Fate of Menendez brothers to be announced today, L.A. DA says
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A supporter of the Menendez family holds a sign at a news conference with Menendez family members Oct. 16, 2024.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said it will announce Thursday afternoon a decision on the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, a pair of brothers sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for killing their parents.
Their case, which became one of the first real-life court dramas broadcast in full on cable television, was recently revived by a Netflix series and a push by their family for their freedom.
George Gascón, the county’s top prosecutor, will announce his decision regarding the resentencing of the brothers at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, according to a news release sent about five hours ahead of the event.
It isn’t a total mystery what Gascón may decide.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in prison until they die,” he told ABC News’s “Nightline” earlier this month.
Prosecutors said the pair killed their parents for money. They received a portion of their family’s $14 million estate, quickly blowing $700,000 in about six months on real estate, luxury items and tennis lessons.
But the brothers have long said the 1989 shotgun killings were the result of years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse by their father and indifference from their mother. Evidence of the abuse was barred from being discussed in their 1996 trial.
“If Lyle and Erik’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and [post-traumatic stress disorder], there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, niece of José Menendez, the siblings’ father, last week.
Those same concerns were echoed in the Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” which premiered Sept. 19. The series stars Nicholas Chavez as Lyle and Cooper Koch as Erik. Javier Bardem portrays family patriarch José Menendez, while Chloë Sevigny plays the mother, Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.
Along with renewed notoriety from the Netflix show, new evidence in the case has also surfaced.
One of the items was a letter Erik Menendez wrote to a cousin in 1988, a year before the killings, that came to light in 2023 as the siblings’ attorneys were petitioning the court to release the brothers.
“Its still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now,” Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, according to the petition. “ … I never know when its going to happen and its driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”
Then there was the allegation that José Menendez raped Roy Rosselló — a former member of the iconic 1980s boy band Menudo, which was known as the “Hispanic Beatles.”
Menendez attorney Mark Geragos said Rosselló alleges that, as a teen, he was drugged and raped by the Menendez patriarch — then the head of RCA Records, which had a recording deal with Menudo.
A hearing for the habeas petition is set for Nov. 29 in Los Angeles. If the petition is granted, Geragos said, the brothers’ conviction could be overturned following a new trial. That is separate from the request for a resentencing Gascón is set to announce Thursday.
Gascón finds himself in an interesting position. He is 12 days away from facing reelection, and it appears he has a steep uphill climb to victory. His challenger, Nathan Hochman — an independent who unsuccessfully ran for state attorney general as a Republican — is receiving serious money and support as evidenced by a recent Los Angeles Times headline, “Police cash flows to Hochman in D.A. race while support for Gascón dries up.”
Gascón’s reelection situation may free him up to decide with his conscious instead of having to consider political strategy.
If Gascón recommends resentencing, it will be up to a judge to decide whether the Menendez brothers be released, receive a lesser sentence or get a new trial.
Reis Thebault and Jiselle Lee contributed to this report.
