The sentences of Erik and Lyle Menéndez, imprisoned in the United States for more than three decades for the murder of their parents, are going to be reviewed, as announced this Thursday by the Los Angeles Prosecutor’s Office, in California.
District Attorney George Gascón said at a press conference that there is “a moral and ethical obligation” to review the evidence presented by the brothers’ lawyers last year, which would demonstrate that they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their father and that they acted in self-defense.
In 1989 the brothers shot their parents to death, José and Kitty Menéndez, at their Beverly Hills mansion, in what prosecutors alleged during their sentencing trial was a plot to inherit the family fortune.
These murders have reawakened public interest since a Netflix series chronicling the events was released in September.
When the brothers were arrested, prosecutors said the murders were motivated by greed.
According to them, in the months after their parents’ death, the brothers spent much of their large inheritance on Rolex watches, cars and luxury properties before becoming suspects.
These accusations, made in a televised trial, made the case gain great notoriety in the United States.
In the brothers’ first trial in 1993, in which defense lawyers presented evidence that they had been sexually abused by their father for years, the jury could not agree on a verdict.
At a second trial in 1996, lawyers were not allowed to present most of that evidence, and the brothers They were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole..
Lyle Menendez was 21 years old and Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the murders.
Among the new evidence now being examined is a letter from 1988 that Erik Menéndez would have allegedly sent to his cousin Andy Cano, in which he refers to his father’s abuse.
“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’s so overweight I can’t stand to look at him. “I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy,” says the letter that, according to the defense lawyer, Erik wrote a few months before the crime.
“Every night I stay awake thinking about what’s going to come in. I need to get that out of my mind,” Erik adds in the letter, which was not known at the time of the trials.
Andy Cano testified at the Menendez brothers’ trials that Erik had told him about his father’s inappropriate touching. Cano died in 2003 from an accidental overdose.
Another piece of evidence that has recently come to light is the testimony of the former member of the musical group Menudo. Roy Rosellowho claims that he was abused by Jose Menéndez when he was a teenager.
At the time, Menéndez was executive vice president of RCA, the record label with which the popular youth band of Puerto Rican origin had signed.
According to CBS News, a partner of the BBC in the US, Roselló stated in a sworn statement in 2023 that when he was 14 years old he visited the Menéndez residence in New Jersey and, after being served a glass of wine, He felt that he lost control over his body, they took him to a room and there Jose Menéndez raped him. In his statement he states that it was not the only time.
Added to this new alleged evidence is what was known during the brothers’ first trial, in which several of their relatives testified in their favor.
In the second trial, the judge did not allow testimony and evidence from the defense about the alleged abuses committed by José Menéndez with his children, so the defendants only had their own testimonies for their defense.
Additionally, the judge ruled out the possibility of finding the brothers guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on the alleged abuse they suffered, leaving the jury with only two options: convict them of murder or declare them innocent and set them free.
The case review
Regarding the new evidence, Los Angeles County Prosecutor George Gascón said at a press conference that “none of this information has been confirmed.”
And he noted: “We are not, at this time, prepared to say either that we believe or that we do not believe that information.”
“But we are here to say that we have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us“.
He added that his team was “not saying there was anything wrong with the original trial.”
According to the prosecutor, a review of the case could lead to a new sentence or a new trial and announced that there is a hearing set for November 26.
Gascón said his office has received a large number of calls following the premiere of the series “Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez” on Netflix.
The series has caused controversy. Relatives of the brothers said in a joint statement that Lyle and Erik were “victimized by this grotesque show.”
Furthermore, from prison and through a letter published in X by his wife, Erik Menéndez questioned the production the day after its premiere and said that it is a “disheartening slander”.
“I thought the lies and ruinous portrayals of Lyle, which create a caricature of Lyle based on the horrible, blatant lies that abound in the series, were behind us,” he said.
“I can only believe they did it on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say that I believe Ryan Murphy [creador de la serie] “You cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives as to do this without bad intentions,” added the youngest of the brothers.
Series creator Ryan Murphy has defended himself, describing the family’s negative reaction as “predictable.”
On Thursday, television and social media star Kim Kardashian expressed her support for the brothers, further fueling popular interest in the case.
“They are not monsters. “They are kind, intelligent and honest men,” said Kardashian, who visited the brothers in prison a few days ago.
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- The brutal patricide that the Menéndez brothers committed in Beverly Hills and which the new season of the Netflix series “Monsters” portrays
- The Menéndez brothers’ harsh criticism of the series that recreates the patricide for which they are serving a life sentence in the United States.