A month before a repeatedly rescheduled resentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers, the Los Angeles County District Attorney today called out the siblings for ‘a continuum of lies and deceit and fabricating stories.”
In a sometimes vivid and sometimes dense press conference in downtown LA, Nathan Hochman revealed his office is opposing efforts by the siblings to have their life sentences for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents challenged and given new trials. “We conclude in our informal response that the court should deny the current habeas corpus petition,” the DA said Friday. “We do not believe they qualify to get a new trial,” he went on to say, listing off the court that have previously rejected the Menendez’ appeals since they were found guilty of first degree murder almost 30 years ago.
As a hearing on the separate matter of resentencing looms for March 20, DA Hochman Friday essentially rejected evidence presented by the brothers and lawyers in recent years as a method of seeking a new trial or perhaps even early release from their life sentences for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents. Specifically, the evidence is question is a 1988 letter between Erik Menendez and his cousin Andy Cano on the repeated sexual abuse that was allegedly being perpetrated by the siblings’ father on Lyle Menendez and others.
“So, to say that this letter was not discovered until after the trial, as its been alleged in the defense papers, we believe is just wrong,” the DA said. “We argue in many different ways, it is not credible evidence.”
“It calls in to question whether or not this is in fact a 1988 letter written by Erik Menendez to Andy Cano about this sexual abuse,” Hochman added, noting inadmissibility on issues of timing and because it is “an out of court document.” Quoting from a former lawyer for the brothers, Hochman reiterated over and over that sexual abuse “does not justify killing your parents.”
Saying that he has still not spoken the siblings themselves, the D.A. also made a point of stating that Cano died over 20 years ago, so no one can ask him about the letter now.
As he has since even before his landslide election last November, Hochman once again Friday offered no indication on his and his office’s role on the resentencing element, except to say that something will be filed in the next two weeks. “We have not made a decision on the resentencing,” the D.A. asserted. “We are still in the process of not just analyzing trial evidence, but analyzing the rehabilitation and the other evidence that’s required in a resentencing motion
The brothers’ case has come back into the headlines in no small part because of new evidence of sexual abuse by the boys’ music executive father revealed in Peacock’s 2023 docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, and more recently, Ryan Murphy’s true nine-part crime drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which launched on Netflix on September 19. Those shows were followed by a Menendez docu on the Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters-run streamer and advocacy for the brothers from the likes of Kim Kardashian and a number of the killers’ family members.
Fighting a tough and ultimately unsuccessful reelection race, then D.A. George Gascón took up the long staid matter and started advocating for the siblings on a multitude of fronts. That all fell in Hochman’s lap when he took over a few months ago.
Today’s presser and news also comes after some conversations between Gavin Newsom and members of the Menendez family who want to see their relatives free. The Governor has had a petition of clemency for the siblings in front of him since late last year, but Newsom declared he would not make any move until Hochman got up to speed. As if offering a challenge to Newsom, the D.A. today repeatedly brought up that the Governor has “absolutely unilateral full power, Constitutional power” to commute the brothers’ individual sentences any time he likes
Amidst friction with the new-ish D.A, I hear that there was an incident when Hochman met with family members about their concerns that his office has hired a lawyer who represented an uncle of the siblings who does not think they should be released.
Add to that, two Assistant D.A.’s are suing the office after being moved out of the roles in the Menendez case under ex-DA Gascón. Earlier this month, Brock Lunsford and Nancy Theberge filed a suit for “harassment, discrimination, and retaliation following their recommended re-sentencing of convicted murderers Eric and Lyle Menendez” against the District Attorney.
