A judge Friday rejected a bid by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to withdraw an earlier motion supporting re-sentencing for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life-without-parole prison terms for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents in Beverly Hills.
The ruling by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic clears the way for a re-sentencing hearing scheduled to begin next Thursday in Van Nuys. Attorneys for the brothers are hoping to have them re-sentenced to a lesser term, either allowing them to be released or become eligible for parole.
The brothers, sitting side by side in prison blues, appeared at the hearing via Zoom from the San Diego prison where they are incarcerated, but they did not make any statements.
“They’ve waited a long time to get some justice,” Mark Geragos, one of the brothers’ attorneys, said after the ruling. “Today is actually probably the biggest day since they’ve been incarcerated. Justice won over politics.”
District Attorney Nathan Hochman opposes the brothers’ release, and wanted to withdraw a petition that was filed under the administration of his predecessor, George Gascón, who supported the re-sentencing.
During a daylong hearing Friday, a prosecutor argued that the siblings should not be set free until they show “insight” into their crimes.
Saying the Menendez brothers have not shown they understand the “severity and depravity” of their actions, Assistant Head Deputy Habib Balian argued the brothers should remain behind bars. To emphasize his point about the brutality of the crime, he displayed a crime scene photo of one of the parents dead on a couch, covered in blood, on a screen inside the packed Van Nuys courtroom.
Outside the courthouse, after the ruling, Anamaria Baralt, cousin of the Menendez brothers, said the family was “re-traumatized” by the photo, which was displayed by Balian several times during the hearing.
As for the brothers, Baralt said they have shown “remorse and rehabilitation” while imprisoned, and “have repeatedly taken responsibility” for their crimes.
Balian, however, disputed Baralt’s assertion.
“Are they the same people they were when they committed this brutal crime?” Balian asked. “Have they changed?”
Hochman — who attended the morning portion of Friday’s court session but did not speak — announced last month that his office will oppose the release of the brothers, saying then, “Our position is that they shouldn’t get out of jail.”
Hochman’s office asked the judge to allow prosecutors to withdraw Gascón’s motion for re-sentencing, telling reporters in March that “in no way, shape or form did they deal with what we believe to be one of the key issues …. (which is) the exhibition of full insight and complete responsibility for one’s crimes.”
Following the ruling, Hochman issued a statement saying his office has been prepared to make its case at a re-sentencing hearing, and the fact that such a hearing will be held next week “is not unexpected.” But he said prosecutors will continue to oppose their release.
“These murders were calculated, premeditated, cold-blooded killings,” Hochman said. “Our position remains clear: Until the Menendez brothers finally come clean with all their lies of self-defense and suborning and attempting to suborn perjury, they are not rehabilitated and pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety.”
Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, were convicted of the Aug. 20, 1989, killings of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. The two claim the killings were committed after years of abuse, including alleged sexual abuse by their father.
Geragos objected in court to the prosecution display of the bloody crime scene photo.
“It’s outrageous, frankly, (that Balian) flashes up photos of the crime scene without warning” to victims’ family members, the defense attorney told the judge.
Balian agreed that the photos are “horrific” and apologized to Menendez family members in court.
During his argument, Geragos said that during their 35 years behind bars, the Menendez brothers “have done more good (and) helped more prisoners” than anyone could expect.
Erik Menendez, the attorney said, “has got levels of insight that the average person … couldn’t understand. … They’re remarkable human beings. People can change.”
Balian countered that the brothers “are still sticking to the same story — so they haven’t really changed.”
A family-led group has been advocating for the two to be released from prison and have accused Hochman of ignoring the positive work the two brothers have done while behind bars.
“Accountability should not be weaponized to deny people the second chance they worked so hard for,” Baralt, who is part of the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, said last month. Baralt said the advocates were speaking up “for every person who has been told … that the worst thing they ever did defines them forever.”
In court papers filed last week, prosecutors wrote, “In sum, Erik and Lyle have not changed. They continue to lie about their crimes and the fact that they perjured a wildly mendacious self-defense story to justify killing their parents. Accordingly, Erik and Lyle have not been rehabilitated.”
The filing notes that the prosecution would evaluate whether to take a different position on re-sentencing if the two were “to ever unequivocally and sincerely recognize, acknowledge and accept responsibility for the full range of their criminal conduct.”
“Though this pathway was offered to the Menendez brothers, they have chosen to stubbornly remain buried in their over-30-year-old bunker of lies, deceit and denials,” Balian and Deputy District Attorneys Seth Carmack and Ethan Milius wrote.
In court papers opposing the District Attorney’s motion to withdraw the re-sentencing request, attorneys for the brothers wrote that “the new district attorney’s position that withdrawal of the request for re-sentencing is justified due to insufficient insight into the crime ignores case law, the facts of the main authority in which the district attorney relies, and Erik and Lyle’s repeated taking of responsibility for the shooting and expressions of remorse.”
Meanwhile, state parole boards will conduct separate hearings for the brothers on June 13, then send their reports to Gov. Gavin Newsom to help him decide whether the two should receive clemency, the governor said.
In a 2023 court 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 Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.
Interest in the case surged following the release of a recent Netflix documentary and dramatic series.
The governor said that with the exception of brief clips on social media he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it “because I don’t want to be influenced by them.”
“I just want to be influenced by the facts,” Newsom said.