How the Menendez brothers murder case unfolded after huge new release twist

Two men at the centre of one of the most famous murder cases in the 20th century are even closer to freedom after spending 35 years behind bars.

A California judge has dramatically reduced the Menendez brothers’ sentences, now aged 54 and 57.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were at the centre of a media firestorm in the 1990s when their case went to trial, and attention has refocused on the pair after multiple documentaries.

‘I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,’ Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said last year.

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

This means the brothers, at the centre of one of America’s worst true crime sagas, could soon be free.

The brothers will immediately be eligible for parole because they were under 26 years old when they committed the crimes, Gascón said.

How the murders unfolded

In August 1989, the bodies of Jose and Kitty Menendez are found in their sprawling Beverly Hills mansion.

Their two sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez, survive.

In March 1990, Lyle Menendez, 21, was arrested. Just days later, Erik Menendez, 18, turns himself into authorities. The pair are then both accused of first-degree murder of their parents.

It took years for the case to go to trial, with each brother facing trial with a separate jury in July 1993.

The court heard from the prosecution that the brothers killed their parents to get their money.

But the brothers argued they acted out of self-defence after emotional and sexual abuse from their father, spanning years.

In January 1994, both juries deadlocked, meaning a retrial had to begin with a single jury in October 1995.

In March 1996, seven years after the murders of Kitty and Jose, their sons Lyle and Erik are convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Why are they being re-sentenced?

In May 2023, attorneys for the brothers asked courts to reconsider their conviction after a man came forward and said he was raped by Jose Menendez when he was 14.

This went unfollowed, until in September of this year, Netflix released Monsters, a drama series about the murders. The series sparked further sparked debate and conversation over the case.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced on October 4, 2024, that his office was ‘reviewing’ new evidence for the case.

On October 24, the LA prosecutor’s office announced they are petitioning courts to resentence the brothers.

The brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996.

Their extended family members have called for their release, stressing that if the brothers were tried today with sexual abuse weighing in differently than decades ago, their conviction would not be the same.

Their case sparked worldwide interest, and was featured in the Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The nine episodes released earlier this year renewed public interest in the matter, while also drawing some backlash.

Gascón said the brothers undoubtedly killed their parents, but that there is new evidence including a letter Erik apparently wrote to a cousin eight months before the killings in which he detailed the abuse.

He said the evidence could have produced a different outcome from the jury had it been shown at the time.

The possibility of parole

LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said: ‘I am not saying they should be released, it’s not for me to decide.

‘I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years that they should get that chance.’

But the state parole board must now decide whether to release the brothers from prison – and prosecutors must prove that they still pose a risk of committing violent crime again.

Erik and Lyle did not show any emotion during most of the testimony as they appeared via livestream video.

But they chuckled when one of their cousins, Diane Hernandez, told the court that Erik received A+ grades in all of his classes during his most recent semester in college.

A version of this article was originally published on October 24, 2024

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