A man serving a life sentence for murder who had befriended Rob and Michele Reiner said he received an email from them just hours before the couple was killed.
Nanon Williams, 51, has been in prison for 34 years for the killing of Adonius Collier, 19, PEOPLE reported. Collier was killed during a drug deal gone bad.
Williams has maintained that he is innocent, and his story has become a cause célèbre. According to NBC News, the Reiners and Williams had forged a bond over the last decade, with the Reiners championing his cause and even inviting him to live with them if he ever got out of prison.
"He became like family," Romy said in a statement to NBC News.
On Dec. 12, just two days before their Dec. 14 murder, the Reiners attended "Lyrics From Lockdown," a one-man show about race, justice, and mass incarceration in America. The next day, Michele emailed Williams.
The email was shared with NBC News. In the email, Michelle talked about the show and about hoping to see it one day with Williams. She noted that Williams' family was in attendance.
"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," the email stated.
When Williams heard about the Reiner's murder, he wrote, "Please, this can't be true. Please tell me the news is lying."
"These were not phony people," Williams' mother, Lee Diana Bolton, told NBC News. "These were the sweetest, most loving people that I have ever met."
PEOPLE reported that Williams originally was sentenced to death, but it was commuted to life in prison in 2005. Prosecutors contended that Williams and his co-defendant, Vaal Guevara, ambushed Collier and another man during a drug deal. Guevara pled guilty to a drug charge, testified against Williams, and served 10 years.
