple times and brutalized an American citizen.
Edys Renan Membreño Díaz, a 30-year-old Honduran national, is presently serving between six and 15 years in a Michigan state prison for raping and sodomizing a woman he knew was incapable of giving consent, who has cerebral palsy and cognitive delays. Díaz, who moved to Michigan in 2021, raped the victim on two occasions: on July 15 and July 17, 2022, leaving her with injuries.
‘This isn’t justice; it’s judicial activism prioritizing criminals over citizens.’
While Díaz could be a free man as soon as July 23, 2028, federal prosecutors want the rapist to serve an additional two years for his violation of U.S. immigration law. Díaz has illegally entered the U.S. seven times.
According to court documents, prosecutors believe that a sentence of two years would recognize the gravity both of the rapist’s repeated illegal entry into the U.S. and his criminal conduct while in the country and would serve as a deterrent to future criminal activity.
The rapist’s lawyer alternatively asked Levy, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who has made a big deal out of her lesbian identity, to give the rapist a sentence concurrent with his sentence in the state case such that he would still eligible for release in 2028.
Levy not only decided to spare Díaz from a longer prison sentence for immigration crimes but echoed his lawyer’s framing — that the rapist was a family man simply doing the work that Americans supposedly find unappealing.
RELATED: Portland man allegedly lured 15-year-old girl from public library and raped her for days, police say
kali9/Getty Images
According to the sentencing transcript highlighted by the Detroit News, Levy said that while Díaz’s sex crimes were “horrible,” he has “taken responsibility for that, expressed remorse,” and is serving “a lengthy state sentence as punishment for that conduct.”
The Obama judge proceeded to paint the rapist as something of a victim of circumstance and a praiseworthy figure, going so far as to celebrate his efforts to displace U.S. citizen labor for the benefit of foreigners outside the country.
“You have lost two siblings to violence in Honduras, and your mother expresses her dependence on you in her need for the resources and love that you have provided to her,” said Levy. “So I commend you for supporting your family, for expressing your devotion to them, and for working here in the United States in jobs that Americans apparently do not want to work in.”
Díaz has recently indicated that he now wants to go home to Honduras, and Levy suggested further that the rapist’s vows not to enter into the U.S. illegally an eighth time and to dissuade his fellow Hondurans from jumping the border together signaled that he was “promoting respect for the law.”
The Obama judge decided to let the rapist off on his immigration crimes with time allegedly served and a special assessment fine of $100.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Fairchild told Levy that the sentence imposed constituted an “unreasonable departure from the guideline range.” The government subsequently appealed Levy’s decision.
In the appeal, assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Sweeney Bean noted, “Despite six prior removals from the United States, Membrano Diaz returned and raped and sodomized a disabled American citizen. A non-custodial sentence here was an abuse of discretion.”
In addition to noting that Levy “unreasonably discounted the serious nature of the offense and Membrano Diaz’s disturbing history and characteristics,” Bean pointed out that the Obama judge’s “time served” sentence was preposterous, as “the defendant cannot receive credit against his federal sentence for that period of prior detention, because it has already been credited against the state sentence.”
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in response to Levy’s decision, “Unspeakable Depravity.”
“U.S. District Judge Judith Levy refused to sentence him to 2 more years for immigration crimes and called this monster a future ‘ambassador for living up to our immigration restrictions,'” McLaughlin noted in a X post on Saturday. “This Obama appointed judge went on to praise him for ‘family devotion and willingness to perform work that it claimed Americans find undesirable.’ Truly wicked.”
Kevin Kijewski, a Republican who is running to become attorney general of Michigan, wrote, “This isn’t justice; it’s judicial activism prioritizing criminals over citizens and spitting on federal law enforcement’s work to secure our borders under President Trump’s leadership.”
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The people carrying addiction’s weight rarely get seen
What happened Sunday at the home of Rob and Michele Reiner is a family nightmare. A son battling addiction, likely complicated by mental illness. Parents who loved him. A volatile situation that finally erupted into irreversible tragedy.
I grieve for them.
Shame keeps families quiet. Fear keeps them guarded. Love keeps them hoping longer than wisdom sometimes allows.
I also grieve for the families who read those headlines and felt something tighten in their chest because the story felt painfully familiar.
We often hear the phrase, “If you see something, say something.” The problem is that most people do not know what to say. So they say nothing at all.
What if we started somewhere simpler?
I see you. I see the weight you are carrying. I hurt with you.
Families living with addiction and serious mental illness often find themselves isolated. Not only because of the chaos inside their homes, but because friends, neighbors, and even faith communities hesitate to step closer, unsure of what to say or do. Over time, silence settles in.
Long before police are called, before neighbors hear sirens, before a tragedy becomes a headline, people live inside relentless stress and uncertainty every day.
They are caregivers.
We rarely use that word for parents, spouses, or siblings of addicts, but we should. These families do not simply react to bad choices. They manage instability. They monitor risk. They absorb emotional whiplash. They try to keep everyone safe while holding together a household under extraordinary strain.
In many ways, this disorientation rivals Alzheimer’s. In some cases, it proves even more destabilizing.
