DA Submits Opposition To New Menendez Brothers Trial

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who has consistently opposed efforts by convicted killers Erik and Lyle Menendez to be released from prison, continued that trend Thursday, with his office formally opposing an effort by the brothers to be granted a new trial.

Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, have spent about 35 years behind bars without the possibility of parole for the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun killings of Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez in their Beverly Hills home. The Menendez brothers claim the killings were committed after years of abuse, including alleged sexual abuse by their father.

In May, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic re- sentenced them to 50 years to life in prison, making them immediately eligible for parole consideration because they were younger than 26 when the crime occurred.

The judge said then that he was convinced the brothers deserved a new sentence due to all the work they did in prison on behalf of the inmate population. The judge also noted unexpected letters he had received in support of the Menendez brothers from correction officers, including a lieutenant.

Erik, now 54, is set for a parole suitability hearing Aug. 21 at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, while his 57-year-old brother is set for a parole suitability hearing at the same prison the following day.

If the parole board recommends the brothers for parole, the issue will then be forwarded to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will have 90 days to review the matter and could reject the parole grant. Attorneys for the brothers have also submitted a request for Newsom to consider granting clemency to the pair.

As another avenue for possible release, attorneys for the Menendez brothers also submitted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 2023, essentially asking that they be granted a new trial.

In that 2023 petition, attorneys for the brothers pointed to two new pieces of evidence they contend corroborate the brothers' allegations of long- term sexual abuse at the hands of their father — a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in early 1989 or late 1988, and recent allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.

Attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, representing the two brothers, wrote that the new evidence "not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that — in fact — he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988 — just as the defense had argued all along."

They added that "newly discovered evidence directly supports the defense presented at trial and just as directly undercuts the state's case."

In a statement released Thursday after the District Attorney's Office submitted a 132-page opposition to the petition, Hochman said the defense's filing "does not come close to meeting the factual or legal standard to warrant a new trial"

"The overwhelming evidence of the Menendez brothers' premeditated, deliberate, willful and brutal murders of their parents the night of Aug. 20, 1989, leading to their convictions for first-degree murder with special circumstances, is not in any way challenged by evidence that is not `new' or `material' or `credible' or `presented without substantial delay' that would more likely than not have changed the outcome of this case," the district attorney said.

Hochman said the brothers maintained throughout their trials that they acted in self-defense, and the latest claims about new evidence amount to nothing more than a "Hail Mary" effort to obtain a new trial.

In the prosecution's filing, Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack wrote, "There are few murder cases in which the evidence of planning and premeditation is as stark as that presented in this case. Petitioners confessed on tape to murdering their parents, revealing the extent of their forethought and deliberation."

Carmack cited a "pattern of deliberate deceit," in which the two "conspired and planned to kill their parents by, among other things, driving over 120 miles to San Diego to purchase shotguns and ammunition using false identification and a false address" and setting up a "pre-planned alibi" hours before they killed their parents.

The prosecutor added, "While sexual abuse is abhorrent and may be a motive for murder, it does not justify murder and does not negate overwhelming evidence of planning, deliberation and premeditation."

The brothers' first trial ended with jurors unable to reach verdicts, deadlocking between first-degree murder and lesser charges including manslaughter. The second trial, which began in October 1995 and lacked much of the testimony centered on allegations of sexual abuse by Jose Menendez, ended with both brothers being convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy.

City News Service