L.A. County DA asks court to deny Menendez brothers' petition seeking new trial ...Middle East

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Friday he is asking a judge to deny the Menendez brothers' habeas petition requesting a vacating of their convictions and a new trial — potentially eliminating one of three tracks to early release.

Lyle and Erik Menendez have been serving sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the August 1989 murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They fatally shot their parents at the family's Beverly Hills home, admitting to the killings over the course of two trials as they claimed self-defense and said they feared for their lives following years of physical and sexual abuse. In 1996, a jury convicted them of first-degree murder. They have spent over 35 years behind bars.  

The brothers will still face a resentencing hearing March 20 and 21, which will focus on whether they have rehabilitated while incarcerated. It does not deal with the facts of the case as the habeas petition does. In a last possible track to being freed from prison, they could be granted clemency, a decision made by the state governor. In November, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would defer to Hochman's "review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions."

The habeas petition filed in May 2023 cited what their lawyers described as two new pieces of evidence backing the brothers' allegations of abuse, including a 1988 written by Erik Menendez which alludes to sexual abuse by his father and an allegation of sexual assault made by a former boy band member against the brothers' father, who was once a record executive. 

It could lead to a vacating of their murder convictions, and potentially a new trial, if granted by a judge.  

Hochman said the DA's office is asking the court to deny the habeas petition, saying the credibility of the alleged new evidence has been called into question since, he said, the brothers lied throughout the investigation. He said they asked friends to make false testimonies, including asking a girlfriend to say their father raped her, came up with pre-planned alibies and staged the scene.

"The shogun blast to the mother actually didn't kill her," Hochman said. "She actually ended up lying on the ground, groaning and bleeding in pain, and at that point, when Lyle and Erik Menendez had run out of ammunition, they reload and Lyle puts the reloaded shotgun up to his mother's face and reloads the trigger. That's staging it, at the time, like a gangland hit — which then becomes their deceit and lies in the ensuing months that occurred."  

Hochman said that planning was part of a "continuum of lies" that calls the legitimacy of the supposed new evidence into question. He also said the question of whether they were abused is not a determinant of whether they are guilty of murder.

Among the new evidence is an affidavit from Roy Rosselló, former member of the boy band Menudo, saying he was sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez in the 1980s and a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin, Andy Cano, in 1988. The letter alludes to abuse by his father, according to the brothers' appellate attorney, Cliff Gardner, who filed the habeas petition. 

Gardner told CBS News' 48 Hours last year that the brothers should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder, given the allegations. "My hope in the case is that the judge will realize that this new evidence is indeed credible and persuasive, and he'll vacate the convictions."  

But Hochman questioned the credibility of the letter given the past instances of lying by the brothers. He also said that both Andy Cano and Erik Menendez testified about discussing abuse allegations but their testimony made no mention of such communications in 1988. 

Hochman said they only testified to speaking about the abuse six years earlier, when they were children. He said it "defies common sense" that they would not mention the discussion in the 1988 letter. 

Last year, former DA George Gascón recommended resentencing for the brothers. Since Hochman was elected in November, he has said prosecutors in his office must still review thousands of pages of trial transcripts and prison records before he reaches his own decision. 

In January, the DA's office pushed back a resentencing hearing for later that month to March 20 and 21 due to the deadly Los Angeles wildfires, which caused work delays as prosecutors in the office were among the thousands evacuated from their homes. During the hearing next month, Hochman could recommend resentencing, with the decision then being handed off to a judge.

Under California Penal Code § 3051, they would be immediately eligible for parole since they committed the crimes when they were under the age of 26 and have already spent 15 years in prison.   

"We'll be ready for that hearing," Hochman said last month of the March court dates. "We're working as hard as we can... So the wildfires set us back a little bit. But we're working very hard to make sure we get to the right result and then can defend it in court."

Towards the end of his term as DA, Gascón said he would ask a judge to resentence Lyle and Erik Menendez to 50 years to life, which would make them eligible for parole immediately. 

"I believe they have paid their debt to society," Gascón said upon announcing his decision last year.

The former DA also wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom to show support for them being granted clemency, citing their allegations of sexual abuse and saying they have rehabilitated by showing good behavior while behind bars, earning college diplomas and leading support groups for other survivors of abuse. 

Several family members have also publicly shown support for the brothers' release, backing their claims of abuse and saying they have rehabilitated and served enough time. In early January, some of them met with Hochman to advocate for their release.

"This 35-year process has been incredibly traumatizing for us, as I'm sure you can all imagine," Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of theirs, told reporters after the meeting. "We are very much hoping that we can find a path to manslaughter — that we can see the release of the brothers immediately."

Meanwhile, an uncle of the brothers is at least one relative who has opposed their release. An attorney for Milton Andersen issued a statement last year saying their "cold-blooded actions shattered their family and left a trail of grief that has persisted for decades."

Hochman has said he is leading the DA's office with what he calls a "hard middle" approach, advocating for increased penalties for some non-violent crimes while also being open to some rehabilitative measures. Last year, he said he would continue running the Resentencing Unit that Gascón started in April 2021, which oversaw the resentencing of at least 300 people.

"My plans would be to certainly continue the Resentencing Unit," Hochman said days after being elected. "Once I get into office, I'll be better able to understand all the aspects of it and whether or not any changes are required, whether or not it needs to be scaled up more to do more resentencings. But we will be looking at, again, the facts and the law of each of the cases that come down."

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