The legal dispute over Nick Reiner's $1.7 million trust fund has moved to a new stage. According to Rolling Stone, the case is now scheduled for private mediation on Dec. 16 before a retired judge, indicating both sides are willing to negotiate.
Reiner, who faces charges for allegedly fatally stabbing his parents Rob and Michele, is fighting to unlock half his trust fund to rehire prominent defense attorney Alan Jackson. The trustee, Jodi Montgomery, has refused, citing California's Slayer Statute, a law that bars anyone convicted of killing another person from inheriting their property or benefiting from their estate.
Montgomery's lawyer made a tactical shift. She asked the judge to approve payments into Reiner's jail commissary account, capped at a maximum $300 at a time. "We think the amount is so small and nominal that we'd love to see this get done today," her lawyer Lauriann Wright told the judge. The concession suggests Montgomery may be reconsidering her position.
The move indicates the trustee's team may doubt whether the Slayer Statute provides an absolute barrier. If Montgomery believed the law was solidly on her side, there would be little reason to offer anything. Mediation allows both sides to reach a settlement without a court ruling, acknowledging both the statute's constraints and Reiner's claim to inheritance.
Reiner's parents died in 2023, and his trust documents specified he would receive half the fund at age 30, which he reached in September 2023. The money never left the trust. Now, two-and-a-half years later, he is jailed and seeking legal resources for his defense. Every month the funds remain locked limits his ability to secure adequate representation.
Judge Ruben Garcia must still decide on the commissary request. Both lawyers left Friday's hearing discussing "settlement" and "optimism", language that typically precedes a deal.
