Los Angeles County District Legal professional Nathan Hochman mentioned Monday he is asking the court docket to withdraw the earlier district legal professional’s movement for resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense a part of a litany of “lies.”
“We’re ready to go ahead” with the listening to relating to their resentencing case, Hochman mentioned at a information convention Monday. “Nonetheless, we’re asking the court docket to withdraw the earlier district legal professional’s movement for resentencing, as a result of we consider there are professional causes and the pursuits of justice justifies that withdrawal.”
A resentencing listening to is ready for March 20 and 21 for the brothers, who’re serving life with out the opportunity of parole.
PHOTO: In these reserving photographs taken Oct. 10, 2024, Erik and Lyle Menendez are proven. (CRDC)
MORE: Menendez brothers’ cousin calls DA ‘hostile,’ ‘patronizing,’ asks for his removal from case
The request to withdraw the resentencing movement is “primarily based on the present state of the document and the Menendez brothers’ present and continuous failure to indicate full perception and settle for full duty,” Hochman mentioned in an announcement. “In the event that they had been to lastly come ahead and unequivocally and sincerely admit and utterly settle for duty for his or her lies of self-defense and the tried suborning of perjury they engaged in, then the Court docket ought to weigh such new perception into the evaluation of rehabilitation and resentencing — as will the Folks.”
Hochman mentioned his resolution comes after reviewing trial transcripts from each trials, jail data and videotaped trial testimony, in addition to assembly with Menendez relations, protection attorneys and previous prosecutors.
Hochman confused the premeditation, noting the brothers drove to San Diego days earlier than the murders to purchase weapons with a faux ID and on the evening of the murders, they deliberate an alibi and went to purchase film tickets, he mentioned.
PHOTO: Los Angeles County District Legal professional Nathan Hochman talks in regards to the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez for the murders of their dad and mom throughout a information convention in downtown Los Angeles, Jan. 3, 2025. (Damian Dovarganes/AP, FILE)
MORE: Menendez brothers timeline: From the 1989 murders to their new fight for freedom
After Jose and Kitty Menendez had been fatally shot, the brothers allegedly shot them within the kneecaps to allegedly attempt to make the slayings seem like a gang capturing, Hochman mentioned.
The brothers “additionally had the presence of thoughts to choose up all of the shotgun shells” to attempt to cover their fingerprints, after which they ditched their bloody garments and the weapons, Hochman mentioned.
Hochman mentioned the brothers advised 20 lies and admitted to 4; he mentioned 16 lies stay “unacknowledged.”
Hochman confused the brothers modified their story a number of occasions.
The brothers initially proclaimed their innocence and mentioned the murders could have been Mafia hits.
PHOTO: Erik Menendez, left, and is brother Lyle, in entrance of their Beverly Hills residence on Nov. 30, 1989. (Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Pictures, FILE)
The reality in regards to the brothers being accountable got here after Erik Menendez confessed to his therapist and that confession tape was turned over to the police.
“They satisfied, not simply the media, not simply the police, however their household and their pals that they had been 100% harmless of those crimes, till finally these tapes got here out,” Hochman mentioned.
The “subsequent iteration of the story” was when Lyle Menendez allegedly requested his girlfriend to assert Jose Menendez drugged and raped her, Hochman mentioned.
The brothers later mentioned Erik Menendez was raped by their father and Lyle Menendez was raped by their mom, he mentioned.
At trial, the brothers claimed self-defense, saying they suffered intercourse abuse from their father and consider their dad and mom had been going to kill them.
However Hochman mentioned Monday that “the self-defense protection was a fabrication.”
Self protection wasn’t point out within the confession to the therapist, in keeping with Hochman.
“What Erik mentioned is that [his father] was a controlling, dominating pressure, and that’s the reason,” Hochman mentioned. “He mentioned the mom could be a witness to the crime, so she needed to die, [and she] was so depressing as a result of the daddy had an affair … [and] the mom couldn’t stay with out the daddy.”
