Shock real life update after Netflix hit show

The real life brothers from Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story have just been given huge news.

A major update has been shared in the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez following the release of the smash hit Netflix series based on their life.

A new court hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez has been set for November 29th, nearly three decades after they were convicted of murdering their parents.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced in a press conference on Thursday afternoon that he believes the brothers’ case deserves to be re-evaluated following the discovery of new evidence and questions regarding certain testimony that was not permitted in court during the trial.

Lyle and Erik Menendez could be given a new trial. Photo: Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images.

The new evidence in question helps to further support the brothers’ claim that they were molested by their father, Jose Menendez, throughout their childhood.

“We have been given evidence. 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,” Gascón told the media. “We’ve also got evidence that was provided by the defence, by his lawyers, that one of the members of the Menudo band alleged that he was molested by the father.”

Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, alleged that Erik and Lyle’s father, Jose, sexually assaulted him as a teenager.

In a sworn affidavit filed in 2023, Rosselló said he visited Jose Menendez’s home in the fall of 1983 or 1984 as a teenager.

“I know what he did to me in his house,” Rosselló said in the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.

“That’s the man here that raped me... That’s the paedophile.”

While there is no guarantee of the outcome, the hearing could lead to an entirely new trial for the brothers, who have been campaigning for their release for decades.

Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story has become a smash hit for Netflix. Picture: Netflix.

“We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but we’re here to tell you is that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination based on a resentencing side, whether they deserve to be resentenced — even though they were clearly the murderers — because they have been in prison for years and they have paid back their dues to society,” Gascón added.

“If there was evidence that was not presented to the court at that time, and had that evidence been presented, perhaps a jury would have come to a different conclusion.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story shot to the top of the streaming charts around the world over the weekend.

Creator Ryan Murphy has lashed out at the real life brothers after they criticised how the show had portrayed them. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Netflix.

It explores the troubled Menendez family in the years, months, and weeks leading up to the brutal murders of Jose and Kitty Mendendez, as well as the brothers’ trials that followed in the early ‘90s.

Creator Ryan Murphy has also faced backlash over his depiction of the relationship between the two brothers, with numerous scenes in the show appearing to suggest they had a consensual sexual relationship.

During his retrial in 1995, Lyle testified he had molested Erik while they were children.

After the brothers slammed the series from prison, Murphy labelled the pair “pathetic”.

“We had an obligation to so many people, not just to Erik and Lyle,” he told Hollywood Reporter.

“But that’s what I find so fascinating; that they’re playing the victim card right now — ‘poor, pitiful us — which I find reprehensible and disgusting.”

Originally published as Shock real life update after Netflix hit show