Megyn Kelly wondered if Nick Reiner would lean on the Menendez defense of childhood abuse when going to trial for the murder of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner.
On Wednesday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” the host wondered about about what direction Nick Reiner would go with his defense after retaining Alan Jackson as his defense lawyer. Kelly thought that going the same route the Menendez brothers might be in his future.
“It’s not going to work for Nick Reiner, it’s just not, but here’s what I think, this is like an out-of-left-field prediction, and it’s just because the Menendez case is on my mind, because that’s also California, and this is what triggered it,” Kelly said. “In no way am I impuning Rob Reiner, nor do I believe there’s anything untoward. I think he seems, by all accounts, a loving father and an appropriate father.”
She continued: “My question is, is there a likelihood Nick Reiner pulls a card from the Menendez defense? We’re in California, it’s going to be a California jury, and [he] says ‘he was molesting me my whole life. That’s why I was so messed up from the time I was 10, that’s why I got hooked on drugs.’ There’s no way of disproving that, and plays the sympathy card with a California jury about why, from a very young age, he was all messed up.”
Reiner appeared in court Wednesday after being formally charged with the first-degree murder of his parents. If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, which prosecutors said would be determined later. His arraignment was postponed until Jan. 7.
You can watch “The Megyn Kelly Show” segment in the video above.
Outside the courthouse Wednesday, Jackson urged restraint as the case proceeds.
“There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case,” said the high-profile defense attorney. “Things need to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined and analyzed.”
Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner were found dead Sunday in the master bedroom of their Brentwood home on Sunday. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office determined their death was due to “multiple sharp force injuries.”
