Earlier 911 calls to Rob Reiner’s home may be central to the legal battle over the son’s state of mind.

In the years before the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner, Los Angeles police made at least two visits to their Brentwood home.

On February 25, 2019, police conducted a welfare check after someone called 911 at 9:51 p.m. According to LAPD records reviewed by The Times, officers arrived at the address at 10:12 p.m., ended the call and reported the incident to an unidentified supervisor.

Then on September 27, 2019, police responded at 4:24 pm to a mental health related call for service involving an unknown male. Police later told the supervisor that they found “no indication of mental illness,” according to department records.

The calls were innocuous and usually wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.

But authorities now say the couple’s son, who was staying at a guest house in their neighborhood, stabbed them to death in their bedroom last month.

The state of mind of Nick Reiner, who struggled for years with drug abuse and was prescribed a drug for schizophrenia, has now taken center stage in his legal battle.

Prosecutors did not elaborate on their case, and Reiner’s legal team did not offer their case. It’s still possible that his defense may produce overwhelming evidence that Nick Reiner did not commit the murder. But if the case is strong, the trial may focus on Reiner’s mental state and the length of the sentence.

Prosecutors charged Nick Reiner, 32, with two counts of aggravated murder in the early morning hours of Dec. 14. Authorities have not released a possible motive in the case.

Reiner returned to court Wednesday and is no longer considered a suicidal risk. He hasn’t applied yet.

Legal experts say Reiner’s attorney, Alan Jackson, may now be working to assess his client’s mental health history and attitude during the trial. Those findings could be the basis for plea bargain negotiations or the initiation of an insanity defense, attorneys said.

There are other defenses Jackson could pursue based on his psychiatric history and possible changes in his medication and other factors that may not have been disclosed, including a possible manslaughter, said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor.

“There is still a lot that needs to be done to fix this case,” said Levenson. “He may try to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, or he may have evidence that he was unable to form a criminal state of mind because of his medication and his mental background.”

If the defense can prove that Reiner was unable to form “an intent to kill because of what’s going on with his medication or his illness” it could be a way to get a lesser charge of second-degree murder, Levenson said. For first-degree murder, prosecutors must prove that the defendant acted with intent or malice.

“It’s too early to say whether this is a case or not – whether he will be found guilty of murder or not guilty. There could be other ways,” Levenson said.

If convicted of murder, Reiner faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty in the case.

If Reiner is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he will likely be committed to a mental health facility. And he may at some point be able to show that his condition has improved and he has the condition to be hospitalized or released, Levenson said.

Saul Faerstein, a psychiatrist and psychologist at UCLA, said doctors will likely try to piece together the days leading up to the murders to determine Reiner’s state of mind at the time.

“We would like to know what happened on Friday or Saturday. Was he starting to withdraw? Was he behaving inappropriately? Was he doing and saying things that surprised people or scared people? Was he saying things that didn’t make sense?” Faerstein said.

Reiner’s ability to check into a hotel and drive across Los Angeles where he was spotted at a gas station and eventually arrested is not necessarily a sign of his sanity, Faerstein said.

“Those things don’t require much mental activity, and they can be done even when a person is confused,” he said.

There have been several examples of cases in California where rates have been reduced due to mental health factors.

In 2023, Bryn Spejcher was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing Chad O’Melia, a man she had been dating, with kitchen knives in her Thousand Oaks home. They had been smoking weed at O’Melia’s house, which caused Spejcher to suffer from a weed-induced psychosis.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office initially charged him with murder, but dropped the charge to involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors’ experts agreed he was in a psychotic state under the influence of marijuana. Prosecutors could not prove malice in this case.

Spejcher was sentenced to probation and community service. He is in the process of appealing his conviction, court records said.

Michael Goldstein, a Los Angeles defense attorney who represented Spejcher, said if Reiner’s lawyers could document a history of mental health problems, it would help his chances.

“Based on publicly disclosed facts, [not guilty by reason of insanity] It appears to be an effective safeguard,” Goldstein said. It’s early in the process and Mr. Jackson has made it clear that there are significant issues being addressed. Time will tell.”

In a 2010 trial, Jennifer Lynn Bigham was found not guilty of murder and child abuse by reason of insanity after authorities said she drowned her three-year-old daughter in a bathtub at a relative’s Central Valley home.

Doctors had determined that Bigham was suffering from mental illness at the time of her daughter’s death. After nearly three years of treatment in 2013, a judge ordered that he be released from custody because doctors said he was no longer insane.

It’s possible, Levenson said, that lawyers will be able to present compelling evidence of mental disorder to prosecutors to settle the case before trial. It is also possible that the case will go to trial and he could be found not guilty by reason of insanity and commit the opposite of serving time in prison.

Even if he committed, one day whatever problems he was diagnosed with could be cured and he would be released, Levenson said.

Although the insanity defense is unsuccessful in most cases, based on the facts known at the time, this case may be different, experts say.

“The perfect scenario is when you have something that looks really horrific, maybe a targeted murder, and you start to learn more about his background, that it doesn’t look like he did this, that there seems to be some medical history of this, a change in medication, and all of a sudden you say, ‘Wow, this might be that rare case where Levenson is going to make a sanity, or be successful.