DONOVAN Goodreau was a friend of Lyle Menendez before he testified in court about his former pal’s murder charge.
The trial was watched across America and interest in Erik and Lyle’s case has surged after it was dramatized by Ryan Murphy in his Netflix series Monsters. Here’s everything you need to know about Donovan.
Lyle attended Princeton UniversityAP: Associated Press
Donovan testified at the Menendez brothers’ trialCourt TV
Lyle’s college friend
Very little is known about Donovan before he testified at the Menendez brothers’ trial, except for the fact that he met Lyle at Princeton University.
In court, he opened up about his own experiences with child sexual abuse and claimed to have discussed this with Lyle.
He also claimed that Lyle did not discuss his own abuse that he had allegedly suffered by his father.
In Ryan Murphy’s Monsters, he is played by Anthony Turpel and confirms that Lyle opened up to him about the abuse.
In reality, an account of Donovan saying that he did hear about José’s abuse of Lyle later surfaced, which weakened his credibility.
The Menendez brothers
On August 20, 1989, the Menendez brothers murdered their parents Kitty and José in their family home.
The brothers then claimed that they had just come home to find their parents dead, while the police speculated that they might have been the victims of a mob killing.
Erik and Lyle lived a lavish lifestyle using their parents inheritance, with Erik hiring a private tennis coach and Lyle buying a buffalo wing shop.
The brothers also baffled friends and relatives when they played Milli Vanilli’s Girl I’m Gonna Miss You at their parents’ funeral.
They were later arrested for their crime after Erik confessed to Dr Jerome Oziel, his therapist, who told his mistress Judalon Smyth.
Judalon then went to the police.
Their first trial was broadcast to homes across America by Court TV and gripped the nation.
The brothers alleged in court that they had been victims of sexual abuse at the hands of their father and said that fear for their own safety motivated their killing.
A hung jury forced the case to go to a retrial.
Despite the efforts of the brothers’ lawyer Leslie Abramson, they were handed life sentences without the possibility of parole.
The Menendez brothers were handed a life sentence without the possibility of paroleAP: Associated Press
Netflix and the Menendez brothers
Interest in the Menendez brothers surged after Ryan Murphy’s Netflix drama Monsters landed on the streaming platform.
The series, starring Cooper Koch as Erik and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle, dramatized the events of the two brothers’ lives.
A documentary called The Menendez Brothers followed, which featured interviews with the brothers themselves.
This led to a wave of support for the brothers, with celebrities including Kim Kardashian calling for their release.