Death row convict Nanon Williams received an email from Rob Reiner’s wife, Michele — his pen pal — just hours before the celebrity couple were slaughtered in a bloodbath allegedly by their son Nick, according to New York Post.
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Williams, now 50 — who maintains he’s innocent of fatally shooting Adonius Collier, 19, in a Houston park when he was just 17 in 1992, for which he’s been sentenced to death — became pen pals with Michele during his more than three decades in the slammer.
And on Dec. 12, she, Rob, their daughter Romy, and friends Billy Crystal and his wife attended a production of Lyrics From Lockdown — a one-man show about injustice in the U.S. legal system based on Williams’ life and writings.
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Then at 8:36 p.m. Dec. 13 — just hours before Reiner and his wife were believed stabbed to death in the morning of Dec. 14 — Williams was sent an email from Michele raving about his play.
“We all said that we can’t wait to watch it with you. And your whole family was there, it was great. I loved your mother. She is so beautiful and I told her that she must have done something right because you turned out so well,” Michele wrote.
“Hope you’re doing well, Love you, Michele.”
When he heard the news of the Reiners’ massacre, the stunned and disbelieving Williams whipped off an email to Michele, saying: “Please, this can’t be true. Please tell me the news is lying.”
Instagram/Michele Reiner
Tragically, it was true — the Reiners were murdered.
Williams first formed a bond with the Reiners, and especially Michele, after they saw a 2016 production of his show.
He’d been locked away in a Texas prison and on death row since being convicted of killing Collier in 1995. While he admitted shooting a gun, his co-defendant Vaal Guevara, who also shot at the time, got a sweetheart deal for testifying against him, Williams says.
Then in 2001, with evidence that Guevara had been “not all truthful,” a judge recommended that Williams get a new trial — but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals nixed the suggestion.
Williams says as the Reiners learned about his case, “the more pissed Rob became and the more loving Michele became.”
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Romy Reiner notes: “My parents spoke about him with such love. He has taught me more about life and human compassion than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Now, with the Reiners’ slaughter, a devastated Williams notes: “Michele was my heart.”