The Crime Ledger: September 15, 2026

Brentwood: No Death Penalty for Nick Reiner

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Tuesday prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Nick Reiner, 33, who faces two counts of first-degree murder and a multiple-murder special circumstance in the December 2025 stabbing deaths of his parents, director Rob Reiner and producer Michele Singer Reiner.

Hochman told reporters the office made the call after a rigorous review and after speaking with Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy. Life without parole is now the maximum if he is convicted. Reiner has pleaded not guilty. Hochman also said trial will not begin until next year. Tuesday’s calendar included a fight over whether grand-jury transcripts stay sealed; the siblings have asked to keep the details private. Reiner is presumed innocent.

Reiner has twice pleaded not guilty. A grand jury indicted him on July 20 on two counts of murder with a multiple-murder special circumstance and a knife-use allegation; the indictment, unsealed Aug. 12, skips a public preliminary hearing. At the Sept. 15 hearing he agreed to a time waiver, and Hochman said a trial is unlikely before 2027. Update, Oct. 11, 2026: Judge Sam Ohta will hear arguments Oct. 21 on whether the grand jury transcripts stay sealed, and an Oct. 23 probate hearing will consider his petition to draw about $1.5 million from a family trust for his defence under California’s slayer statute, NBC Los Angeles and FOX 11 report. He is presumed innocent.

Accra: Officer Charged in Law Student’s Death

Adabraka District Court on Tuesday remanded General Corporal Robert Katey Koranteng, 34, of the Traffic Management Enforcement Unit, on a murder charge in the Aug. 27 death of Ivan Apprey Baidoo, a 20-year-old Central University Level 200 law student.

Prosecutors say Koranteng chased a Yango motorbike after a red-light run at the UPSA intersection, then kicked the bike on the Tema Motorway after the old tollbooth, sending rider Samuel Wesley Arthur into a concrete barrier. Baidoo was pronounced dead on arrival at Tema General Hospital; Arthur was treated and released. A Sept. 3 post-mortem cited haemorrhagic shock from blunt chest and abdominal trauma. The court took no plea and set a return for Sept. 29. Koranteng, arrested Sept. 12 after homicide took the file, is presumed innocent. Burial is set for Saturday.

Prosecutors allege Koranteng kicked the motorbike after the Old Tollbooth on the Tema Motorway, causing rider Samuel Wesley Arthur to lose control and hit a concrete barrier, and then drove off without arranging help; passers-by took both men to Tema General Hospital, where Baidoo was pronounced dead and Arthur survived. Baidoo had been riding to play football at East Legon. The charge is under Section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960. His family has disputed the red-light claim and asked for a CCTV review, 3News reports. Update, Oct. 11, 2026: At the Sept. 29 hearing Baidoo’s mother confronted the officer’s relatives outside court. He has not entered a plea and is presumed innocent.

Brandon: Son Guilty in Mother’s Hatchet Killing

Court of King’s Bench Justice Elliot Leven on Monday found Gabriel Heymans, 47, guilty of second-degree murder in the October 2023 hatchet killing of his mother, Maureen Heymans, 71, inside their Brandon, Manitoba apartment.

An autopsy showed five chop wounds to the head plus arm and hand cuts. Heymans told police an unknown attacker used a hatchet he kept in a bedroom bag; a forensic psychiatrist ruled him fit for trial and ineligible for a not-criminally-responsible defence despite a 1998 brain injury. Maintenance found Maureen’s decomposing body on Nov. 3, 2023. Sentencing is later. Heymans retains appeal rights and is presumed innocent of any remaining issues before the court.

Court heard Heymans had lived with his mother for seven years at 264 McDiarmid Dr. and had not spoken to her in more than a year. She was last seen alive on Oct. 24, 2023, checking the mail; a maintenance worker found her decomposing body on Nov. 3. He told police he made Pizza Pops at 5 a.m. and found her at 9:30 a.m. with his hatchet nearby, and said an intruder must have taken the hatchet from the coin bag by his mattress without waking him. “Whatever happened here was not a silent kill,” Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup argued. Justice Leven rejected the not-criminally-responsible defence, noting he “flatly denied” the killing, and called the circumstantial evidence “very strong.” Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence.

Glasgow: Indictment in Loch Lomond Dismemberment

David McColl, 51, and Linda Kelly, 48, are to stand trial at the High Court in Glasgow in January 2028 on charges they murdered Graham Wright, 38, at a Gorbals flat on Aug. 21-22, 2025, then dismembered him with hand and electric saws.

Indictment papers, read Tuesday, say remains were moved through a Castlemilk cellar, driven in a hired van to Loch Lomond near Firkin Point and Rubha Dubh beach, and that Wright’s torso was left in a shopping basket at the former Blairbeth Golf Course in Rutherglen. His head and feet have not been found. John Joseph Roarty, 54, faces related attempting-to-defeat-the-ends-of-justice counts; a reduced plea was rejected. McColl and Kelly deny the accusations through counsel. All are presumed innocent.

The indictment, heard before Lord Renucci, says the remains were taken from the flat in bags, rucksacks and suitcases; parts were hidden in a Castlemilk cellar and nearby woods, the torso was wrapped in a shower curtain in a shopping basket at the former Blairbeth Golf Course in Rutherglen, and a hired van carried his legs to Firkin Point and Rubha Dubh on Loch Lomond before being set on fire. The flat allegedly underwent “renovation works” and the cellar was bleached. John Joseph Roarty, 54, faces a charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. Wright’s head and feet have never been found, STV reports. The 20-day trial is set for January 2028. All three are presumed innocent.

Browse every edition in the Crime Ledger Index