Erik and Lyle Menendez’s resentencing hearings can continue, a Los Angeles judge ruled Friday –bringing the brothers a step closer to freedom after 30 years behind bars.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic shot down the new district attorney’s bid to withdraw the resentencing request in a major victory for the pair, who were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
“Everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing next Thursday,” Jesic said.
At the hearing, District Attorney Nathan Hochman blasted his predecessor George Gascón’s formal petition to resentence the brothers, who were handed life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 18 and 21 — calling the request an “insane” political ploy that ignored basic facts.
The brothers’ attorney Mark Geragos, however, ripped the DA’s statement as nothing but a “dog and pony show” and condemned the prosecution for showing grizzly crime-scene photos without warning the family members watching from the gallery.
“The DA has assiduously shown that he has no consideration for the victims,” Geragos said.
In the end, Jesic sided with Geragos, ruling that Hochman’s office had no legally valid reason to yank Gascón’s petition.
The court is scheduled to make its final decision on resentencing after hearings on April 17 and 18.
More than a dozen relatives of Erik and Lyle traveled to the courthouse to call for their freedom.
“Eric and Lyle have taken full responsibility for what they did, and for decades now they continuously shown their insight, through their ashes, not just their words,” their cousin Anamaria Baralt told reporters after the hearing.
In the courtroom, prosecutors claimed that the brothers have never admitted to their “lies” and have shown absolutely no remorse for their actions.
Baralt called those claims “patently false.”
I don’t know why [prosecutors] keep repeating that. That’s just not true,” she said.
At those hearings, the brothers and their attorneys will try to convince the court that they have been rehabilitated more than three decades after murdering their wealthy parents in their Malibu mansion, emphasizing the brothers’ claim that the killings were in self-defense against their own parents after years of sexual abuse.
Last October, the former DA asked a judge to change the brothers’ sentence to 50 years to life, which would make them immediately eligible for release under California law because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.
Hochman submitted the motion to withdraw that request last month, saying he did not support the brothers’ resentencing because they had not admitted to “lies” they told as the case unfolded about why they killed their parents and did not “fully recognize, acknowledge, and accept complete responsibility” for their crime.
Even if the judge decides not to resentence Erik and Lyle, California Gov. Gavin Newsom may still choose to grant them clemency and allow them to leave jail on parole.
The state parole board is currently conducting its own hearings and will deliver its final recommendation in June.
Lyle and Erik Menendez became household names in 1989 after they purchased shotguns and killed José Menendez — a wealthy music producer — and his wife Mary Louise “Kitty” in the living room of their Malibu mansion.
The pair tried to pass the killings off as a mob hit and went on a spending spree with their parents’ $8 million fortune before they were convicted of first-degree murder after two high-profile trials in the 90s.
A 2024 Netflix documentary about their case put the brothers back in the spotlight; the same year, the district attorney’s office revealed new evidence that they had been molested, including a letter from Erik to a cousin, dated before the murders, describing the sexual abuse.
