More than three decades after Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents in a sensational murder case that captivated the nation, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said on Thursday his office would review what he described as new evidence that the brothers were molested, a move that could lead to their resentencing.
Gascón said there was no question the brothers committed the murders but said the issue was whether the jury heard evidence that their father molested them.
“We’re not ready to believe or do not believe that information,” Gascón said. “But we’re here to tell you that we have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination.”
The D.A. said he had not made a final decision.
Erik and Lyle Menendez were arrested in connection with their parents’ deaths months after the two bought a pair of shotguns with cash in 1989, walked into their Beverly Hills home and shot the couple while they watched a movie in the family living room. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was struck five times and Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor wounded before the brothers reloaded and fired a fatal blast.
Initially, police speculated the killings could be linked to the mafia based off the gruesome scene in the home. But Erik and Lyle Menendez were eventually charged with murder.
Prosecutors argued the brothers’ motivation in the killings was a simple one: to gain access to their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate. But the brothers’ defense attorneys countered that years of violent sexual abuse at the hands of their father preceded the shootings, justifying the killings as a form of self-defense.
Gascón’s announcement comes more than a year after Erik and Lyle Menendez filed a writ of habeas corpus asking the court to vacate their 1996 conviction.
The petition cited new evidence from a Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” which raised allegations that the brothers’ father, Jose Menendez, sexually assaulted a former underage member of the 1980s pop band Menudo.
The three-part series, reported by journalists Nery Ynclan and Robert Rand, alleged that the creator of the internationally known music group, Edgardo Díaz, took one of the underage members of the band to Jose Menendez’s New Jersey home, where he was raped and drugged by the elder Menendez.
In the docuseries, Roy Roselló said he was 13 or 14 years old at the time, and suggested the trip was to help seal a deal between the band and RCA Records, where Jose Menendez worked as an executive.
The brothers’ petition states that the new allegations of sexual abuse back their argument that the murders were an act of self-defense after facing years of abuse by their parents, and fears that their parents would kill them if they told.
The brothers’ first trial, which included disturbing testimony detailing the abuse, ended in two hung juries. In the second trial, much of the evidence of the abuse was excluded, according to the habeas petition. Prosecutors argued at the time that the allegations of abuse were “a total fabrication.”
Attorneys for the brothers had asked the court to open an evidentiary hearing, which would allow them to present evidence to bolster their claim, or to vacate the convictions and sentences, paving the way for their release.
The news comes on the heels of another show based on the Menendezes, an eight-part dramatic series on Netflix called “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” The show focuses on the events leading up to the killings and the cultural moment in Los Angeles in which the brothers faced murder charges.
Last month, Erik Menendez’s wife, Tammi Menendez, posted a statement on social media from him about the series and how the brothers were depicted, calling it “inaccurate” and that Lyle’s depiction was a “caricature” that was “rooted in horrible and blatant lies.”
“Monsters” co-creator Ryan Murphy defended himself in an interview with The Times last month.
“I think it’s faux outrage,” he said. “I think that this story, this Netflix series, is the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years because it’s getting people to talk about it, and it’s getting people to ask the questions that are important.”