A demise row inmate acquired a heartbreaking e-mail from Michele Reiner simply hours earlier than she and her Hollywood legend husband Rob had been allegedly murdered by their very own son, the convict revealed.
Rob and Michele Reiner had attended a Los Angeles theater on Dec. 12 to see “Lyrics from Lockdown” — a one-man present about injustice and mass incarceration within the US authorized system based mostly on the life and writings of Nanon Williams.
Williams has been in jail for greater than three a long time and has been sentenced to demise for a homicide he maintains he didn’t commit.
The couple and Williams had shaped an unlikely bond through the years after the Reiners realized about his story and have become “an integral a part of my life” as they communicated commonly in his bid for freedom, Williams advised NBC Information in an interview from a Texas jail final week.
However on Dec. 14, Williams was devastated when he opened his state-issued pill in jail and skim the horrific information that Rob and Michele Reiner had been discovered stabbed to demise of their house — and their son Nick was charged with the killings.
He instantly wrote a frantic e-mail to Michele, whom he described as a mom determine to him: “Please, this may’t be true,” he wrote. “Please inform me the information is mendacity.”
Emails are sometimes delayed for prisoners as they’re carefully scanned by safety, and days later he acquired an e-mail dated 8:36 p.m. on Dec. 13 from Michele raving in regards to the present, which was additionally attended by Williams’ mom, siblings and spouse he married from jail, Tera.
The Reiners’ pricey mates, Billy Crystal and his spouse, in addition to their daughter Romy, had additionally been there.
“All of us mentioned that we are able to’t wait to observe it with you. And your entire household was there, it was nice. I cherished your mom. She is so stunning and I advised her that she should have completed one thing proper since you turned out so effectively,” Michele wrote.
She then ended the be aware, as at all times: “Hope you’re doing effectively, Love you, Michelle.”
The beloved couple had been discovered lifeless of their Los Angeles Mansion the next day.
The Reiners, who had been outspoken supporters of social justice causes, first noticed “Lyrics from Lockdown” in 2016 and had been instantly taken with Williams’ writings and combat for his life.
He was charged with homicide on the age of 17 in 1992 and sentenced to demise in 1995 for the killing of 19-year-old Adonius Collier, who was shot to demise at a park in Houston.
He was in the end convicted based mostly largely on “failsafe” ballistic proof that Collier was shot by Williams — who admitted to firing a gun — and never co-defendant, Vaal Guevara, who additionally fired a gun within the fracas and had testified in opposition to him in trade for a candy plea cope with the state.
However years later, the proof started to crumble and the ballistic knowledgeable advised prosecutors he had been mistaken. Prosecutors, in courtroom paperwork opposing his parole in 1999, admitted that “Guevara was very evasive and apparently by no means truthful” on the stand, NBC Information reported.
Right here’s the newest on the demise of Rob Reiner:
In 2001, a state decide held post-conviction hearings and decided Williams deserved a brand new trial — however the Texas Court docket of Felony Appeals rejected the advice.
“The extra [The Reiners] realized,” Williams mentioned, “the extra pissed off Rob grew to become, and the extra loving Michele grew to become.”
As soon as he was issued a pill in 2021, his communication with the Reiners grew to become extra common, with Michele writing to him probably the most usually, asking him about how he was doing and sharing tales from her circle of relatives’s life.
“Michele was my coronary heart,” Williams mentioned.
He was even launched through Zoom name to their youngsters — Jack, Romy and Nick. He mentioned he felt nothing however love from the household.
“My dad and mom spoke about him with such love,” Romy wrote in a press release to NBC Information this week. “He has taught me extra about life and human compassion than anybody I’ve ever met.”
