The prosecutors and lawyers of the Los Angeles County for the Menéndez brothers faced themselves during a tense judicial hearing and sometimes uncomfortable on Friday as Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman seeks to increase a previous recommendation that the brothers receive a lighter sentence in the horrible murders of their parents.
While Erik's final ending and Lyle Menéndez will not be decided until at least next week, Hochman sent prosecutors on Friday to ask the Judge of the Superior Court Michael Jesus to ignore a request filed last year by the then Dist. Atty. George Gascón seeks to give the brothers an opportunity for freedom after more than 30 years in prison.
Last October, Gascon sought that the brothers had forwarded 50 years of life in prison; A measure could have made them eligible for probation as juvenile criminals because they carried out the murders when they were under 26 years. But after Hochman hit Gascón in the November elections, he promised to review the case of Menéndez.
Last month, Hochman formally announced his opposition to his release and said he would ask a judge to rescind Gascon's request and only consider his presentation as the official position of the District Prosecutor's Office.
Legal experts have said that Hochman is not precedent to try to recover the motion of Gascón, although he has every right to add his own position to the registration. The hearing to decide whether or not to resent the brothers is scheduled for April 17.
In court on Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian told a judge that Gascon simply did not “obtain” the case and had only carried out a half analysis of the previous trials of the brothers and their willingness to accept responsibility for the murders.
Hochman and Balian have affirmed that the brothers are still lying about the circumstances of their crimes, and Balian said Friday or Gascón or the prosecutors who presented their request for resentment of three pages even recovered the files in the case of the archives before issuing a decision. Balian also repeated Hochman's statement that Gascón assumed the case of political gain, although at that time he was following Hochman for approximately 30 points in the surveys and even some of his closest advisors admitted that the race was lost.
Sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of probation for the horrible shotgun murders of their wealthy parents, Erik and Lyle Menéndez saw support for their increase in liberation after the release of a popular Netflix documentary last year and the discovery of a new potential evidence that his father, José, sexually abused not only the brothers but also a former member of the band of often.
In requests that seek a new trial, the Brothers' lawyers have cited the new accusations of sexual abuse against José Menéndez as critical evidence for their self -defense claims.
Balian argued on Friday that the brothers repeatedly trained the witnesses in their previous judgments to lie about the threat they faced their parents to reinforce their argument of self -defense. While talking, Hochman looked from the gallery.
Last month, Hochman presented a motion of 88 pages that opposes the recreation of the brothers, arguing that the brothers are still lying on the reason for their crimes, and therefore have not assumed all responsibility for the murders, and represent an irrarhrazonable risk for the public.
“The Menéndez brothers have continued to lying for more than 30 years about their self -defense, that is, their supposed fear that their mother and their father be killed by the night of the murders,” said the motion. “In addition, during those 30 years, they have not accepted responsibility for the large number of lies they told in relation to that defense.”
On the night of the murders, the brothers entered their mansion Beverly Hills and shot their parents with shotguns they had bought with cash. José and Kitty Menéndez were watching a movie in the living room when José Menéndez received five times, even in the kneecars and the back of the head. Kitty Menéndez crawled on the wounded floor before one of the brothers reloaded and triggered a fatal explosion, authorities said.
The brothers were accused of murder after Erik, then 18, confessed the murders to their therapist. During the two trials of the brothers, prosecutors argued that the murders were motivated by the desire of the brothers to obtain access to their multimillion -dollar heritage. But the defense lawyers replied that years of violent sexual abuse by their father preceded the shootings, justifying murders as a form of self -defense.
Balian showed photos of the bloody scene of the crime in the Court on Friday, causing an eruption of defense lawyer Mark Geragos, who accused the prosecutor of “putting a dog and pony show” destined to re -relied the case of original murder, when the purpose of the hearing was only to determine whether Gascó's motion should be revoked.
“There is no concern for victims.” Geragos said about the almost two dozen of the relatives of the brothers who have asked to be released. “They are being traumatized by the DA for political purposes.”
“These two caused the butcher shop,” Balian replied before gesturing the brothers, who were watching in a live feed.
After Hochman presented his opposition last month, the supporters of the Menéndez brothers accused the district prosecutor of playing politics with the life of the brothers. Among his first movements in office was to hire Kathy Cady, a former prosecutor who served as a lawyer for the rights of the victims for the lonely relative of Menéndez opposed to the liberation of the brothers. He also degraded and transferred the two lawyers who defended the release of the Bajo Gascón brothers, a measure that triggered a civil lawsuit against Hochman and a close political ally in the office.
“All the motion of the district prosecutor reads as a campaign document, not legal,” said Anamaria Baralt, cousin of the brothers, in a statement. “The law requires justice, does not sell personal. Erik and Lyle have not only assumed responsibility, but they have become the type of men who are supposed to create this system. If rehabilitation does not matter here, when does it do it?”
In their motion that he advocated for the release of the brothers, Geragos and the lawyer Clifford Gardner reiterated that the brothers have few violations of rules during their more than 30 years in prison, and both received the risk assessment scores of the lowest crimes available from the prison officials.
While the request for the resentment of the brothers will attract the media to a Chamber of the Van Nuys court in the coming weeks, it is not their only potential path towards freedom. In addition to his motion for a new trial based on new accusations of sexual abuse against his father, Governor Gavin Newsom is also considering the clementary request of the brothers and ordered the State's probation board to throw a risk assessment of the brothers.
However, if they were granted clemency and appeared before the Board of probation, Hochman has promised to fight against his release again.
