Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office will ask the court to withdraw a recommendation for a resentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers, saying they are liars.
“Our position is that they shouldn’t get out of jail,” Hochman said Monday during a news conference.
He said he thinks Lyle and Erik Menendez repeatedly lied about their motives for the murders, as they they claimed they killed their mother and father because they were being sexually abused by them.
“The self-defense defense was a fabrication,” Hochman said.
Hochman said he believes Lyle and Erik have not taken full responsibility for their crimes and for years continued to lie about the circumstances of the murders.
“They’ve told 20 different lies,” Hochman said, adding the brothers admitted to lying about a 911 call, saying they found their parents’ bodies. He said they also lied to police, media, as well as family and friends about the murders, among other lies, including telling authorities their parents were murdered as part of a mafia hit.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, who shot and killed their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago, are hoping to be released from prison.
Just last month, Hochman said he opposed a new trial for the brothers. According to TMZ, the resentencing hearing would be irrelevant.
“Even if the judge resentenced Erik and Lyle, the case would then go to the Parole Board to determine if they have been rehabilitated and if they pose a danger to society, and the findings would be sent on to (California Gov. Gavin) Newsom,” the media outlet said. “Since that is already being done, there’s no need for a resentencing hearing.”
Hochman, who took office in December, previously said a letter Erik said he sent his cousin, Andy Cano, during the late 1980s — a letter that detailed alleged sexual abuse by his father, Jose — is “not credible evidence.”
“It’s not timely because it was not presented at time of trial,” Hochman said during a previous news conference.
He also questioned why the letter was never submitted while the brothers were on trial for the double homicide. Hochman added that Cano died in 2003, and is therefore unable to corroborate if the letter is authentic.
Hochman said whether Jose abused Erik — and if Kitty molested Lyle — is not cause for murder. The brothers claimed the motive for the killings was self-defense.
“Sexual abuse in this situation may have been a motivation for Erik and Lyle to do what they did, but it does not constitute self-defense,” Hochman said.
Hochman spoke in detail about a habeas corpus petition the brothers’ attorneys filed in 2023, asking for a re-examination of the case. He said he was filing an informal response to the habeas petition urging the court to reject it.
In 1996, after two trials in 1993 and 1995, the Menendez brothers were convicted by a jury of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after they admitted to shooting and killing their parents at close range.
They recently began their bid for freedom and have since garnered support from most of their extended family. Their aunts, along with several other loved ones, say they believe Lyle and Erik were victims.
“If their trial happened today, the outcome would be drastically different,” Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister, previously said of her nephews.
In October, then-District Attorney George Gascón recommended the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole. But Gascón lost his bid for reelection in November to Hochman, who called the recommendation a “desperate political move.”
The brothers are currently housed at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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