Shocking information has emerged about Nick Reiner in the weeks leading up to the brutal murder of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Nick, 32, who at press time had yet to enter a plea and was being held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, reportedly suffers from schizoaffective disorder.
He is said to have changed his medication due to unwanted weight gain a month before the couple were fatally stabbed to death in bed at their Brentwood home.
Rob Reiner’s Son Changed Medication Before Murders
Nick Reiner suffers from schizoaffective disorder.
“Once that happened, he went completely off the rails,” an insider close to the situation said.
According to the Mayo Clinic, schizoaffective disorder “is a mental health condition that is marked by a mix of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression, mania, and a milder form of mania called hypomania.”
There are two types of schizoaffective disorder: bipolar and depressive. Antipsychotics and mood stabilizers may be used to treat the disorder. The condition can be more difficult to treat if the patient has substance abuse issues.
Sources claimed Nick Reiner changed his medication before the murders due to unwanted weight gain.
At the time of the murders, it’s unclear whether Nick – who has been to rehab at least 18 times – was using drugs.
Some insiders believed Nick snapped because he had relapsed and wasn’t on the correct medication, and allegedly killed his parents in a meth-fueled rage.
“Nick is totally detached from reality,” said an insider. “He can’t seem to process or comprehend what he’s done.”
Meanwhile, high-profile attorney Alan Jackson, who formally withdrew as counsel for Nick on January 7, declared his former client “is not guilty of murder” under California law.
Nick Reiner’s Former Rehab Roommate Weighs-in on Murders
Nick Reiner’s former roommate from rehab claimed he told him ‘how much he f—ing hated his parents.’
Danny Svilar, a Wyoming restaurateur who claimed to share a room with Nick at a luxury $60,000-per-month Malibu rehab facility when they were 15, claimed he “knew” Nick killed his parents when the murders made headlines.
“As soon as I saw that Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were murdered, I knew exactly who it was,” Svilar confessed before he cast doubt on the possibility of Nick pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
“I would hate to see Nick try to plead this guilty or not guilty by insanity, when in reality he told me how much he f—ing hated his parents, especially his father,” the former acquaintance, who was in rehab for a shopping addiction, added.
The source recalled Nick Reiner having ‘no sense or gratitude, no sense of appreciation’ for his parents.
Despite Nick’s alleged feelings about his parents, Svilar claimed Rob and Michele tried their best to help their son.
“Nick had no sense of gratitude, no sense of appreciation,” Svilar claimed. “He was just a f—ing pompous little punk. He just wanted to be out, smoking pot, doing pills, doing whatever, and his family just wanted him to get help.”
He then recalled the time Nick turned against him.
“From the get-go, he was pretty welcoming, pretty funny,” Svilar noted. “But at the same time, there was this side of him that could just, like, flip.”
Svilar recalled one time he “compared him to looking like John Travolta’s son who died, and that set him off.”
“We had good rapport at first, but then I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s who you remind me of.’ It kind of turned ugly after that,” he recalled. “He definitely tried to get aggressive with me. He tried to get physical, and then a tech had to step in. He was getting into my face and raising a fist.”
Before the falling out, Svilar claimed he and Nick “would talk at night after lights were out, and some of the things that he would say really threw me the wrong way.”
“Because I’m a 15-year-old boy in the same room as somebody with a crazy addiction. It was very, very chilling, but also a crazy new experience for me,” he added.
Nick’s ex-rehab roommate also recalled Rob and Nick being involved in their son’s recovery.
“Rob and Michele were there for every single family group. They were there for every therapy session,” Svilar said. “They didn’t have to give me the time of day. I played frisbee with Rob. Rob Reiner, for God’s sake. They just wanted to get him well. He really, truly had no cause to hate them.”
“Whether he relapsed, or whether it was his mental disorder, I don’t know,” Svilar said, adding that he felt “chilled to the bone” by the murders and texted some of their old mutual friends from rehab about the aftermath of the tragedy.
“Everybody knew it was him,” Svilar claimed before noting Rob and Michele “did everything they could for him. They just wanted him to be well – and he did not want to be well.”
