By Salvador Hernandez, Richard Winton and Hannah Fry
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — More than three decades after Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents in a sensational murder case that captivated the nation, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said Thursday that his office would review what he described as new evidence that the brothers were molested, a move that could lead to their resentencing.
Gascón said there was no question the brothers committed the murders but said the issue was whether the jury heard evidence that their father molested them. Evidence detailing sexual abuse was presented during the brothers’ first trial, which ended in hung juries, but was largely withheld during their second trial, where they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
“We’re not at this point ready to say we believe or do not believe that information,” Gascón said. “But we’re here to tell you that we have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination.”
The process could pave the way for the brothers to be retried, resentenced to a lesser prison term or released from custody. Gascón said he had not made a final decision.
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In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez bought a pair of shotguns with cash, walked into their Beverly Hills home and shot their parents while they watched a movie in the family living room. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was struck five times, including in the back of the head, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor wounded before the brothers reloaded and fired a final fatal blast.
Initially, police speculated the killings were a mafia hit based off the gruesome scene. Erik and Lyle Menendez were eventually charged with murder after Erik, who was 18 years old, confessed to the killings to his therapist in March 1990.
Prosecutors argued the brothers’ motivation in the killings was simple: to gain access to their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate. But the brothers’ defense attorneys countered that years of violent sexual abuse at the hands of their father preceded the shootings, justifying the killings as a form of self-defense.
Gascón’s announcement comes more than a year after Erik and Lyle Menendez filed a writ of habeas corpus asking the court to vacate their 1996 conviction, citing new evidence. A hearing on the habeas corpus is expected to be held on Nov. 26. Gascón said he wanted to “bring finality” to the case by the time the hearing was held but did not say that his review would be completed by then.
“They’re obviously looking at it closely, which is great,” said Cliff Gardner, one of the attorneys representing the brothers. “I’m encouraged by it because I think that anyone that takes a look at that evidence is going to walk away with the understanding those boys were molested as children.”
Gardner said, since the filing last year, prosecutors had asked the court several times to push back a date for the hearing in order to review the case. Despite the length of time it’s taken for a decision to be reached, he said he found it to be encouraging.
“The fact that they’re taking their time lets me know they’re taking it seriously,” he said.
The petition pointed to evidence from a Peacock docuseries, “ Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” which raised allegations that Jose Menendez sexually assaulted a former underage member of the 1980s pop band Menudo.
The three-part series, reported by journalists Nery Ynclan and Robert Rand, alleged that the creator of the internationally known music group, Edgardo Díaz, took one of the underage members of the band to Jose Menendez’s New Jersey home, where he was raped and drugged by the elder Menendez.
In the docuseries, Roy Roselló said he was 13 or 14 years old at the time, and suggested the trip was to help seal a deal between the band and RCA Records, where Jose Menendez worked as an executive.
“This new evidence is indisputable,” Ynclan told The Times on Thursday, “and Lyle and Erik’s life didn’t end that horrible day.” The journalist added that the two brothers had been model prisoners and led rehabilitation programs for other inmates. “After 35 years, it’s past due to show these victims of incest the mercy they deserve.”
The brothers’ petition states that the new allegations of sexual abuse back their argument that the murders were an act of self-defense after facing years of abuse by their parents, and fears that their parents would kill them if they told.
The petition also details a recently discovered letter that defense attorneys say was written by Erik Menendez eight months before the 1989 shooting that suggests sexual abuse by his father continued into his late teenage years.
“I never know when its going to happen and its … driving me crazy,” the letter, submitted in court filings, reads. “Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”
The brothers’ first trial, which included testimony detailing the abuse, ended in two hung juries. In the second trial, much of the evidence of the abuse was excluded, according to the habeas petition. Prosecutors argued at the time that the allegations of abuse were “a total fabrication.”
The news comes on the heels of another show based on the Menendezes, an eight-part dramatic series on Netflix called “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” The show focuses on the events leading up to the killings and the cultural moment in Los Angeles in which the brothers faced murder charges.
Last month, Erik Menendez’s wife, Tammi Menendez, posted a statement on social media from him about the series and how the brothers were depicted, calling it “inaccurate” and that Lyle’s depiction was a “caricature” that was “rooted in horrible and blatant lies.”
“Monsters” co-creator Ryan Murphy defended himself in an interview with The Times last month.
“I think it’s faux outrage,” he said. “I think that this story, this Netflix series, is the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years because it’s getting people to talk about it, and it’s getting people to ask the questions that are important.”
The renewed spotlight on the case has prompted support for the incarcerated brothers. Kim Kardashian visited them in prison three weeks ago and penned a personal essay in which she called the brothers “kind, intelligent and honest men” and said their sentences should be reconsidered.
“We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved,” she wrote.
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