Key witnesses for Menendez brothers re-sentencing hearing said to be prison staff
The new District Attorney presiding over the Menendez brothers case will not be influenced by Hollywood’s take on murderers Erik and Lyle, as their resentencing hearing approaches.
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New Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has a message for fans of Erik and Lyle Menendez: don’t rush to judgment as their December 11 resentencing hearing approaches.
Hochman, 60, said he thinks many fans of the Menendez brothers’ true-crime series don’t fully understand the case.
The Menendez brothers, now 53 and 56, are serving life without parole at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, after they were convicted of murdering their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, with a shotgun in 1989.
Hochman says the sudden interest in the Menendez brothers is because of a Netflix series and documentary about their crimes, for which they were sentenced.
The incoming DA said he hasn’t watched either the Netflix show or the documentary.
“I didn’t want to see them,” he said. “What’s the point? I’d rather read the book.”
Hochman admitted he only remembers bits and pieces of the case from 30 years ago, but that’s why he plans to carefully dig into the facts. The Menendez case is a “high priority,” Hochman told The Daily Beast.
Hochman added, “Any time a particular case gets this level of attention, it’s even that more important to get it right.”
Hochman said he also won’t be swayed by celebrity endorsements, including from personality Kim Kardashian and actor Cooper Koch, who played Erik Menendez in the Netflix series.
The Menendez family has called for the brothers’ immediate release, asking to skip the parole process. But even if a judge agrees to resentencing, parole could still take a year. On top of that, California Governor Gavin Newsom could block their release.
The brothers admitted to killing their parents, but claimed it was self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father. Prosecutors argued that wasn’t true, saying the brothers killed for money.
Prosecutors at the time pointed to a US$700,000 spending spree in the weeks after the murders, including Porsche vehicles and Rolex watches.
The jury agreed, sentencing them to life without parole. Though originally in separate prisons, the brothers were reunited in San Diego in 2018.
Hochman will officially assume the position of Los Angeles County DA on December 2.
It comes as the key witnesses in the upcoming resentencing of the Menendez brothers are said are reportedly prison employees.
Lyle and Erik Menendez could be released from prison before Christmas over the murders of their parents after spending more than 30 years in prison.
According to TMZ, the brothers’ lawyer Mark Geragos will call six star witnesses to the stand at their hearing, set to take place on December 11.
All six are employed by the California Department of Corrections, including two correctional officers, one education officer, a prison guard, a correctional lieutenant and another employee.
The staffers have all had encounters with the brothers and are expected to testify that they have changed significantly since being imprisoned for life at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility back in 1996, according to TMZ.
In supporting evidence, their lawyer also included a letter written by several relatives of the murdered parents supporting the brothers’ release from prison.
Geragos will also try to change their convictions from murder to manslaughter.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced last month that he would ask a judge to look again at the Menendez siblings sentences and will recommend to the court that they be eligible for parole.
“There is no excuse for murder and I will never imply that what we are doing here is excusing that behaviour because even if you get abuse, the right path is to call police, seek help,” Mr Gascon told a packed press conference.
“But I understand also how sometimes people get desperate. We often see, women, for instance, who have been battered for years and sometimes they will murder their abuser out of desperation.”
Mr Gascon continued: “And I do believe the brothers were subjected to a tremendous of dysfunction in the home and molestation. But they went to prison for life without the possibility of parole which meant as under the law at the time they had no hopes of ever getting out.”
Mr Gascon, who is running for re-election on a criminal reform platform, said the killer brothers had engaged on “a journey of redemption and rehabilitation” in prison.
“Even in one case Lyle negotiating for other inmates as to the conditions that they live under in prison,” Mr Gascon added.
It will be up to a judge to make the final determination on Mr Gascon’s recommendation, which he acknowledged was not unanimous even within his own department.
The grisly shotgun slayings of wealthy music mogul Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty in their Beverly Hills home in 1989 – and their sons’ subsequent, televised murder trials – became the subject of a media frenzy. A hit Netflix series has recently sparked fresh interest in the case.
The brothers, aged 21 and 18 at the time of the murders, tearfully testified they killed their parents for fear of their own lives after years of sexual abuse by their father.
They were convicted of first-degree murder and have been serving life sentences in prison without possibility of parole since their sentencing in 1996.
But US prosecutors reviewed new evidence concerning the case.
Last year, the brothers’ attorneys filed a court petition setting out new evidence which they said demonstrates Jose Menendez’s history of sexual abuse.
Among the new evidence is a letter Erik wrote to a cousin months before the murders, saying “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening … Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”
Former Latino boy band member Roy Rossello said in a documentary series released last year that he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez in the 1980s.
The brothers’ attorneys called for a resentencing, which could see their clients released from prison given the lengthy time already spent behind bars.
Prosecutors said in a statement that Los Angeles’s criminal justice system “has developed a more modern understanding of sexual violence since the Menendez brothers first faced prosecution.”
“Today, our office acknowledges that sexual violence is a pervasive issue affecting countless individuals – of all gender identities,” they wrote, confirming the case is being reviewed on multiple fronts.
Earlier this month, Mr Gascon told reporters he had “a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us.”
His comments came two weeks after the release on Netflix of crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” The streaming giant also put out a documentary film, “The Menendez Brothers,” last week.
Mr Gascon acknowledged the initial Netflix show resulted in a large number of calls to his office about the case.
Meanwhile, relatives of the brothers also called for their release.
“As details of Lyle and Eric’s abuse came to light, it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruel(ty) of their father,” their 92-year-old aunt Joan VanderMolen said this month.
“Lyle and Erik have already paid a heavy price, discarded by a system that failed to recognise their pain,” she told a news conference attended by some 30 relatives.
Their initial trial, starting in 1993, was one of the first televised murder cases to make daily headlines around the world. It ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury, but they were found guilty in a second trial.
Prosecutors argued they conspired to murder their parents in order to inherit their $US14 million ($A21m) fortune.
– with AFP
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