The Menendez brothers are talking for the first time in decades
TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin will be taking part in a good day to discuss his first interview with the Menendez brothers in decades.
Fox-4 News
A Los Angeles judge replied to the Menendez brothers and was eligible for parole after serving prison time in 1989 for the shotgun murder of his parents in Beverly Hills, California.
Lyle Menendez, 57, and 54-year-old Eric Menendez were originally sentenced to life in 1996 without parole.
The ruling from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jessick on May 13 came after a day’s recognizing hearing in which relatives, retired judges and former fellow inmates testified in favor of their brothers. JESIC reduced the sentence for brothers, a prison term that qualifies for parole under California law, to 50 years.
The case gained new attention and support after the popular Netflix show “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and the documentary “The Menendez Brothers.” The brothers will remain in jail while the state’s parole board and California Gov. Gavin Newsom decide whether to release him from prison.
Here’s what we know about the highly published cases:
The shotgun murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez and subsequent trials attracted the public’s attention. In August 1989, police found wealthy parents who died at their Beverly Hills mansion.
Jose and Kitty Menendez were both shot multiple times at close range. At the time of the murder, Lyle Menendez was 21 and Eric Menendez was 18.
The brothers initially deny their involvement and attempted to make the case look like an organized criminal attack. They later admitted to the murder, but claimed that it was self-defense and that he acted out of fear due to years of physical and sexual abuse by his father, entertainment industry executives and mother.
After the first trial ended with Hang Jury in 1994, the brothers were found guilty in the second ju trial of first-degree murder in 1996 for fatally shooting his parents. At the time, prosecutors allegedly wanted the brothers’ parents’ millions of dollars of wealth, highlighting their gorgeous spending shortly after the murder.
The brothers’ case gained momentum in October 2024 when former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon announced his support for their res tinsing, and thus they would soon be eligible for parole. The announcement was made in a documentary about the siblings, as streaming shows have become more popular.
In May 2023, the brother’s lawyers submitted new evidence. This included a letter Eric Menendez allegedly wrote to his cousin, hinting at his father’s abuse and an affidavit from Roy Rossello, a former boy band member who allegedly abused him in the 1980s.
Rossello, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo in the 1980s, also claimed that “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” in Peacock’s 2023 docusary, claiming that he had drugged him as a teenager.
Gascon said that before he resigned from the profession, the evidence would be considered and considered in his recommendation that the brothers resent. The case faced a set-up after Nathan J. Hochman was elected as new Los Angeles County District Attorney in December, saying he did not support his brother’s responsibilities.
Several members of the Menendez family supported the release of the brothers. The brother’s cousin Anamaria Baratt, 54, is the main advocate for their release, and the two said everyone on both sides of the family was “universally permissible.”
“They are men who are different from the boys they did when they committed these crimes,” Barratt testified at the hearing.
Baralt previously told USA Today that they deserve to be released as they not only expressed repentance for the murders, but also grew significantly as people during their incarceration.
“We love them so much,” Baralto said. “There is no family holiday where there is a hole in our hearts and there is no gap in our family.”
Prosecutor Habib Varian said the brothers were “unreliable” and he didn’t think they had found red. “We know… what can they do,” he added.
Now that the judge has lowered his brother’s sentence, the brothers go before the state’s parole board. If the parole board signs off for their resting, it is up to Newsom to accept or reject the recommendation.
On his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” the governor showed that he was open to reevaluating the case. Newsom also said he avoided watching shows or documentaries about the incident.
“Through the decades, I’ve clearly been familiar with Menendez’s brothers,” Newsom said on his podcast. “But it’s not to the extent that many others are for all of these documentaries and all the attention they received. So it’s not biased towards my independent, objective review.”
Christop Kang, Michael Loria Loria, Wang Todd. Reuters