PHOTO: Erik Menendez along with his legal professional Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles, March 9, 1994. (Ted Soqui/Sygma by way of Getty Pictures, FILE)
The “brothers have by no means come clear and admitted that they lied about their self-defense in addition to suborned perjury and tried to suborn perjury by their pals for the lies, amongst others, of their father violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, their mom poisoning the household, and their try to get a handgun the day earlier than the murders,” the DA mentioned in an announcement.
At Monday’s information convention, Hochman ceaselessly referenced California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2022 resolution to disclaim parole to Robert F. Kennedy’s killer, Sirhan Sirhan, citing that case because the precedent the decide ought to take into account with the Menendez brothers.
Though Sirhan — just like the Menendez brothers — spent a long time in jail rehabilitating himself, together with reaching levels and taking part in jail applications, and he had letters of assist, Newsom denied Sirhan parole as a result of he “didn’t exhibit perception and utterly settle for duty for his homicide of Kennedy,” making him “an unreasonable danger of hazard to the neighborhood,” Hochman mentioned.
The court docket must “analyze whether or not the Menendez brothers’ lack of full perception and lack of full duty for his or her murders overcomes … the opposite elements justifying a resentencing just like the Menendez’ size of time in jail, their age on the time of the murders, their upbringing and any sexual abuse they skilled, their in depth rehabilitation efforts in jail together with getting instructional levels and involvement in neighborhood and jail applications, any supportive letters from jail officers and sufferer relations, their well being, and the low jail danger rating,” Hochman mentioned.
In October, then-LA County District Legal professional George Gascón introduced he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón really helpful their sentences of life with out the opportunity of parole be eliminated, and mentioned they need to as a substitute be sentenced for homicide, which might be a sentence of fifty years to life. As a result of each brothers had been beneath 26 on the time of the crimes, they’d be eligible for parole instantly with the brand new sentence.
PHOTO: Erik Menendez and his brother Lyle (R) hear throughout a pre-trial listening to, Dec. 29, 1992, in Los Angeles after the 2 pleaded harmless within the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their dad and mom, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez. (Vince Bucci/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
MORE: Menendez brothers’ cousin ‘gasped in relief’ to learn Newsom is addressing clemency request
The DA’s workplace mentioned its resentencing suggestions bear in mind many elements, together with rehabilitation in jail and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and assist different inmates.
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he misplaced his race for reelection to Hochman. When Hochman got here into workplace on Dec. 3, he promised to evaluate all of the information earlier than reaching his personal resolution.
Hochman’s announcement on Monday comes days after one of many brothers’ cousins, Tamara Goodell, slammed the DA in a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division.
Goodell accused Hochman of being “hostile, dismissive and patronizing” throughout two conferences in January with relations who need the brothers launched. She mentioned the “lack of compassion was palpable, and the household left feeling not solely ignored however additional intimidated and revictimized.”Goodell needs Hochman eliminated and the case turned over to the legal professional common’s workplace.
PHOTO: Joan Andersen VanderMolen, heart, speaks to the media surrounded by relations of Erik and Lyle Menendez throughout a information convention after a listening to in Los Angeles, Nov. 25, 2024. (Damian Dovarganes/AP, FILE)
MORE: Menendez brothers case: DA asks court to deny their petition for new trial
This case dates again to 1989, when Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, shot and killed their dad and mom, Kitty and Jose Menendez, within the household’s Beverly Hills residence.
Their first trial resulted in a mistrial. Lyle and Erik Menendez had been convicted in 1996 following their second trial.
The brothers had been sentenced to 2 consecutive life jail phrases with out the opportunity of parole.
In addition to resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two different paths to freedom.
One is their habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a evaluate of two new items of proof not introduced at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months earlier than the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
Hochman introduced in February that he is asked the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the brand new proof is not credible or admissible.
The third path to freedom is thru the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to Newsom.
On Feb. 26, Newsom introduced that he is ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “complete danger evaluation” investigation into whether or not the brothers pose “an unreasonable danger to the general public” in the event that they’re granted clemency and launched.
“There isn’t any assure of final result right here,” Newsom mentioned. “However this course of merely supplies extra transparency … in addition to supplies us extra due diligence earlier than I make any dedication for clemency.”
Menendez brothers case: DA asks court to withdraw resentencing motion, calls self-defense claims ‘lies’ initially appeared on abcnews.go.com
Source link