Crime

Nick Reiner says he not only needs money to pay lawyers for his legal defense, but also to fund his commissary account ... and the accused double murderer claims his trustee isn't playing ball.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, Nick says he's repeatedly asked the trustee controlling his money to replenish his jailhouse account to buy additional snacks and hygiene items ... but he says the trustee has yet to break him off a little bread.

The commissary gripe is included in a petition filed Monday by the 32-year-old, requesting the distribution of money he says was supposed to be paid out from the trust his parents Rob and Michele Reiner set up for him in 1992.

Nick claims he was supposed to get the money when he turned 30, and he wants the funds to hire back Alan Jackson as his lawyer ... and also to get some stuff from the commissary while he sits in jail.

Nick Reiner's former lawyer, Alan Jackson, is ready to take on the alleged murderer's case, but he says drama over how he and his firm would get paid led to him dropping the case several months ago.

Alan filed a declaration that was submitted with Reiner's motion seeking release of his trust funds ... in it, he describes what he says went down behind the scenes that led to his law firm withdrawing from Nick's criminal case.

As TMZ previously reported, Alan was hired in December 2025 to defend Nick in court after he was charged with the murder of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner. Alan and his firm withdrew from the case weeks later, and a public defender was then assigned to Nick's case.

In his newly filed declaration, Alan says Nick told him he wants his firm back representing him. Alan said he is willing and ready to defend Nick if funding becomes available.

A woman is wanted by police in Arizona in connection with an alleged kidnapping, just miles from where Nancy Guthrie lived ... and only months after Nancy vanished from her Tucson home in the middle of the night.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department shared a wanted poster for a 40-year-old woman named Coral Michelle Smith Thursday ... saying she's connected to a May 29 kidnapping and aggravated assault case. The crime reportedly occurred about 7 miles from Nancy's residence in the Catalina Foothills.

According to court records, Smith has an extensive criminal history -- she was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of robbery in 2020 in a case that also involved kidnapping and drug charges, which were ultimately dropped.

Her rap sheet dates back to 2011, when she was found guilty of robbery. She has also been found guilty of criminal trespass, attempted vehicle theft, and disorderly conduct over the years ... per court records.

A traffic stop went off the rails when cops in Louisiana say a man tried to evade them by fleeing into a swamp ... and it sounds like he ended up running straight into an alligator's jaws!!!

According to Louisiana State Police, troopers began pursuing Victor M. Rivas Sunday after receiving reports of a Toyota Supra driving recklessly. When officers stopped the car, they say Rivas showed signs of impairment and fled on foot.

Police say 40-year-old Rivas jumped from an elevated section of Interstate 310 into the swamp below.

Troopers say they later spotted him walking along Highway 61 ... and when they approached, he fled into another swampy area ... where he was attacked by a gator.

Alaric Jackson, Los Angeles Rams' starting left tackle, was arrested for felony domestic battery Monday night ... and booked into an LAPD jail, where he remains behind bars.

Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a home in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley on Monday around 11 PM after cops were called to the scene.

Police determined, according to NBC L.A., which broke the story, Jackson was initially in a verbal argument with a woman over her allegedly filming him with her phone.

Anna Kepner's cell phone turned into a key piece of evidence that led to the arrest of her stepbrother, Timothy Hudson, after the 18-year-old was sexually assaulted and strangled aboard a Carnival Cruise ship in 2025, according to a new report.

People obtained a transcript of testimony given by FBI Agent Andrew del Valle, who told the court that Hudson, 16, tried to destroy and dispose of Kepner's phone, but he failed to do so.   

Del Valle testified that FBI agents started looking for the missing phone on November 8, 2025, after they launched an investigation into Kepner's sexual assault and murder aboard Carnival's Horizon cruise ship in Miami, Florida.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is cracking down on alleged unlawful behavior near Nancy Guthrie's upscale Arizona home ... and his department just arrested 3 streamers for allegedly causing problems in the area, including one who was caught urinating in public.

Alexander Zabel, who runs the true crime account "Criminal Network," was arrested and charged with 2 counts of obstructing a highway or thoroughfare and one count of public nuisance ... the sheriff's department tells TMZ.

Troy Bradshaw, who heads the "DAA JUICE" YouTube channel, was arrested and charged with public nuisance. He was livestreaming when authorities let him know he was being taken into custody. He and Zabel were booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Complex.

One of the doctors convicted in the Matthew Perry ketamine case is embracing a label most physicians would run from ... telling an appeals court he was functioning as a drug dealer, not a doctor, when he sold ketamine in this case.

According to new court documents, obtained by TMZ, Dr. Salvador Plasencia is asking the Ninth Circuit to toss his 30-month prison sentence and send his case back for resentencing ... arguing the judge wrongly punished him for abusing a physician's position of trust.

