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Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón will ask a judge to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life sentences for killing their parents, a move that could pave the way for their release.
Gascón will request the brothers be sentenced for murder and be eligible for parole immediately, he said during a news conference Thursday.
“I came to a place where I believe that under the law resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that,” Gascón said. “What that means in this particular case is that we’re going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder.”
The two brothers were sentenced to life without parole after a jury found them guilty of killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home with a pair of shotguns. The 1989 killings, and the televised trial that followed, has sparked documentaries, movies and television series that have made the brothers two of the most publicly recognizable convicts.
The brothers have pursued appeals for years without success, but now they could have a path to freedom. A judge will ultimately decide if the brothers will be released.
In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez bought a pair of shotguns with cash, walked into their Beverly Hills home and shot their parents while they watched a movie in the family living room. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was struck five times, including in the back of the head, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor wounded before the brothers reloaded and fired a final fatal blast.
Initially, the killings were rumored to be mob hits.
Prosecutors would argue the slayings were driven by greed and the brothers’ desire to get their parent’s multimillion-dollar estate.
But during the trials, Erik and Lyle Menendez and their attorneys detailed what they said were years of violent sexual abuse the brothers experienced at the hands of their father.
Earlier this month, more than 20 relatives of the brothers pleaded at a news conference for the pair to be released.
“If Erik and Lyle’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have of abuse and [post-traumatic stress disorder], there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the siblings.
During Gascón’s tenure as top prosecutor, he’s obtained new sentences for more than 300 people, including 28 who were convicted of murder, but the Menendez brothers are the highest-profile convicts to have their sentences reduced at the district attorney’s request.
Attorneys for the brothers last year filed a habeas motion, arguing that new evidence backed their claim that they were sexually abused by their father for years before the slayings.
The filing included a letter Erik Menendez sent to his cousin in December 1988 — eight months before the killings — that appeared to corroborate the claims of abuse. It also included a declaration from Roy Rosselló, a member of the boy band Menudo, who alleged that Jose Menendez raped him in 1984 when he was 13 or 14 years old.
Gascón’s office has been reviewing the motion and the case for more than a year.
Earlier this month, he said his office had a “moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination.”
There is no question that the brothers killed their parents, but Gascón has said the issue is whether the jury heard evidence that their father molested them, and if that evidence might have affected the outcome of the trial.
Evidence of sexual abuse, including testimony from friends and relatives of the family, was included when the siblings were first tried which ended in hung juries.
But when they were tried again, together, the jury did not hear much of the testimony supporting their allegations of sexual abuse. The two were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996.
The case has faced renewed public attention sparked by television series and documentaries that focused on the notorious killings. A Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” raised allegations that Jose Menendez, an RCA Records executive, had sexually assaulted Rosselló.
Gascón’s decision has been criticized by those who say the move is a political ploy to bolster his reelection campaign.
Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, Milton Andersen, released a statement on Thursday criticizing the decision to seek new sentences for the brothers. He said Gascón has refused to meet with him to discuss his decision before announcing it to the press.
Andersen’s attorney, Kathy Cady, said the district attorney “manipulate[d] the facts for a fleeting chance to salvage his political career.”
On Tuesday, Cady filed an application for an amicus curiae brief to oppose the possible resentencing of the brothers.
Gascon’s election challenger, Nathan Hochman, has also questioned the timing of the D.A.’s action in the case, suggesting he’s making headlines to try and save his flagging reelection bid. Polls show Gascon trailing Hochman by as much as 30 percentage points, and a Times analysis of campaign finances shows the challenger has raised significantly more funds than the district attorney.
Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense attorney, said the evidence was clear in the initial trial that the killings were premeditated, but the case seemed to have a chance to be revisited given the liberal policies of the district attorney’s office under Gascón.
A judge is likely to approve the prosecutor’s request, given that it’s also supported by the brothers’ defense attorneys.
“I give the defense credit for timely filing,” he said. “If this was filed in December with likely a new D.A., they aren’t getting out. Most of the [district attorneys] in California wouldn’t let them out.”
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Salvador Hernandez, Richard Winton
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