Death Row Inmate Gives Exclusive Update to Rob & Michele Reiner’s Murder Case After Report Nick Could Face the Death Penalty
Before their tragic deaths, Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were in regular contact with inmate Nanon Williams. Williams revealed to NBC News that he had received an email from the Reiner family just hours before their murder.
The couple saw the one-man show “Lyrics from Lockdown,” just the day before their deaths. The show touches on Williams’ life and is based on his writings about injustice and mass incarceration in the US legal system. In an email update that was time-stamped at 8:26 p.m. EST on Dec. 13, 2025, Michele wrote an email to the inmate with the subject titled “Ugly Side of Beautiful.” She raved about the performance, writing, “I’m sure you have heard from Tera,” referring to Williams’ wife, “but the show last night was amazing.”
Michele also wrote about how they met his mother, how their dear friend Billy Crystal was moved by the performance, and how they’re hopeful for Williams’ future. She signed off the email, “We all said that we can’t wait to watch it with you. Love, Michele.”
Williams had received the email after he learned the news of his friends’ passing, since prison emails could take hours or days to be approved once they are sent. “Please, this can’t be true,” he wrote. “Please tell me the news is lying.”
The Reiners learned about Nanon Williams after they saw the one-man show in 2016 and asked artist Byronn Bain to get in contact with the inmate. Williams was arrested and charged with murder at 17 in 1991 after 19-year-old Adonius Collier was killed. He acknowledges he fired his gun in the melee; witnesses said his shots injured another man, but he denies shooting Collier.
Williams is serving life in prison without parole and is no longer on death row, after the U.S. Supreme Court banned executions in 2005 for crimes committed by juveniles. “The more they learned,” Williams said of his sentencing, “the more pissed off Rob became, and the more loving Michele became.” Rob had been a fierce opponent of the death penalty, and Michele carried a lifelong sensitivity to dehumanization and state violence since her mother survived Auschwitz.
Since that initial interaction, their communication became more frequent, and they were in contact almost every day. Williams told NBC News that the family was “an integral part of my life. They became a part of me.” The Reiners had helped produce “Lyrics From Lockdown” across the country. “Rob and Michele didn’t want credit for trying to help me,” Williams said. “It was just because they loved me.”
The whole Reiner family had sung praise for Williams. “My parents spoke about him with such love,” their daughter Romy wrote in a statement to the outlet. “He has taught me more about life and human compassion than anyone I’ve ever met. Jake said in a statement that his parents “were fierce in doing everything in their power” to help Williams get out one day. “I know wherever they are,” he wrote, “they are beaming with pride for him.”
The update comes right after Rob and Michele’s son Nick was no longer on suicide watch after he was charged with the alleged murder of his parents. A Los Angeles County sheriff source told People that Nick is currently being held in solitary confinement, where he is required to wear a yellow jail-issued shirt and blue pants.
Nick is charged with two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife. The designation that could make Nick eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, according to special circumstances around a first-degree murder charge in California.
“I understand being caged like an animal,” Williams said of Nick’s upcoming sentence. “I understand the pain that is to come. The reflection. Looking into the mirror, wondering if you harmed your own soul by the choices you’ve made.”
“I have a responsibility to Nick,” Williams said. “If I ever get out of here, how could I not try to do something to help him?”
