Menendez brothers’ bid for freedom takes U-turn as prosecutor calls them liars

FILE - This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP,File)
Erik Menendez (left) and Lyle Menendez (right) still have a resentencing hearing scheduled later this month (Pictures: AP)

Convicted killers Erik and Lyle Menendez’s bid to be freed has hit a roadblock as the new district attorney is accusing them of being liars.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced he is against resentencing the Menendez brothers, who are imprisoned for murdering their parents in 1989 and were featured in the Netflix series Monsters.

Hochman said Erik and Lyle, now 54 and 57 respectively, lied to cops after the murders and have refused to take full responsibility.

On Monday, Hochman filed a motion in superior court to rescind former District Attorney George Gascón’s recommendation last year to resentence the brothers and possibly allow them to be released on parole.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video

Up Next

Get personalised updates on all things Netflix

Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro’s TV Newsletter.

Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we’ll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you.

‘The Menendez brothers have continued to lie for over 30 years about their self-defense – that is, their purported actual fear that their mother and their father were going to kill them the night of the murders,’ stated Hochman in the motion.

‘Also, over those 30 years, they have failed to accept responsibility for the vast number of lies they told in connection with that defense.’

The brothers fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion over 35 years ago. Erik was 18 and Lyle 21 at the time. They have argued that they father sexually and emotionally abused them for years and that they acted out of self-defense.

In October, Gascón said new evidence included a letter Erik apparently wrote detailing abuse before the killings, and that it could have led to a different sentence for the brothers.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman gives a news conference about the Menendez brothers case in Los Angeles, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman gives a news conference about the Menendez brothers case in Los Angeles on Monday (Picture: AP)

‘I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,’ said Gascón at the time.

‘I believe they have paid their debt to society.’

But Hochman, who assumed office in December, believes ‘the self-defense was a fabrication’.

‘They’ve told 20 different lies,’ Hochman said.

Erik Menendez (L) and his brother Lyle (R) listen during a pre-trial hearing, on December 29, 1992 in Los Angeles after the two pleaded innocent in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their wealthy parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez of Beverly Hills, Calif. It took 40 months for the Superior Court arraignment after prosecutors and defense attorneys battled over the admissibility of taped confessions the brothers allegedly made to their psychotherapist. AFP PHOTO VINCE BUCCI (Photo by VINCE BUCCI / AFP) (Photo by VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty Images)
Erik Menendez (left) and his brother Lyle (right) listen during a pre-trial hearing on December 29, 1992, in Los Angeles after the two pleaded innocent in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their wealthy parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez of Beverly Hills (Picture: Getty Images)
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman gives a news conference about the Menendez brothers case in Los Angeles, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced he is against resentencing the Menendez brothers (Picture: AP)

‘There are 16 lies that remain to this day.’

He said the brothers admitted to their lies in a 911 call and also lied to authorities in saying that their parents were killed in a mafia hit.

Their resentencing hearing will still go forward on March 20 and 21, despite Hochman’s move to withdraw his predecessor’s motion.

The brothers could have another path to freedom, as California Governor Gavin Newsom is considering a clemency petition that has reached his desk.

FILE - Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit with defense attorney Leslie Abramson, right, in Beverly Hills Municipal Court during a hearing, Nov. 26, 1990. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
Lyle (left) and Erik Menendez (right) sit with defense attorney Leslie Abramson in Beverly Hills Municipal Court during a hearing on November 26, 1990 (Picture: AP)

Newsom on Monday modified the state parole process to allow the parole board to issue recommendations on commutations to the governor.

‘Justice may be blind, but we shouldn’t be in the dark when determining if someone is rehabilitated, safe, and ready to leave prison,’ stated Newsom.

‘This new process will help further ensure victims and district attorneys are part of the commutation process and improve public safety by front-loading the risk assessment like we’re doing in the Menendez case.’

The brothers are being held at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

About admin