Prosecutors seek resentencing for Erik and Lyle Menendez in 1989 killings of their parents

1 of 30 |

Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, providing the brothers with a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars. (AP video by Eugene Garcia)

2 of 30 |

Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez called for their release from prison, saying they were sexually abused by their father and “vilified” by a society that was not ready to hear that boys could be raped.

3 of 30 |

Prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing new evidence in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez to determine whether they should be serving life sentences for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago.

4 of 30 |

Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents. An attorney for the brothers, said he’s hopeful the brothers could be freed by Thanksgiving. (AP video by Eugene Garcia/produced by Javier Arciga)

5 of 30 |

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)

6 of 30 |

Diane Hernandez niece of Kitty Menendez sits prior to a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

7 of 30 |

Arnold VanderMolen, Nephew of Kitty Menendez, right, talks with Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen at a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

8 of 30 |

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, center, arrives at a news conference at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

9 of 30 |

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon speaks during a news conference regarding the Menendez brothers, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

10 of 30 |

Mark Geragos, Erik and Lyle Menendezs’ defense attorney waits at a news conference held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

11 of 30 |

Media gather for a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

12 of 30 |

Diane Hernandez niece of Kitty Menendez is joined by Arnold VanderMolen, Nephew of Kitty Menendez, right, and Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, center sit at a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

13 of 30 |

Family attorney Bryan Freedman, left greets Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, center as Diane Hernandez niece of Kitty Menendez, left, looks on prior to a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

14 of 30 |

Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, center is greeted by Defense Attorney Mark Geragos as Diane Hernandez niece of Kitty Menendez, left, looks on prior to a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

15 of 30 |

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, right, flanked by Menendez family members, speaks during a news conference at the Hall of Justice, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

16 of 30 |

Members of the media take photos during a news conference about the Menedez brothers held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

17 of 30 |

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, talks during a news conference at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

18 of 30 |

This photo provided by the California Department of Corrections, shows Erik Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP)

19 of 30 |

This photo provided by the California Department of Corrections, shows Lyle Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP)

20 of 30 |

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, right, flanked by Menedez family members talks during a news conference at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

21 of 30 |

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, talks during a news conference at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

22 of 30 |

Diane Hernandez, Niece of Kitty Menendez, holds her hands as Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon announces he will ask a judge to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life sentences for killing their parents, at a news conference at the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

23 of 30 |

24 of 30 |

Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, center, is greeted by Defense Attorney Mark Geragos, right, as Diane Hernandez niece of Kitty Menendez, left, looks on prior to a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

25 of 30 |

Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, center, listens to Defense Attorney Mark Geragos, right, as Diane Hernandez niece of Kitty Menendez, left, looks on prior to a news conference being held by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon at the Hall of Justice on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

26 of 30 |

Mark Geragos defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez surrounded by family members talks during a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

27 of 30 |

Mark Geragos defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez surrounded by family members talks during a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

28 of 30 |

Mark Geragos defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez surrounded by family members talks during a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

29 of 30 |

Mark Geragos defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez talks during a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

30 of 30 |

Menendez family attorney Bryan Freedman surrounded by family members as he talks during a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

By STEFANIE DAZIO, JAIMIE DING and CHRISTOPHER WEBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors recommended Thursday Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, providing the brothers with a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced during a Thursday news conference that his office would recommend the brothers receive a new sentence of 50 years to life. Because they were under 26 years old at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately, he said.

Resentencing must now be approved by a judge, and the state parole board would have to sign off on the brothers’ release.

“I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,” Gascón said. He said some members of his office oppose the decision.

Prosecutors filed the petition Thursday and a hearing before a judge could come within the next month or so.

The Menendez brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

Family largely unites to call for brothers’ freedom

The brothers’ extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.

Multiple members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday’s news conference. VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Family members said they flew across the country on six hours’ notice to be in attendance.

Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, would not say whether he had spoken to Lyle and Erik on Thursday but said he believes they have heard about the district attorney’s decision. Geragos said a “reentry plan” has already been drafted if the brothers get released to help them reacclimate to being free.

Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez, said the district attorney’s “brave and necessary” decision means “Lyle and Erik can finally begin to heal from the trauma of their past.”

Not all Menendez family members support resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers’ original punishment. “They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”

Geragos declined to comment on the statement by Andersen’s attorneys.

District attorney believes Erik and Lyle ‘paid their debt’

Gascón said he made the final decision only an hour before the news conference and that family members were told just minutes before.

Despite their life sentences, Gascón said the brothers worked on redemption and rehabilitation inside prison.

“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

Though Kitty Menendez was not accused of abusing her sons, she appears to have facilitated the abuse, according to her sons’ legal filings. One cousin testified during the brothers’ first trial that Lyle told her he was too scared to sleep in his room because his father would come in and touch his genitals. When the cousin told Kitty Menendez, she “angrily dragged Lyle upstairs by his arm,” the petition said.

Another family member testified that when Jose Menendez was in the bedroom with one of the boys, no one was allowed to walk down the hallway outside.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in the story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said back then that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

How Los Angeles politics could play a role

The LA district attorney is in the middle of a tough reelection fight against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who has blamed Gascón’s progressive reform policies for recent high-profile murders and increased retail crime.

Gascón said Thursday that his office has recommended resentencing for some 300 offenders, including people behind bars for murder.

Hochman on Thursday questioned the timing of the Gascón’s announcement, coming less than two weeks before the election and calling it a “desperate political move.”

He said he is unable to form his own opinion on the case without access to confidential records and relevant witnesses.

“If I become DA and the case is still pending at that time, I will conduct a review consistent with how I would review any case,” Hochman said.

Geragos said the DA took the case seriously long before there was any talk of him losing reelection.

Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, warned that the judge would not likely be a “rubber stamp” on the resentencing recommendation due to dissent within Gascón’s office.

“That puts the judge actually in a very challenging position,” Levenson said, who noted that she had not heard of any cases until recently where the head of the office disagreed with other lawyers involved in the case. Ultimately, Gascón chose the “safest route” for his decision — leaving it up to the court and parole board, she said.

Geragos has said he’s hopeful the brothers could be freed by Thanksgiving. Levenson called that deadline “awfully hopeful.”

Recent documents bring new attention to case

The Menendez case has gained new traction in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “ Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently came forward saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father, when he was a teen in the 1980s.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” His allegations are part of the evidence listed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney, seeking a review of their case. Rossello’s assertion that he was raped twice by Jose Menendez is part of the Menendez brothers’ petition.

Menudo was signed under RCA Records, which Jose Menendez headed at the time.

__

Associated Press videojournalist Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed to this report. ___ This story corrects the spelling of Milton Andersen’s name. It is not Anderson.