Addiction is cruelly unpredictable. It offers moments of clarity that feel like hope. A sober conversation. An apology. A promise that sounds sincere. Those moments can disarm a family member who desperately wants to believe the worst has passed.
Then the pivot comes. Calm turns to chaos. Remorse gives way to rage. Many families learn to live on edge, constantly recalibrating, never certain whether today will be manageable or explosive.
Law enforcement officers understand this reality well. Many domestic calls involve addiction, mental illness, or both. Tension often greets officers at the door, followed by a familiar refrain: “We didn’t know what else to do.”
Calling these family members caregivers matters because it reframes the conversation. It moves us away from judgment and toward reality. From, “Why don’t they just …?” to, “What are they carrying?” It acknowledges that these families manage risk, not just emotions.
The recovery community has long emphasized truths that save lives: You did not cause it. You cannot control it. You cannot cure it. These principles are not cold. They bring clarity. And clarity matters when safety is at stake.
RELATED: The grace our cruel culture can’t understand
Photo by Gary Hershorn / Getty Images
Another truth too often postponed until tragedy strikes deserves equal emphasis: The caregiver’s safety matters too.
Friends and faith communities often respond with a familiar phrase: “Let me know if there’s anything you need.” It sounds kind, but it places the burden back on someone already exhausted and often afraid.
Caregivers need something different. They need people willing to ask better questions.
Are you safe right now? Is there a plan if things escalate? Who is checking on you? Would it help if I stayed with you or helped you find a safe place tonight?
These questions do not intrude. They protect.
Often, the most meaningful help does not come as a solution, but as a witness. Henri Nouwen once observed that the people who matter most rarely offer advice or cures. They share the pain. They sit at the kitchen table. They walk alongside without looking away.
Caregivers living with someone battling addiction and mental illness often need at least one safe presence who sees clearly, speaks honestly, and stays when things grow uncomfortable.
We have permission to care, but not always the vocabulary.
Shame keeps families quiet. Fear keeps them guarded. Love keeps them hoping longer than wisdom sometimes allows. One of the greatest gifts we can offer is the willingness to penetrate that isolation with clarity, grace, and tangible help.
Grace does not require silence in the face of danger. Love does not demand enduring abuse. Faith does not obligate someone to remain in harm’s way.
Pointing a caregiver toward safety does not abandon the person struggling with addiction. It recognizes that multiple lives stand at risk, and all of them matter.
When tragedies occur, the public asks what could have been done differently. One answer proves both simple and difficult: Stop overlooking the caregivers quietly absorbing the blast.
RELATED: The courage we lost is hiding in the simplest places
Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Welfare checks should not focus solely on the person battling addiction or mental illness. Families living beside that struggle often need support long before a breaking point arrives.
If you know someone whose son, daughter, spouse, or partner struggles, do not look away because you feel unsure what to say. You do not need to solve anything. You do not need to analyze anything.
Start by seeing them. Stay with them.
I see you. I see how heavy this is. You do not have to carry it alone.
Ask better questions. Offer practical help that does not depend on their energy to ask. Check on them again tomorrow.
This season reminds us that Christ did not stand at a safe distance from trauma. He came close to the wounded and brought redemption without demanding tidy explanations.
When we do the same for families living in the shadow of addiction and mental illness, we honor their suffering and the Savior who meets us there.
Atlanta police make arrest in connection with homeowner who cops say shot 2 teenage porch pirates
Atlanta police made an arrest late last week in connection with a homeowner who cops said shot two teenage porch pirates.
Police said Rakim Bradford, 34, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Fulton County Jail records indicate Bradford was booked into jail Friday and released Sunday.
Police said officers responded around 3:40 p.m. Thursday to the scene on Celeste Lane SW and found a 16-year-old male who apparently was shot in his right arm, and a 15-year-old male who apparently was shot in his right foot.
The 16-year-old male was taken to a hospital in critical condition, underwent surgery, and is expected to survive his injury, police said, adding that the 15-year-old was alert, conscious, and breathing, and was transported to a hospital for treatment.
RELATED: Atlanta homeowner shoots 2 juveniles who were taking packages from his porch, police say
Bradford’s arrest warrant indicates the teens saw a delivery van in the townhome complex and then “agreed to steal that package from the front of the residence,” Atlanta News First reported.
However, before the teens were able to make off with the package, Bradford opened the door and shot at them, Atlanta News First added, citing the warrant.
“Don’t go and steal people’s packages,” neighbor Andrew Julian told Atlanta News First. “On the other side of that, what right do you have to defend your own home, and then what decision do you make to defend your own home based on somebody taking an item off of your porch? So, it’s certainly a conversation to be had.”
Nubian Barnes, a neighbor of Bradford’s in the Villages of Cascade Townhome community, told WSB-TV she could understand his frustrations: “I can. But to shoot them. I don’t know. I just don’t feel he should have shot him.”
Barnes added to the station that shooting the teens could have resulted in fatalities: “And then he would have been facing murder charges. All because of a package that probably didn’t cost that much. Definitely didn’t cost a human life.”
Reginald Boudreaux added to WSB that the shooting was “crazy to me. Like, you call the police. That’s what police are for.”
Quin King noted to WSB that the shooting was “just so much over packages. Packages can be replaced,” she said.
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The Berber War Cry for Freedom
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