Judge allows Menendez brothers' resentencing effort to move forward

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

/ Updated By Tim Stelloh and Andrew Blankstein

LOS ANGELES — A Southern California judge on Friday cleared the way for a legal process to determine if Erik and Lyle Menendez should be resentenced for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic denied a motion from the district attorney's office that sought to withdraw his predecessor's recommendation to reduce the brothers' prison sentences from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for April 17 and 18.

If Jesic approves the recommendation, the brothers — who have served 35 years for the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez at their Beverly Hills home on Aug. 20, 1989 — could be eligible for parole immediately.

Friday's ruling came after a lengthy and at times heated hearing that saw a deputy district attorney and a defense lawyer arguing over the resentencing effort and a sometimes-exasperated judge who, at one point, said he would "cry a little" if the hearing did not finish Friday.

"You both have strong arguments," Jesic said, before noting that he believes those arguments are best saved for next week's hearing.

Erik, left, and Lyle Menendez. California Dept. of Corrections via AP file

Wearing blue prison uniforms, the siblings appeared at Friday's hearing via video link from the San Diego prison where they are incarcerated.

During the hearing, a prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office recounted the "severity" of the killings — at one point he showed crime scene photos — and echoed comments previously made by top prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who said last month that he was withdrawing his predecessor's recommendation to reduce the brothers' prison sentences.

Hochman has said that Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are now 54 and 57, respectively, should not be resentenced because they have not exhibited full insight into the murders or taken complete responsibility for their crimes.

The DA stood by his decision after the judge's ruling Friday evening. "These murders were calculated, premeditated, cold-blooded killings. Our position remains clear: Until the Menendez brothers finally come clean with all their lies of self-defense and suborning and attempting to suborn perjury, they are not rehabilitated and pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety," Hochman said in a statement.

In a court filing, prosecutors cited more than a dozen alleged lies they said the brothers have not acknowledged about the killings, including that they were defending themselves against an abusive father when they fatally shot their parents.

In a separate filing, defense attorneys countered that Hochman's statements were "patently meritless" and said that the previous DA, George Gascon, considered and rejected them.

During Friday's hearing, deputy district attorney Habib Balian said that three decades after the murder, the brothers are "still telling the same lies they were back then." He also suggested Gascon's decision last year to recommend the reduced sentence was intended to help boost his faltering reelection campaign.

Gascon, who was voted out in November, has denied this and said he made the decision because the brothers have been "exceptional" prisoners and "poster cases" for the DA's resentencing unit.

Jesic and defense attorney Mark Geragos appeared frustrated at times with the length of Balian's presentation, though the judge said he would allow both sides to continue and "flesh it out."

Geragos criticized the prosecution for failing to mention anything the brothers had done while incarcerated — they've helped inmates with severe disabilities, attended college and established a green space "beautification" project — and called them "remarkable human beings."

"They didn't do anything but put their nose down and do the hard work," he said.

Geragos said it was "outrageous" that prosecutors had shown the crime scene images with Menendez family members in the courtroom and said "victims are being re-traumatized all for political purposes."

In his ruling Friday, Jesic said that the resentencing decisions made by Hochman and Gascon did not appear political.

The siblings were convicted of first-degree murder after two trials in the 1990s. They said they fatally shot their parents after Lyle confronted their father about alleged ongoing abuse of Erik and threatened to expose the entertainment company executive. Lyle has said his father responded with what he viewed as a threat.

Prosecutors have previously disputed the brothers' abuse claims, calling them false and saying the killings were cold-blooded and financially motivated.

The Menendez brothers have also sought their freedom through two other legal pathways — a request for clemency from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a petition challenging their convictions.

In February, Newsom directed the state's parole board to conduct a "risk assessment" looking at whether the brothers would pose an unreasonable public safety risk if released. That review is expected to finish in June.

The petition, filed in May 2023, includes what the brothers' lawyers have described as a critical piece of evidence confirming that Jose Menendez was sexually molesting Erik in the months before he was killed.

Hochman has said that evidence — an undated photocopy of a letter that Erik has said he sent to a cousin in December 1988 — does not meet the standard required for a judge to order a new trial.