Lyle and Erik Menendez must spend another Christmas behind bars after judge delays resentencing
By Neil Blincow
Daily Mail
Nov 25, 2024
The Menendez brothers' hopes that they would be home for Christmas has been dashed.
After spending more than 30 years in prison for brutally murdering their parents, the infamous pair will have to wait another two months for their court bid to walk away from their life sentences.
At a court hearing Monday at Van Nuys Courthouse West, near Los Angeles, Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56, listened in via audio link from their San Diego prison.
The devastating news was delivered by Judge Michael Jesic, who postponed the date of their December 11 resentencing hearing to January 30 next year to give incoming LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman a chance to review the case.
During the hearing, the court heard emotional testimony from the two elderly sisters of Jose and Kitty Menendez who were killed by the brothers, then 18 and 21, with shotguns inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989.
Citing new evidence that the siblings were sexually abused by their father from a young age, Jose’s older sister Terry Baralt, 85, and Kitty’s 93-year-old sister, Joan Van Der Molen pleaded with Judge Jesic to release their nephews from prison and send them home.
‘No child should have to endure what Erik and Lyle lived through at the hands of their father and I’m angry that my sister knew what was happening to them and did nothing about it,’ a frail Van Der Molen told the packed courtroom.
‘They never knew whether this was the night they would be raped. It’s time for them to come home.’
Joan Van der Molen, sister of Kitty Menendez, pleaded with Judge Jesic to release her nephews from prison and send them home at the hearing
Erik Menendez's wife Tammi hugged a supporter as her daughter Talia, Erik's stepdaughter, stood with her as they left the courthouse after the hearing
Baralt – who is suffering from colon cancer – sobbed as she told the court that she still misses her brother Jose and her ‘best friend’ Kitty.
‘But I miss my nephews too. They have done a lot of good things (in prison).
‘Thirty-five-years is a long time, especially for an 18 and a 21 year-old. I’d like them to come home. I want to see them and hug them.’
The brothers’ trial prompted worldwide headlines. Prosecutors said their motive was greed, as they stood to inherit $14 million from their parents. The brothers insisted they acted against a father who sexually abused them for years and a mother who turned a blind eye to the abuse.
The first trial ended with a hung jury. But at a second trial in 1996 – where the judge refused to allow any evidence about the brothers being molested by their father – they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Now, their attorney, Mark Geragos – with the backing of more than a dozen Menendez family members and celebrities including Rosie O’Donnell and Kim Kardashian – is lobbying for a lower sentence based on the new evidence of sexual abuse Jose Menendez inflicted on his sons.
If a judge at an upcoming re-sentencing hearing imposes a lesser sentence, it could trigger their immediate release or at least make them eligible for parole.
The ‘Free The Menendez Brothers’ movement received backing last month from unlikely source LA District Attorney George Gascon, who is recommending the pair’s resentencing and speedy release – despite many of his own deputy DAs being fiercely against letting the two walk free.
Jose Menendez's sister Marta Cano (left) walked down the steps of the courthouse after the hearing
Erik and Lyle Menendez's aunt Joan Van der Molen was comforted by attorney Mark Geragos after the hearing
Erik Menendez wrote a letter to his cousin, Andy Cano, in which he alludes to serious, and long-term, abuse at the hands of his father Jose
Gascon’s support is based on two pieces of new evidence: First, a shocking allegation made last year by Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, who claimed Jose Menendez, then a top executive with RCA Records, drugged and raped him in the 1980s when he was a teenager.
Second, a letter – that showed up only last year that Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano that stated he said he was still being raped by his father eight months before the murders.
Still, the support from the top man at the DA’s office could be short-lived. Gascon – who has been widely blasted for being ‘soft’ on criminals – lost his re-election bid earlier this month and next week he’ll be replaced by new DA Hochman who has a reputation for taking a much harder approach to criminal offenders.
Hochman, a one-time federal prosecutor, may choose not to endorse his predecessor’s ‘release them’ recommendation at the re-sentencing hearing.
Judge Jesic told the court he’s postponing the original resentencing hearing, partly because he has ’17 boxes’ of legal documents still to go through and also ‘out of respect for’ incoming DA Hochman, ‘to give the new administration the opportunity’ to review the case.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom has sidestepped the issue of granting clemency to the Menendez brothers, saying instead he would ‘defer to the DA-elect’s review’.
New interest in the case was sparked by the recent Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and the true crime documentary The Menendez Brothers which tell how the brothers claimed to police that they returned home from the theater to find their parents had been slaughtered.
At first it was feared that a vicious killer was on the loose in Beverly Hills, one of America's wealthiest communities.
Incoming District Attorney Nathan Hochman is being given a chance to review the case following its postponement to the end of January
Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez and their attorneys attended a news conference after the brother's hearing on Monday
Defense attorney Mark Geragos is lobbying for a lower sentence based on the new evidence of sexual abuse Jose Menendez inflicted on his sons
Their case was popularized this year by the Netflix show: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Cooper Koch plays Erik and Nichola Chavez portrays Lyle
But cops switched their suspicions to Lyle and Erik after they set about spending their $14 million inheritance soon after their parents’ deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.
In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents' deaths and their arrests in March 1990, seven months after the murders.
Erik - who said his father abused him between the agesss of six and 12 - insisted in the new documentary that it’s 'absurd' to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
'Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,' he said.
'One of the things that stopped me from killing myself was that I would be a complete failure to my dad.'
Not all members of the Menendez family believe the pair should be freed. Some relatives and several assistant district attorneys who disagreed with their soon-to-be-gone boss Gascon are skeptical of the brothers’ abuse claims and believe they should stay behind bars.
One LA prosecutor, Juan Mejia, told NBC that he’s wary of the letter Erik wrote to his now-dead cousin Andy Cano because the brothers' attorneys haven’t yet handed over the original copy and the letter isn’t dated.
The Menendez brothers blew through $700,000 after they murdered their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez, which led police to suspect them
The brothers killed their parents, Kitty and Jose, in their Beverly Hills mansion with a shotgun in 1989
Lyle's chances of early release may be comoplicated by the discovery of illicit cell phones and the replacement of LA district attorney George Gascon
'We can’t tell if it was written before the murders or after the conviction,' said Mejia. 'Are they trying to pull another fast one on the court?'
Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Pamela Bozanich doesn't agree with Gascon's call for a resentencing, nor does she believe the boys were abused.
'They killed their parents. They slaughtered their mother,' she told NBC. 'Why should they live among us?'
Further troubles for Lyle's resentencing could also stem from DailyMail.com'ss exclusive revelation that English student Milly Bucksey is the new woman in his life and that they have maintained contact through an illicit cellphone that Lyle had in prison in San Diego.
The convicted murderer was busted by prison guards at the top-security Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, for possessing a contraband cell phone he was using to contact his new lover.
A record of that incident was included in ousted Gascon's re-sentencing memo, filed in Los Angeles at the end of October. It showed he was caught with the phone on March 15 in the cell he shares with 'multiple other people'.
Despite being busted, DailyMail.com has learned that Lyle has since acquired a second illicit cell phone, which he has been using to stay in touch with the University of Manchester student.
California law states an inmate being caught with possession of a wireless communication device, such as a cellphone, could be subjected to time credit denial.
1 comment:
That is less than $100,00 per month. Doesn't seem to be that unreasonable.
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