By JAIMIE DING
LOS ANGELES — A decide on Monday delayed till January his determination on whether or not to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez for killing their dad and mom of their Beverly Hills mansion 35 years in the past, squashing their household’s hope the brothers can be launched and residential for the vacations.
Superior Court docket Decide Michael Jesic mentioned on the listening to in Los Angeles that he wanted time to assessment 17 containers of paperwork and provides a brand new district lawyer in Los Angeles County time to weigh in on the case.
“I’m not able to go ahead,” Jesic mentioned, setting the listening to for the resentencing request for Jan. 30 as an alternative of Dec. 11 as initially deliberate.
The brothers have been scheduled to be seen in courtroom for the primary time in many years on the listening to however technical issues prevented them from showing nearly from a San Diego jail. They have been discovered responsible of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
Whereas their protection attorneys argued at trial that they’d been sexually abused by their father, prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their dad and mom for cash. Within the years that adopted, they repeatedly appealed their convictions with out success.
Now, at 53 and 56, Erik and Lyle Menendez are making a brand new bid for freedom. Their legal professionals filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a courtroom to look at whether or not somebody is being lawfully detained — in Could 2023, asking a decide to contemplate new proof of their father’s sexual abuse. The brothers are being held on the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
Jesic allowed the brothers’ two aunts to take the stand on Monday after their lawyer argued that it was troublesome for them to journey for the listening to.
Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister who turns 93 on Tuesday, and Teresita Baralt, Jose’s older sister who’s 85, requested for his or her launch, saying 35 years was a very long time for the brothers after struggling abuse as kids. Andersen VanderMolen had mentioned final month that she had hoped her nephews can be launched and residential for her birthday or the vacations.
Baralt famous that she was near Jose and lived for years throughout the road from him and Kitty, who Baralt described as her finest good friend.
“We miss those that are gone tremendously,” Baralt testified by tears. “However we miss the children too.”
Each aunts mentioned they’d stored involved with the brothers, although they’d not seen them.
The listening to lasted lower than an hour. Mark Geragos, an lawyer for the brothers, began to deal with the media outdoors the courthouse however he minimize it brief and walked off as journalists crowded him.
The current releases of the Netflix drama “ Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez Story ” and the documentary “The Menendez Brothers” in 2024 introduced renewed consideration to their plight.
Rose Castillo, a 28-year-old true crime fanatic, arrived from Miami 5 minutes too late to enter the lottery and win one of many few seats supplied to the general public to attend the listening to, however glimpsed the brothers’ relations earlier than they entered the courthouse.
“That was loopy,” Castillo mentioned.
A courthouse bailiff advised folks to cease taking photos of the family as they waited within the hallway earlier than the listening to started.
Prosecutors really helpful resentencing for the brothers final month, saying they’ve labored on redemption and rehabilitation and demonstrated good habits inside jail.
Los Angeles District Lawyer George Gascón requested for brand spanking new sentences that might make them instantly eligible for parole.
The brothers’ prolonged household has mentioned they need to be free after many years behind bars. A number of relations have mentioned that in right this moment’s world — which is extra conscious of the impression of sexual abuse — the brothers wouldn’t have been convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life.
Not all Menendez relations assist resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a authorized temporary asking the courtroom to maintain the brothers’ authentic punishment. “They shot their mom, Kitty, reloading to make sure her loss of life,” Andersen’s attorneys mentioned in a press release final month. “The proof stays overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was simply, and the punishment suits the heinous crime.”
The brand new proof features a letter Erik Menendez wrote in 1988 to his uncle Andy Cano, describing the sexual abuse he had endured from his father. The brothers requested their legal professionals about it after it was talked about in a 2015 Barbara Walters tv particular. The legal professionals hadn’t identified of the letter and realized it had not been launched at their trials, making it successfully new proof that they are saying corroborates allegations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.
Extra new proof emerged when Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, just lately got here ahead saying he had been drugged and raped by Jose Menendez when he was a teen within the Eighties. Menudo was signed beneath RCA Information, the place Jose Menendez was chief working officer.
Rossello spoke about his abuse within the Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” and supplied a signed declaration to the brothers’ legal professionals.
Had these two items of proof been obtainable throughout the brothers’ trial, prosecutors wouldn’t have been in a position to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, the petition states.
Whereas clemency is likely to be one other pathway to freedom for the brothers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned final week that he received’t determine till incoming Los Angeles district lawyer Nathan Hochman, who takes workplace on Dec. 2, evaluations the case. Hochman, a Republican-turned-independent who unseated the progressive Gascón, has mentioned he needs to rigorously have a look at the proof.
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