L.A. district attorney opposes new trial for Menendez brothers, still deciding on resentencing

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman talks about the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez for the murders of their parents during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles district attorney said Friday he opposes a new trial for Lyle and Erik Menendez in the 1989 killing of their parents but hasn’t made up his mind on whether to support a resentencing bid that could lead to their freedom after nearly 30 years in prison.

The brothers were found guilty in the 1989 murders of their entertainment executive father, Jose, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. They began their latest bid for freedom in recent years after their attorneys said new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged, and they have the support of most of their extended family.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Friday he has filed an informal response urging the Los Angeles County Superior Court to reject a habeas petition filed by the brothers' attorneys in 2023 that seeks a re-examination of their case that centers in part the allegations that Jose Menendez sexually abused Erik Menendez.

In a lengthy press conference, Hochman cast doubt on the evidence of abuse and said it was not pertinent to the case.

“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.

He also characterized the brothers' own testimony of sexual abuse as untrustworthy because they had told five different explanations for why they committed the murder.

The Menendez family called Hochman’s decision “abhorrent” and said he “discredited the trauma” experienced by the brothers.

“Abuse does not exist in a vacuum. It leaves lasting scars, rewires the brain, and traps victims in cycles of fear and trauma,” they said in a statement. “To say it played no role in Erik and Lyle’s action is to ignore decades of psychological research and basic human understanding.”

The family said new evidence should not be needed, as the justice system failed the brothers back then and “continues to fail them now.”

Lyle Menendez, who was then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they killed their parents with a shotgun, but they said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent disclosure of their father’s long-term molestation of Erik.

Prosecutors said at the time there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in the brothers' story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the trial that led to their conviction in 1996. Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for money.

The proposed resentencing for the brothers is still set to be taken up at a March hearing and would make them immediately eligible for parole. Hochman said at a news conference he’ll share an update on his position in the coming weeks.

His predecessor, George Gascon, recommended last year the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life. Gascon lost his bid for reelection in November to Hochman, who at the time called the recommendation a “desperate political move.”

The possible resentencing will take into account the brothers' rehabilitation during their time in prison. Hochman has met with the brothers' relatives as he reviews their case, which includes thousands of pages of prison records.

In the habeas petition, the two new pieces of evidence the brothers' lawyers presented include a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano in 1988 saying his father was sexually abusing him, and a signed declaration from Roy Rossello, former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, that he was abused by Jose Menendez as a teen in the 1980s.

Rossello came forward in 2022 saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, head of RCA Records at the time, when Menudo was signed under the label.

Hochman said it was “inconceivable” and “defies common sense” that the letter to Cano -- undated and unverified -- was not discovered during the original trials. He also said Rossello’s modern-day declaration was not admissible because it would have no bearing on the brothers when they killed their parents.

Ultimately, Hochman said the habeas petition raised some of the “same exact arguments” in previous attempts to ask for a new trial over the decades, and they were all “routinely and repeatedly rejected.”

Erik and Lyle Menendez still have two pathways to freedom. They have also submitted a clemency plea to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously said he would not make a decision until Hochman reviewed the case.

The case has gained new traction after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. ”

Jaimie Ding, The Associated Press