An Inmate Became Like Family to the Reiners

Rob and Michele Reiner spent what would be their final weekend supporting a man on Texas death row they had come to regard as family. Less than 48 hours later, the couple were found dead in their home, and their own son was charged with their killings.

The Reiners’ connection to 51-year-old inmate Nanon Williams began years earlier with a poem Williams mailed from prison. That single exchange grew into years of frequent emails, phone calls, and deep personal support. The couple even promised Williams a place to live if he were ever released.

Williams was convicted for a 1992 shooting in Houston that killed 19-year-old Adonius Collier. He was 17 at the time and has consistently maintained that he did not fire the fatal shot. The case against him relied heavily on testimony from a co-defendant and a ballistics analysis that has since been discredited. The same expert later reversed his conclusions, and a state review found the original ballistics evidence to be incorrect.

Although a judge once recommended Williams receive a new trial, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blocked that effort. His legal team is now seeking a retrial under Texas’ “junk science” law, arguing the conviction was based on faulty forensic evidence. Prosecutors oppose the request.

The Reiners became involved after attending Lyrics From Lockdown, a stage production featuring Williams’ writing. Their advocacy quickly deepened into a close, family-like relationship. They helped produce the show, joined a group of supporters that includes Georgetown University professor Marc Howard and the Innocence Project, and wrote letters urging the courts to grant Williams a new trial.

Michele Reiner’s final email to Williams was sent just hours before her death. She described attending a Los Angeles performance of the show with Billy Crystal and the Reiners’ daughter, Romy, signing off as she always did: “Love you, Michele.” Rob Reiner, a longtime opponent of the death penalty, later wrote that Williams had influenced him more than anyone other than his father, actor and comedian Carl Reiner.

From his maximum-security prison unit south of Houston, Williams learned that the Reiners had been killed and that their son, Nick—who authorities say has been diagnosed with schizophrenia—had been charged with murder. Nick could face the death penalty, the same sentence Williams once received.

Williams says he struggles with the parallels between their situations and often wonders what the Reiners would want for their son. “If they would have love and compassion for me,” he said, “why not him?”

Now wearing a rubber bracelet reading “Stand by Me,” a reference to a prison movie screening he and Rob Reiner had planned but never shared, Williams says that if he is ever released, he feels a responsibility to help Nick—offering the same mercy and compassion the Reiners once showed him.

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