LA County DA opposes bid to grant new trial to Menendez Brothers
City News Service
Posted
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Friday his office will oppose a motion by defense attorneys seeking a new trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life in prison without parole for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents in Beverly Hills.
"The people believe it should be denied," Hochman said of a 2023 "habeas" motion filed by attorneys for the brothers seeking a new trial in the case.
In a lengthy news conference, Hochman challenged defense attorneys' claims of new evidence in the case that supposedly supports allegations of sexual abuse by the brothers' father, with the district attorney saying the alleged new evidence is inadmissible on various grounds and questioning whether the claims are actually new or being presented in a legally timely manner.
- PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Relatives, expert witness in Menendez case support the brothers' release
But Hochman also went over the brothers' actions after the slayings -- recounting their various and repeatedly changing statements to investigators after the killing -- ranging from an original denial of involvement to suggestions the mafia was involved, then later to sexual abuse allegations, and later to the brothers' concerns the parents planned to kill them, prompting them to act first.
Hochman did not address a separate effort to have the brothers resentenced to a lesser term that might allow them to seek parole or be released on time served, saying his office was still reviewing that matter.
"We have not finalized where we're going to end up" on the resentencing request, he said, saying there were additional legal standards involved in such a request.
Attorneys for the Menendezes have also asked the governor to grant clemency to the brothers, but the governor has not taken any action on that request, saying he would defer to the District Attorney's Office.
Hochman's predecessor as district attorney, George Gascón, came out in support of the effort to have the brothers' conviction and sentencing reviewed and for the pair to be potentially released. They are both serving life-without-parole prison terms for their convictions in the highly publicized case.
- PREVIOUS COVERAGE: LA County DA recommends resentencing for Menendez brothers
After he was elected in November, Hochman said he needed time to fully review all the case documents before reaching a decision. A court hearing on the new-trial motion had been scheduled for late January, but it was rescheduled for March 2021 due to the Southland wildfires.
Attorneys for the brothers contending new evidence backs the brothers' claims that they were sexually abused by their father. They have argued for the brothers' convictions to be overturned altogether and that they be granted a new trial or that they be re-sentenced in a way that allows them to seek parole or be released on time already served behind bars -- about 35 years.
The pair were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the chance of parole for killing Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez on Aug. 20, 1989.
In a 2023 court petition, attorneys for Erik Menendez, 53, and Lyle Menendez, 56, 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 one of his cousins in early 1989 or late 1988, eight months before the August 1989 killings, and recent allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.
Jose Menendez was an executive at RCA Records, which signed Menudo to a recording contract.
Interest in the case surged following the release of a recent Netflix documentary and dramatic series.
During their two highly publicized trials, the brothers did not dispute that they killed their parents, but claimed self-defense, citing decades of alleged physical and sexual abuse by their father. Prosecutors countered that the killings were financially motivated, pointing to lavish spending sprees by the brothers after the killings.
Over the past year, members of the brothers' family have publicly come out in support of efforts to have them released from prison. In January, members of the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition -- including more than 20 members of Jose and Kitty Menendez's family -- met with Hochman to discuss the case.
Organizers of that meeting said the family is united in supporting a new sentence for the brothers that "reflects Erik and Lyle's abuse, trauma, and demonstrated rehabilitation over the last 35 years."
Speaking to reporters after the January meeting, Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez, said the family is hoping a judge will agree to an immediate reduction of the brothers' conviction to a lesser charge of manslaughter, which would potentially enable them to be released without the need for extensive parole hearings.
"This 35-year process has been incredibly traumatizing for us, as I'm sure you can all imagine," Baralt said. "We are very much hoping that we can find a path to manslaughter. That we can see the release of the brothers immediately. To understand that going to a parole board for our family will only serve to retraumatize us more. Two parole boards. Two brothers, again with victim statements. We have had enough. It is a lot -- 35 years is a very long time. So we hope that will happen."
During an hourlong hearing in Van Nuys in November, a judge heard testimony from two of the brothers' aunts, both of whom pleaded for their release from prison. Judge Michael Jesic made no immediate decision, instead scheduling the two-day hearing that is now set for late March.
Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez's sister, and Terry Baralt, Jose's older sister, asked for the brothers' release, saying 35 years was enough prison time for Erik and Lyle Menendez considering the abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of their father.
"We miss those who are gone tremendously," Terry Baralt, 85, testified. "But we miss the kids too."
Baralt, who became emotional during her time on the stand, told the court that "it's time for them to come home," adding that the brothers "have done a lot of good things" while incarcerated.
Asked by Brock Lunsford, assistant head deputy of the District Attorney's Post-Conviction and Litigation unit, if she knew exactly why her nephews were in prison, Baralt replied, "Absolutely. They killed their parents."
VanderMolen, 93, read a statement to the court, imploring the judge to release the brothers.
"No child should have to endure what Lyle and Eric have lived through," she said. "No child should have to live ... knowing that at night, their father was going to rape them. It's time for them to come home."
VanderMolen said that she speaks for all members of her family apart from her brother Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez's 90-year-old brother, who has said previously through an attorney that his nephews' "cold-blooded actions shattered their family."
Copyright 2025, City News Service, Inc.