Los Angeles County prosecutors and attorneys for the Menendez brothers faced off during a tense and at times uncomfortable court hearing Friday as Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman seeks to spike a prior recommendation that the brothers receive a lighter sentence in their parents’ grisly murders.
While Erik and Lyle Menendez’s ultimate fates will not be decided until at least next week, Hochman sent prosecutors Friday to ask Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic to ignore a request filed last year by then-Dist. Atty. George Gascón seeking to give the brothers a chance at freedom after more than 30 years in prison.
Last October, Gascón sought to have the brothers resentenced to 50 years to life in prison — a move could have made them eligible for parole as youthful offenders because they carried out the killings when they were under the age of 26. But after Hochman thrashed Gascón in the November election, he promised to revisit the Menendez case.
Last month, Hochman formally announced his opposition to their release and said he’d ask a judge to rescind Gascón’s petition and only consider his filing as the official position of the district attorney’s office.
Legal experts have said there is little precedent for Hochman to try and claw back Gascón’s motion, though he has every right to add his own position to the record. The hearing to decide whether or not to re-sentence the brothers is slated for April 17.
In court Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian told a judge that Gascón simply didn’t “get” the case and had only carried out a half-baked analysis of the brothers’ past trials and their willingness to accept responsibility for the murders.
Hochman and Balian have both claimed the brothers are still lying about the circumstances of their crimes, and Balian said Friday neither Gascón nor the prosecutors who filed his three-page re-sentencing petition even retrieved the case files from archives before rendering a decision. Balian also repeated Hochman’s contention that Gascón took up the case for political gain, even though at the time he was trailing Hochman by roughly 30 points in the polls and even some of his closest advisers were admitting the race was lost.
Sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the grisly 1989 shotgun murders of their wealthy parents, Erik and Lyle Menendez saw support for their release surge following the release of a popular Netflix documentary last year and the discovery of potential new evidence that their father, Jose, sexually abused not only the brothers but also a former member of the boy band Menudo.
In petitions seeking a new trial, the brothers’ attorneys have cited the fresh sex abuse allegations against Jose Menendez as evidence critical to their self-defense claims.
Balian on Friday argued the brothers repeatedly coached witnesses at their earlier trials to lie about the threat they faced from their parents in order to bolster their self-defense argument. As he spoke, Hochman looked on from the gallery.
Last month, Hochman filed an 88-page motion opposing the brothers’ re-sentencing, arguing that the brothers are still lying about the motive for their crimes — and thus haven’t taken full responsibility for the killings — and pose an unreasonable risk to the public.
“The Menendez brothers have continued to lie for over 30 years about their self-defense — that is, their purported actual fear that their mother and their father were going to kill them the night of the murders,” the motion read. “Also, over those 30 years, they have failed to accept responsibility for the vast number of lies they told in connection with that defense.”
On the night of the slayings, the brothers walked into their Beverly Hills mansion and shot their parents with shotguns they’d bought with cash. Jose and Kitty Menendez were watching a movie in the living room when Jose Menendez was shot five times, including in the kneecaps and the back of the head. Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor wounded before one of the brothers reloaded and fired a fatal blast, authorities have said.
The brothers were charged with murder after Erik, then 18, confessed to the killings to his therapist. During the brothers’ two trials, prosecutors argued the killings were motivated by the brothers’ desire to gain access to their multimillion-dollar inheritance. But defense attorneys countered that years of violent sexual abuse by their father preceded the shootings, justifying the slayings as a form of self-defense.
Balian displayed photos of the bloody crime scene in court Friday, triggering an eruption from defense attorney Mark Geragos, who accused the prosecutor of “putting on a dog and pony show” meant to re-litigate the original murder case, when the purpose of the hearing was solely to determine whether Gascón’s motion should be revoked.
“There is no concern for the victims.” Geragos said of the nearly two dozen of the brothers’ relatives who have called for them to be set free. “They are being traumatized by the D.A. for political purposes.”
“These two caused the carnage,” Balian shot back before gesturing to the brothers, who were watching on a live feed.
After Hochman filed his opposition last month, supporters of the Menendez brothers accused the district attorney of playing politics with the siblings’ lives. Among his first moves in office was to hire Kathy Cady, a former prosecutor who served as a victims rights attorney to the lone Menendez relative opposed to the brothers’ release. He also demoted and transferred the two attorneys who argued for the brothers’ release under Gascón, a move that triggered a civil lawsuit against Hochman and a close political ally in the office.
“The D.A.’s entire motion reads like a campaign document, not a legal one,” Anamaria Baralt, the brothers’ cousin, said in a statement. “The law requires fairness, not personal vendettas. Erik and Lyle have not only taken responsibility, they’ve become the kind of men this system is supposed to help create. If rehabilitation doesn’t matter here, when does it?”
In their motion advocating for the brothers release, Geragos and attorney Clifford Gardner reiterated that the brothers have few rules violations during their 30-plus years in prison, and both were given the lowest felony risk assessment scores available from prison officials.
While the brothers’ resentencing petition will draw droves of media to a Van Nuys courtroom over the next several weeks, it is not their only potential path to freedom. In addition to their motion for a new trial based on fresh allegations of sexual abuse against their father, Gov. Gavin Newsom is also considering the brothers’ application for clemency and directed the state parole board to launch a risk assessment of the brothers.
If they were granted clemency and appeared before the parole board, however, Hochman has vowed to fight their release again.
