Erik and Lyle Menéndez’s resentment audiences can continue, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Friday, bringing the brothers a step closer to freedom after 30 years after bars.
The Judge of the Superior Court of the Los Angeles County, Judge Michael Jesus demolished the offer of the new district prosecutor to withdraw the request for resentment in a great victory for the couple, who were convicted of murdering their parents, José and Kitty Home.
“Everything that argued today is an absolutely fair game for the resentment audience next Thursday,” said Jesus.
At the hearing, the Nathan Hochman district prosecutor launched the formal request of the predecessor George Gascón to resent the brothers, who were delivered in prison without the possibility of probation at the ages of 18 and 21 years, qualifying the application as a “crazy” policy.
However, the Brothers’ lawyer, Mark Garagos, scratched the statement of the District prosecutor as nothing more than a “dog and pony show” and condemned the prosecution for showing photos of the scene of the great crime without warning the family members who look from the gallery.
“The DA has regularly demonstrated that he has no consultations for the victims,” Garagos said.
In the end, Jesus stood on the side of garagos, dating that Hochman’s office did not have a valid legal reason to get the petition for Gascon.
The Court is scheduled to make its final decision on the ressentation after the hearings on April 17 and 18.
In those hearings, the brothers and their lawyers will try to convince the court that they have been rehabilitated more to more than after killing their wealthy parents in their Malibu mansion, emphasizing the affirmation of the brothers that the murderers of the Werstir of the veterans after years of sexual abuse.
Last October, the former district prosecutor asked a judge to change the sentence of the brothers at 50 years of life, which would immediately eliminate them for liberation under California’s law because they were more than 26 years old.
Hochman presented the motion to withdraw that application last month, saying that he did not support the resentment of Balkus of the brothers who had not admitted that “lies” told as the case was developed on why they killed, agreements and noticed the responsibility of their crime. “
Even if the judge decides not to resent Erik and Lyle, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, he can still choose to grant them clemency and allow them to leave prison on probation.
The State’s probation board is carrying out its own hearings and will deliver its final recommendation in June.
Lyle and Erik Menéndez became known names in 1989 after buying shotguns and killed José Menéndez, a musical producer Rica, and his wife Mary Louise “Kitty” in the living room of his Malibu mansion.
The couple tried to pass the murders as a blow of mafia and stirred with the fortune of $ 8 million of their parents before being convicted of first degree murder after two high profile judgments in the 90s.
A 2024 Netflix documentary about his case put the brothers in the center of attention; The same year, the district prosecutor’s office revealed a new evidence that they had abused the legs, including an Erik letter to a cousin, dated before the murders, describing sexual abuse.