AFTER nearly 35 years behind bars, the Menendez brothers could soon get a taste of freedom.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, the infamous brothers convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, with a pair of shotguns in their mansion in 1989, could potentially be released on parole before the end of the calendar year.
On Thursday, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he will ask a judge to reconsider resentencing Lyle and Erik, now 56 and 53, respectively, on Friday.
“I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,” Gascón said.
The DA said he would ask the court to remove the life without the possibility of parole and instead request a sentence of 50 years to life with the possibility of parole.
"However, because of their age under the law, since they were under 26 years of age at the time that this crime occurred, they will be eligible for parole immediately," he added.
Depending on how quickly the process moves, the brothers could be released within the next 30-45 days.
Gascón acknowledged the brothers committed a horrible act but believes they have "paid their debt to society."
The district attorney underscored Lyle and Erik's behavior and actions during their incarceration, noting that instead of engaging in illicit activity, they did the opposite.
"All this was done by two young people that had no hopes of ever getting out of prison," Gascón said.
"To the contrary, even though they didn't think they would ever be released because they were sentenced to life without parole, they engaged in a different journey. A journey of redemption and a journey of rehabilitation."
The district attorney said the decision was made about an hour before the afternoon press conference and the possibility of lowering the charges to manslaughter was also being considered.
However, Gascón said manslaughter would not have been the appropriate charge given the premeditation that was involved.
Gascón said Lyle and Erik were not aware of the decision prior to the press conference.
He said the brothers were likely listening to his decision on television.
"We appreciate what they did while they were in prison," he added.
"While I disagree with the way they handled their abuse, we hope that they get reintegrated into our community and continue to do public good."
Gascón said his office was divided on whether or not Lyle and Erik should potentially be released.
"The teams that have worked on the resentencing side of this have spanned probably hundreds of hours looking at this case," said Gascón.
"We don't have a universal agreement. There are people in the office that strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should stay in prison the rest of their lives and they do not believe they were molested.
"And there are people in the office that believe they should be released immediately and that they were in fact molested."
And while the Menendez family has come together in a strong show of support for the brothers, they're not all in agreement either.
I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón
Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez's 90-year-old brother, filed legal documents asking the court to maintain the brothers' original sentence.
“They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement provided to the on Thursday.
“The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”
Gascón's recommendation follows his October 3 announcement that his office was reevaluating the Menendez brothers' case.
However, any recommendation by Gascón will ultimately be just that.
Gascón will pass his decision on to a judge who will make the final determination about whether the new evidence presented warrants resentencing.
Nearly 30 years after Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, their case reemerged in the spotlight following the release of the 2023 docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed and the Netflix series Monsters in September.
The case picked up pressure following the release of Ryan Murphy's Netflix series, which garnered over 12.3 million views in its first weekend release.
The show presented the murders through different perspectives as it explored what might have led Lyle and Erik to kill their parents.
The show dramatized the alleged sexual abuse the brothers suffered at the hands of their father.
A Los Angeles court is expected to hear the case on November 26.
A hand written letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin about his dad's alleged abuse has sparked a review of the case that could set him and his brother free from jail.
Erik's letter was written in December 1988, eight months before the double murders in August 1989.
The letter reads in full:
"I've been trying to avoid dad. It's still happening, Andy, but it's worse for me now. I can't explain it. He so overweight that I can't stand to see him.
"I never know when it's going to happen and it's driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.
"I need to put it out of my mind. I know what you said before but I'm afraid. You just don't know dad like I do. He's crazy!
"He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.
"Am I a serious whimpus? I don’t know I’ll make it through this. I can handle it, Andy. I need to stop thinking about it."
During the October 3 press conference, Gascón said his office was closely investigating two new pieces of evidence related to the Menendez brothers' case.
One is a letter written by Erik, eight months before the murders, to his cousin, Andy Cano, where he appears to reference the alleged abuse by his father.
"I've been trying to avoid dad. It's still happening, Andy, but it's worse for me now," Erik wrote in December 1988.
“I never know when [the abuse] is going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night, I stay up thinking he might come in.”
Cano had testified at both trials, telling the courtroom that Erik, at age 13, privately confessed to him that his father had been touching him.
The second piece of evidence came from the 2023 Peacock docuseries in which Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, made sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez.
At the time, Jose was a powerful and wealthy executive at RCA Records - the label to which Menudo was signed.
Rosselló, now 54, was with Menudo when the group shot to fame in the mid-1980s and signed with RCA International in 1983.
