Menendez brothers suffer delay in hopes for freedom

After an agonising wait for freedom, the Menendez brothers - who are in jail for murdering their parents in 1989 - have faced a major setback.

The Menendez brothers’ hopes of freedom from life sentences for murdering their parents will have to wait until next year after their case was hit by an unexpected delay.

Lyle and Erik Menendez have been in prison since 1990 when they were arrested for the shooting deaths of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the family’s Beverley Hills home in 1989.

Their case attracted renewed global interest this year due to Netflix’s hit series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, featuring the brother’s claims of having suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their father.

Erik Menendez (left) and his brother Lyle have been in custody for almost 35 years. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images/AFP

Last month California District Attorney George Gascón announced he had recommended re-sentencing for the Menendez siblings after a “very careful review of all the arguments made”.

The two men were on Monday, local time, set to appear by video link at a hearing in Los Angeles, their first court appearance in 28 years.

But technical difficulties scuppered the appearance and the hearing was pushed back to the end of January.

Judge Michael Jesic called the brothers’ elderly aunts to the stand to hear them plead for the brothers to be freed.

“I would like to be able to hug them and see them,” Jose Menendez’s older sister Terry Baralt, 85, said.

Joan Vander Molen, the sister of Kitty Menendez. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

Erik Menendez's wife, Tammi Menendez. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

“I would like them to come home,” Kitty’s sister, Joan Vander Molen, told the court.

“No child should go through what Erik and Lyle went through.

“They never knew if tonight will be the night when they would be raped.”

Prosecutors painted the crime at trial as a cold-blooded attempt by the brothers – then 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik – to get their hands on their parents’ $14 million fortune.

Jose and Kitty Menendez were watching 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me in their home theatre when their sons entered with shotguns and shot them both several times.

The Menendez brothers in 2016 mugshots.

But their lawyers argued the 1989 killings were acts of self-defence by young men subjected to years of sexual abuse and psychological violence at the hands of an abusive father and a complicit mother.

The hearing was intended as a starting point for lawyers working on three routes to free Erik, now 53, and Lyle, 56.

Lawyer Mark Geragos has filed a writ of habeas corpus, an attempt to effectively vacate the brothers’ first-degree murder conviction, which could free the brothers immediately.

Another route is an effort to get the men re-sentenced on the same conviction, which would open the way for them to request parole.

Both men have been in custody for almost 35 years.

Defence lawyers Mark Geragos (left) and Bryan Freedman leave the Van Nuys West Courthouse. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

Finally, Mr Geragos has submitted a clemency request to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

The hearing comes after a campaign to secure their release, supported by Kim Kardashian and other celebrities.

“Set them free before the Holidays!” Tammi Menendez, Erik’s wife, wrote on social media last week.

Public interest was such that the court held a lottery for the 16 seats in the public gallery.

Nick Bonanno, a former high school classmate of Erik’s, was the first to arrive at the court, taking his place at the head of the line at 4:30am local time.

“I wanted to show support to … Eric and Lyle,” he told AFP ahead of the hearing.

“It’s all about supporting and healing, not just for the families, but for us as a culture.”

Elena Gordon, 43, said she wanted “to witness a part of our local history.”