In the filing, Plasencia makes a stunning claim ... insisting Perry wasn't seeking him out for legitimate medical treatment, but was instead looking for a reliable source of ketamine. Because of that, his attorneys argue, he shouldn't have been treated as a doctor who betrayed a patient, but rather as a more common drug dealer.

Diddy’s longtime right-hand woman, Kristina Khorram, scored a huge win in court after a judge dismissed sex trafficking claims against her ... TMZ has learned.

According to court docs obtained by TMZ, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sided with Kristina at a recent hearing in June. The judge ruled that the sexual battery, sex trafficking, and several other claims brought against Kristina by Diddy’s former employee, Phillip Pines, were to be thrown out of court.

The court found that Phillip failed to submit evidence to back up his claims Kristina could be held liable for any of the alleged crimes committed against him. The judge said Phillip did not show Kristina had knowledge of any alleged sexual battery or knew about or benefited from any alleged sexual trafficking.

Five people were slashed in Manhattan's Penn Station during a rampage by an assailant -- and Sunday's bloody attack went down just a stone's throw away from where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are getting married, according to police.

The violence erupted Sunday night inside the Amtrak terminal, where cops say a person of interest slashed all five victims with a knife for unknown reasons. 

Police say a suspect was taken into custody while the victims were rushed to local hospitals for treatment.

The car Mackenzie Shirilla was driving when she crashed into a wall, killing Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, was listed as an asset in her parents' bankruptcy just a couple of months earlier ... TMZ has learned.

Mackenzie’s parents, Natalie and Steve, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in May 2022, listing $398K in assets and $173K in liabilities.

According to the bankruptcy documents, one of their assets was a 2018 Toyota Camry, which was the same car involved in Mackenzie’s fatal car crash on July 31, 2022. The car, which apparently had 32,000 miles on it, was listed at $18K.

James Handy was in dozens of films and TV shows over his decades-long career ... and he was committed to one more project before he was brutally slain this week at his girlfriend's home ... but it sounds like fans will never see his last work.

Heidi Anderson-Swan, writer and producer of the film "Kickback, V" tells TMZ ... James was one of the sweetest people she's met in Hollywood -- he helped her a few times on projects when she was breaking into the industry -- and she had to have him in her film.

Sadly, their final project -- a comedy about nerds learning martial arts, teaching their hard-nosed karate sensei a few life lessons in return -- won't ever see the light of day.

Heidi says the film was stalled in pre-production due to numerous issues, including finances.

The son of James Handy's girlfriend has been charged with murder ... a day after the iconic actor was stabbed to death at his home.

According to authorities ... Michael Gledhill, 44, was just charged with one count of murder with a special allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon, a knife.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a press release ... "This is not how anyone’s life should end, stabbed in the chest and left dying in the front yard of a home. The victim deserved to live out his later years enjoying what he had worked so hard for and enjoying it with those he loved and cared about."

Jeffrey Epstein "sexually and psychologically" abused his former assistant for over a decade ... at least that's what she told a House oversight committee investigating the late pedophile's crimes.

According to the transcript of Sarah Kellen's interview with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform May 21 ... she claimed Epstein groomed, abused, controlled, and manipulated her "until I could no longer tell which thoughts were mine and which were his."

Sarah told the Committee she didn't even get her first paycheck from the disgraced financier until she agreed to "submit to his sexual abuse."

Wendy Gledhill, the mom of the man accused of killing her actor boyfriend James Handy, tells TMZ her son has been struggling with serious mental health issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but stopped taking his medication.

According to Wendy, her 44-year-old son Michael Gledhill had become increasingly paranoid and had been prescribed medication for his condition after his July 2025 diagnosis. However, she says she recently learned he had stopped taking his meds about a week before cops found James stabbed to death outside her home.

Wendy says Michael and James didn't always see eye to eye, but their relationship was generally cordial.

Update in the suspected murder-suicide down in Florida ... officials say Ryan Whiten slaughtered his ex-wife and their daughters before killing himself.

As we reported ... Ryan, his ex-wife, Melanie Hyer, and their daughters Savannah and  Sienna, were found dead with stab wounds in their Doral home Tuesday after deputies from the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office responded to a welfare check.

MDSO suspected a murder-suicide but didn't know who did the stabbing ... and now they've determined it was Ryan.

Police have not released a motive for the heinous act or detailed how long they were dead before being found.

The investigation is ongoing.

Melanie and Ryan were previously married and were co-parenting their daughters at the time of their deaths. They had each remarried after their split, though Melanie had finalized a divorce in March, per court records obtained by TMZ.

Ryan’s ex-wife, who divorced him in 2024, told 7 News Miami Melanie and Ryan had a toxic relationship and often fought over their kids, but was shocked to hear about their murders.

She recalled ... "He was always so sweet with his girls and loved them deeply. I don’t know what happened."