Los Angeles County District. Lawyer. George Gascón will ask a judge to resentence Erik and Lyle Menéndez, two brothers serving life sentences for killing their parents, a move that could pave the way for their release.
Gascón will request that the brothers be sentenced for murder and be eligible for parole immediately, he said during a news conference Thursday.
“I've gotten to the point where I think, under the law, a new sentence is appropriate and I'm going to recommend it,” Gascón said. “What that means in this particular case is that we are going to recommend to the court that the sentence of life without the possibility of parole be eliminated and that they will be sentenced for murder.”
The two brothers were sentenced to life in prison 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 murders and the televised trial that followed spawned documentaries, films and television series that made the brothers two of the most publicly recognizable convicts.
The brothers have lodged appeals for years without success, but now they might have a path to freedom. Ultimately, a judge will decide whether the brothers will be released.
In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez bought a pair of shotguns with cash, entered their Beverly Hills home, and shot their parents while they were watching a movie in the family living room. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was hit five times, including in the back of the head, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the ground injured before the brothers reloaded and fired one final fatal burst.
Initially, the murders were rumored to be mob hits.
Prosecutors would argue that the murders were motivated by the brothers' greed and desire to keep their parents' multimillion-dollar inheritance.
But during the trials, Erik and Lyle Menendez and their attorneys detailed what they said were years of violent sexual abuse the brothers suffered at the hands of their father.
Earlier this month, more than 20 relatives of the brothers called at a news conference for their release.
“If Erik and Lyle's case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and [post-traumatic stress disorder]I have no doubt that his sentence would have been very different,” said Anamaría Baralt, the brothers' cousin.
During Gascón's tenure as top prosecutor, he obtained new sentences for more than 300 people, including 28 who were convicted of murder, but the Menéndez brothers are the highest-profile convicts who had their sentences reduced at the request of the district attorney. .
Lawyers for the brothers filed a habeas motion last year, arguing that new evidence supported their claim that their father sexually abused them for years before the murders.
The filing included a letter Erik Menendez sent to his cousin in December 1988, eight months before the murders, that appeared to corroborate the allegations of abuse. It also included a statement from Roy Rosselló, a member of the boy band Menudo, who alleged that José Menéndez 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 presented to us and make a determination.”
There is no doubt that the brothers killed their parents, but Gascón has said the issue is whether the jury heard evidence that their father sexually abused them and whether that evidence could have affected the outcome of the trial.
Evidence of sexual abuse, including testimony from family friends and relatives, was included when the brothers were first tried, resulting in hung juries.
But when they were retried together, the jury did not hear much of the testimony supporting their accusations 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 murders. A Peacock docuseries, “Menéndez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” raised allegations that José Menéndez, an RCA Records executive, had sexually assaulted Rosselló.
Gascón's decision has been criticized by those who say the measure is a political ploy to bolster his re-election campaign.
Kitty Menendez's brother, Milton Andersen, 90, issued a statement 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 “manipulates[d] the facts to have a fleeting opportunity to save his political career.”
On Tuesday, Cady filed an amicus curiae brief request to oppose the brothers' possible resentencing.
Gascón's election rival, Nathan Hochman, also questioned the timing of the district attorney's action in the case, suggesting he is making headlines to try to salvage his weakened re-election 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 that at the initial trial the evidence was clear that the murders were premeditated, but the case seemed to have a chance for review 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 also has the support of the brothers' defense attorneys.
“I give credit to the defense for the timely presentation,” he said. “If this was presented in December probably before a new district attorney, they will not come to light. Most of the [district attorneys] In California they didn't let them go out.”
