Menendez brothers’ aunts beg for their release as judge delays resentencing hearing
Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison
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A California judge has postponed the highly-anticipated resentencing hearing of the Menendez brothers to January 2025.
The hearing to decide whether Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez should be given a chance at parole nearly 30 years after they were convicted of gunning down their parents at their Beverly Hills mansion was originally scheduled for December 11, but now will be January 30-31.
Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said Monday at a status hearing that he needed more time to review the case and said he wants to give the newly elected Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman enough time to get up to speed.
The brothers are serving life in prison without parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Defense attorneys previously argued at trial that they had been sexually abused by their father, while prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their parents for money.
At the status hearing on Monday, members of the Menendez family, including the sisters of the brothers’ mother Kitty and father Jose, were in attendance and allowed to testify due to their declining health.
“I love Erik and Lyle and I want them to come home,” Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’ 92-year-old sister, told the judge. “They never knew if tonight would be the night they would be raped. It’s time for them to come home.”
Over the years, several members of the Menendez family have lobbied for the brothers to be released, arguing they were victims of sexual abuse.
Two weeks before the elections, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón asked the court to reduce their sentences to 50 years to life, which would make them eligible for parole.
But he then lost the reelection to independent candidate Nathan Hochman, who will take office on December 2.
Hochman criticized Gascón’s handling of the case during the campaign, and has said that he will review the case with fresh eyes once he takes office.
While Mark Geragos, the attorney representing the brothers, was hoping to have his clients home by Thanksgiving or Christmas, he is now focused on the January court date.
“We’re hoping that by the end of that, or sometime sooner, that we will in fact get the brothers released,” Geragos told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing.
A massive crowd gathered outside of the Van Nuys courthouse early Monday, hoping to be one of the 16 people allowed to attend the first court appearance in decades by the brothers.
Erik and Lyle, who are now 53 and 56, were expected to appear via remote feed from the Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego where they are incarcerated. It would’ve been the first public appearance for the brothers in 28 years.
But due to a technical glitch, the brothers did not appear virtually and Geragos waived their right to appear while the court addressed scheduling.
The highly-anticipated status hearing comes a month after the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition for a review of new evidence of their father’s alleged sexual abuse that was not presented at trial. Two pieces of evidence are at the center of the brothers’ petition.
The first is evidence which includes a letter Erik Menendez wrote in 1988 to his uncle Andy Cano, describing the sexual abuse he had endured from his father. The brothers asked their lawyers about it after it was mentioned in a 2015 Barbara Walters television special.
The lawyers hadn’t known of the letter and realized it had not been introduced at their trials, making it effectively new evidence that they say corroborates allegations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.
Another piece of new evidence emerged when Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, recently came forward saying he had been drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father, when he was a teen in the 1980s. Menudo was signed under RCA Records, where Jose Menendez was chief operating officer.
Rossello spoke about his abuse in the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed and provided a signed declaration to the brothers’ lawyers.
Had these two pieces of evidence been available during the brothers’ trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, or that their father Jose Menendez was not the “kind of man that would” abuse children, the petition argues.
The recent releases of the Netflix drama Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the documentary The Menendez Brothers in 2024 brought renewed public attention to their plight.
Prosecutors recommended resentencing for the brothers last month, saying they have worked on redemption and rehabilitation and demonstrated good behavior inside prison.
Immediate freedom is one possible result; the judge also might weigh in on the merits of the evidence. And if the brothers don’t get relief in court, they can hope California’s governor will grant them clemency.
While clemency might be another pathway to freedom for the brothers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that he won’t decide until incoming Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman reviews the case.
“Before I can make any decision about the Menendez brothers’ case, I will need to become thoroughly familiar with the relevant facts, the evidence and the law,” Hochman said in a statement.