Published at 3:43 PM, February 21, 2025
LOS ANGELES (AP)– The Los Angeles district lawyer stated Friday he hasn’t yet decided on whether Lyle and Erik Menendez must be resentenced in their 1996 conviction for the murder of their rich moms and dads at their Beverly Hills home.
This mix of 2 scheduling images offered by the California Department of Corrections reveals Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez.(California Dept. of Corrections through AP)
The proposed resentencing for the siblings will be used up at a March hearing and would make them right away qualified for parole. District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who took workplace in December, stated at a press conference he’ll share an upgrade on his position in the coming weeks. His predecessor, George Gascón, advised in 2015 the siblings be resentenced to 50 years to life. Gascón lost his quote for reelection in November to Hochman, who called the suggestion a “desperate political relocation.”
The siblings were condemned in the 1989 murders of their home entertainment executive daddy, Jose, and their mom, Kitty Menendez, and sentenced to life in jail without parole. They started their quote for liberty recently after brand-new proof of their daddy’s sexual assault emerged in their case, and they have the assistance of the majority of their extended household.
Throughout a prolonged press conference Friday, Hochman discussed a habeas corpus petition the siblings’ lawyers submitted in 2023 requesting a reexamination of the case, arguing they had brand-new proof to present associated to claims that the bros’ daddy sexually mistreated Erik Menendez. Hochman stated he was submitting a casual reaction to the habeas petition advising the court to decline it. He called into question proof declaring that Erik Menendez had actually been sexually mistreated and stated it was not relevant to the case.
“Sexual abuse in this circumstance might have been an inspiration for Erik and Lyle to do what they did, however it does not make up self-defense,” Hochman stated.
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Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman discusses the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez for the murders of their moms and dads years earlier throughout a press conference in downtown Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A resentencing hearing initially arranged for early December was postponed to the end of January after Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic stated he required time to examine substantial proof and offer Hochman time to weigh in on the case. In January, Hochman pressed the hearing out another 2 months– to March 20 and 21– due to the fact that of the Los Angeles wildfires.
Hochman has actually consulted with the siblings’ loved ones as he evaluates their case, that includes countless pages of jail records to identify the “rehab element” of their resentencing.
Lyle Menendez, who was then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, confessed they eliminated their moms and dads with a shotgun, however they stated they feared their moms and dads will eliminate them to avoid disclosure of their daddy’s long-lasting molestation of Erik.
District attorneys stated at the time there was no proof of molestation, and numerous information in their story of sexual assault were not allowed in the trial that resulted in their conviction in 1996. District attorneys implicated the siblings of eliminating their moms and dads for cash.
Roy Rossello, previous member of the Latin pop group Menudo, just recently stepped forward stating he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez when he was a teenager in the 1980s. Menudo was signed under RCA Records, which Jose Menendez was the head of at the time.
The case has actually gotten brand-new traction after Netflix started streaming the true-crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
