Menendez Brothers Eligible For Possible Immediate Parole As L.A. DA Recommends Resentencing; Judge Will Consider Case Next Month
The Menendez brothers could be free within weeks thanks to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.
As Deadline exclusively reported earlier today, the prosecutor is recommending resentencing for the siblings.
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In a delayed downtown LA press conference and surrounded by members of the Menendez family, the DA said Thursday his office will file a motion with the court tomorrow that the brothers’ life sentences be lifted. If LA Superior Court Judge William Ryan resentences the brothers for manslaughter instead of first-degree murder, they could walk out of prison soon.
“What that means in this particular case is that we’re going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder, which, because there are two murders involved, that will be 50 years to life,” said Gascón from the lectern Thursday of his decision, which he oddly said he only made in the last hour. “However, because of their age under the law, since they were under 26 years of age at the time that this crime has occurred, they will be eligible for parole immediately.”
No date has been set for that hearing as of yet. A parole board will have to look at the brother’s case before they could be released, which means likely later this year or in early 2025.
The brothers were given life in prison without parole in their second trial in 1996 for the 1989 shotgun killing of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. Having exhausted their appeal options, the case of Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56, received renewed attention from new evidence revealed in a Peacock documentary last year, plus a swarm of TikTok videos and Ryan Murphy’s well watched nine-part Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
With Gascón’s long teased move Thursday, the matter now goes to LASC Judge Ryan.
In a November 26 scheduled hearing, which the brothers may or may not appear at in person or virtually, that judge could order a new trial for the brothers or reduced prison time. As various officials and nearly two dozens family members have vouched for the brothers rehabilitation over the decades, Judge Ryan could also let the siblings walk out of the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego where they are both incarcerated.
As those opposed to resentencing or reopening the case in Gascón’s own office will tell you, there is no question that then 19-year-old Erik and 21-year-old Lyle pre-meditated the murders. The brothers even reloaded their guns that night to make sure their mother was dead. The duo also went on an ostentatious spending spree in the immediate aftermath of their parents’ deaths, which damned them in the view of many. However, the circumstances that led to those horrible shootings have increasingly become viewed from a new point of view — especially with more evidence now available.
In possession by the LA DA’s office for almost a year, that new evidence includes a 1988 letter Erik Menendez wrote to one of his cousins of the intense sexual abuse suffered from his father. The handwritten correspondence was penned and sent months before the brothers killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home. “I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy,” the younger Menendez wrote to his relative of the attacks by his “overweight” father.
Oddly, Gascón posted the letter online earlier this week, but deleted it soon afterwards.
In fact, most of the previously available evidence about sexual abuse at the hands of Jose Menendez was excluded from the brothers’ second trial in the mid-1990s. Since then, along with the shift in perspective society has had in regards to the sexual abuse of men, it has also come to light that the music executive Jose Menendez allegedly sexually abused at least one of the members of the boy band Menudo too.
Several members of the extended Menendez family, many quite old, were in attendance at the DTLA Hall of Justice press conference Thursday afternoon, along with their lawyer Bryan Freedman. “The family thanks the District Attorney for agreeing to resentencing,” Freedman told Deadline today. “It has been over 30 years of waiting for this Justice.”
Capturing local, national and international attention the past few weeks with his sudden interest in the Menendez case, incumbent Gascón is facing very strong electoral competition from ex-U.S. Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman in his bid for a second term. Lambasted for some of his more progressive stances, the double recall-defeating Gascón is now down double digits from Hochman and in need of a win or two heading towards next month’s election.
The Menendez brothers may provide such a win or at least, the impression of one, for Gascón.
“The timing is incredibly suspicious,” Hochman said of Gascón’s recent direct interest in the Menendez case in an October 8 televised debate between rivals. “You certainly would not have me hold a press conference to tell you I’m just thinking about it,” Hochman added of Gascón’s ambiguous stint before the cameras on October 3.
At today’s press conference, Gascón insisted that “there was nothing political” about his decision to take action on the Menendez brothers case. “I am not going to talk about reelection,” the clearly irritated DA said to the media as he was pressed on the timing.
Finding himself backed in by events, even if he wins the DA race, Nathan Hochman was certainly talking about the reelection campaign today.
“D.A. George Gascón received the Menendez habeas corpus petition in May 2023 and request for resentencing in February 2024,” the DA’s rival said in a statement right after Gascón’s announcement.
“Yet, he has waited until days before the November 5 election, 30 points down in the polls with articles coming about how his failed policies have led to additional murders of innocent people, to release his recommendation for resentencing,” Hochman added. “By releasing it now, Gascón has cast a cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision, allowing Angelenos to question whether the decision was correct and just or just another desperate political move by a D.A. running a losing campaign scrambling to grab headlines through a made-for-TV decision. Angelenos and everyone involved deserve better.”
Ted Johnson contributed to this report.
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