In the three-part Peacock docuseries, Rosselló alleged the band's manager at the time, Edgardo Dize, offered him to Jose as a means to seal their multi-million dollar deal with RCA.
Rosselló, who was 13 when he joined the band, accused Diaz of sexually abusing him during his time with Menudo.
He said Diaz brought him to Jose's home in , where he alleged the former music executive drugged and raped him in early 1980.
"That's the man here that raped me," Rosselló said, pointing at a photo of Jose in the Peacock docuseries.
"That's the guy. That's the pedophile. I was in terrible pain for a week. I could barely stand the pain. I couldn't even more."
Rosselló also alleged that Jose sexually abused him on two other occasions, right before and after a performance at Radio City Music Hall in .
Appellate attorney Cliff Gardner filed a habeas petition in May 2023 asking the district attorney's office to review the new evidence.
A habeas petition is a legal document that a prisoner files to challenge the legality of their conviction or sentence, arguing that their rights were violated during the criminal proceedings.
Erik and Lyle Menendez have been serving a life imprisonment sentence without the possibility of parole since July 1996.
The brothers were convicted of shooting their parents to death in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989.
Timeline:
August 20, 1989 - José and Kitty Menendez are found dead from multiple shotgun wounds.
March 8, 1990 - Lyle is arrested outside his parents' Beverly Hills mansion.
March 11, 1990 - Erik turns himself in to police after flying back into Los Angeles from Israel.
July 20, 1993 - The highly publicized trial of Lyle and Erik begins and ends weeks later in a mistrial.
October 11, 1995 - Lyle and Erik's second trial begins.
March 20, 1996 - The Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
July 2, 1996 - Lyle and Erik are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons.
February 2018 - Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison, where Erik is held.
April 4, 2018 - Lyle was moved into the same housing unit as Erik - the first time the brothers were reunited in over 20 years.
May 2023 - The attorney representing Lyle and Erik files a habeas petition after Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, made sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez.
September 19, 2024 - Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story releases on Netflix.
October 3, 2024: Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said his office was reviewing new evidence in connection with Lyle and Erik's convictions.
October 7, 2024 - The Menendez Brothers documentary film comes out on Netflix.
October 16, 2024 - Family members of the Menendez brothers hold a press conference begging for the siblings to be released from prison.
October 24, 2024 - Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommends the brothers be resentenced.
Weeks before Gascón's bombshell decision, nearly two dozen relatives of Lyle and Erik held a press conference calling for the brothers' release.
Joan Anderson VanderMolen, the sister of Kitty, said she struggled for years with the nightmare of her sister and brother-in-law's murders.
"Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father," Vandermolen, 92, said.
"The truth is that Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who were supposed to protect them."
Brian Anderson, Kitty's nephew, called the brothers survivors who deserve a second chance.
"They are no longer a threat to society," he said.
Karen VanderMolen, Kitty's niece, also defended the brothers, saying they were trapped in the alleged abuse.
"I forgive my cousins. I know they were acting out of fear and desperation," she added.
On August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik, then 21 and 18, respectively, stormed into the den of their Beverly Hills mansion, wielding shotguns, and shot their parents at point-blank range.
Jose was shot six times, including a fatal shot to the back of the head, while Kitty was shot 10 times.
Lyle eventually called 911, sobbing over the phone to the dispatcher that his parents had been killed and implied it may have been a business-related mafia hit.
In the months after the murders, Lyle and Erik went on a lavish shopping spree, spending about $700,000 on a Porsche, Rolexes, a tennis coach, and even a restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey.
The brothers even chose to live in adjoining condominiums in nearby Marina del Rey, dining at extravagant restaurants and booking overseas flights to the Caribbean and London.
Erik eventually confessed about the murders to his psychologist, Jerome Oziel, who then told his mistress, Judalon Smyth, who went to the police.
On March 8, 1990, Lyle was arrested outside their Beverly Hills home, while Erik turned himself in three days later after returning to from .
The brothers' first trial became an international spectacle and was broadcast by CourtTV in 1993.
The courtroom witnessed Erik and Lyle break down in tears on the stand as they testified about the sexual, emotional, and physical abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of their father.
Lyle and Erik did not deny carrying out the shooting but testified they killed Jose and Kitty in self-defense out of fear their parents would kill them first to prevent stories emerging about their alleged abuse.
However, despite the brothers' emotional testimony, the trial ended in two deadlocked juries, each assigned to deliberate over one sibling separately.
Lyle and Erik's defense suffered a major blow during their retail in 1995 after a judge ruled that most of the evidence of their alleged sexual abuse be withheld from the jury.
The brothers were eventually convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
