Erik Menendez (left) and his brother Lyle, in front of their Beverly Hills home. The brothers were convicted of murdering their parents. Photo / Getty Images
Erik Menendez (left) and his brother Lyle, in front of their Beverly Hills home. The brothers were convicted of murdering their parents. Photo / Getty Images
Los Angeles County prosecutors are reviewing the convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez,brothers who were found guilty of killing their parents three decades ago in one of the nation’s most high-profile crime cases.
New evidence related to the brothers’ allegations of sexual abuse by their father compels the re-evaluation, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said during a news conference.
”We are reviewing the information,” Gascon said. “We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member, talking about him being the victim of molestation.
”None of this information has been confirmed,” Gascon added. “We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination … whether they deserve to be resentenced.”
Erik Menendez (left) with his attorney, Leslie Abramson, and his brother Lyle Menendez, at their trial in Los Angeles in March 1994. Photo / Getty Images
Joseph Lyle Menendez and Erik Galen Menendez were the sons of Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.
On August 20, 1989, the two sobbing brothers called 911 claiming that they had just discovered their parents shot to death in the living room of their Beverly Hills mansion. Their father had been shot six times, and their mother had been shot 10 times, according to police.
Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18,initially told police their parents must have been murdered by the Mafia. They later admitted to killing their parents but said it was in self-defence: Both said their father had physically andsexually abused them for years and their mother knew about the abuse and ignored it.
Prosecutors at the time dismissed the brothers’ allegations of abuse, accusing them of committing the murders to inherit their parents’ fortune.
Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Cooper Koch and Javier Bardem in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Photo / Netflix
Lyle Menendez, then 28, and Erik Menendez, then 26, were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996.
The case captivated viewers across the United States as one of the first criminal trials to be broadcast in full on cable television. A new Netflix drama revisits the case, exploring the brothers’ motives for murder – including their claims of abuse at the hands of their parents.
Lyle and Erik, now 56 and 53, respectively, remain incarcerated in California at the same prison.
Gascon said Thursday that following review of the new evidence, the brothers could be resentenced or have a new trial. A hearing on the case is scheduled for late November.
- Jiselle Lee and Lindsey Bever contributed to this report.
