Menendez Resentencing Hearing That May Free Brothers Begins After Long Battle With the L.A. D.A.

A long-delayed two-day resentencing hearing for the Erik and Lyle Menendez brothers is getting underway on Tuesday in Los Angeles, following a dramatic about-face last week from their defense team, who abruptly withdrew a request for the recusal of the local district attorney, who had been accused of having a conflict of interest and bias against the inmates who have been imprisoned for over 30 years for the 1989 double murder of their parents. 

The Menendez brothers will not testify or appear in person at the hearing but will attend via satellite video as they seek to have their life sentences without parole reduced, potentially making them eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law, as they were 21 and 18 years old at the time of the crimes. They are currently serving life prison sentences without the possibility of parole for the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun killings of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. Their claims of years of abuse and a threat to their lives from their parents were not admitted in their second joint trial, which followed two separate trials that ended with hung juries; however, in recent years, a letter Erik wrote to his late cousin surfaced that seems to confirm the abuse. Moreover, around the same time, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo came forward to claim he was also abused by the Menendez patriarch, who had signed the group to a $30 million deal. All of this, along with shifting attitudes around abuse and whose voices are heard when it is claimed, has led to a sea change in how the Menendez case is viewed.  

Famed defense Mark Geragos, whose battle with Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman took a surprise turn on Friday with his recusal withdrawal, will be presenting new evidence during the hearings, including abuse allegations from a former Menudo member against the Menendez father, which is meant to support claims that the brothers acted in self-defense when their lives were threatened by their parents. 

Over the next two days, the Menendez brothers’ defense plans to call seven witnesses during the hearing. This will include family members, prison staff and former inmates. Anerae Brown, also known as rapper X-Raided, is set to testify on the brothers’ behalf. He has previously shown his support for Lyle and Erik amid their legal battle after they mentored him through his education and spiritual development; the hope is that Brown will show the judge how they have been able to reshape the futures of fellow inmates while incarcerated.

By all accounts, the brothers have been model inmates in recent decades, having founded multiple prison programs; Erik alone has started at least five of these programs, one of which is a group for elderly and disabled inmates. Meanwhile, Lyle founded a beautification program that raised over $250,000 to install greenery inside a California prison.

Robert Rand, a journalist who has spent decades following the case and wrote the definitive The Menendez Murders book, told The Hollywood Reporter that he spoke with Erik and Lyle recently and that they remain “cautiously optimistic” as they head into the hearing, despite some less-than-stellar news last week.

One other set of factors in the resentencing bid that Judge Michael Jesic must consider are the findings shared in a comprehensive risk assessment by the state’s parole board. The findings reportedly raised the brothers’ risk level from “low” to “moderate” and contained a rules infraction involving a cellphone, according to the Los Angeles Times. The report has not been made available to the public. Hochman, who has said the “abuse excuse” the brothers claim is “fabricated” and they were truly motivated by greed, mentioned the cellphone while speaking out against the possibility of them being resentenced as part of this hearing.  The D.A. cited “clinical psychologists who agree with the report,” and said that he thought the brothers would be on their best behavior if they “knew that a judge was going to reconsider their resentencing motion.” 

“Both Eric and Lyle were caught in November of 2024 with a cellphone, and [Hochman] was trying to make that sound like a major crime,” Rand told THR while driving to the hearing in Van Nuys on Tuesday. “That was it. That was Hochman’s best ammunition. A cell phone doesn’t make them dangerous. Hochman was trying to make that sound like a major crime.”

Geragos discussed the phone element on Friday, downplaying what Hochman is saying about its inclusion in the report.

According to KTLA, Geragos said that “the standard for the judge … is, are they likely to commit a ‘super strike’? Last time I looked, cellphones in prison are not a ‘super strike’.”

Rand said that he has not seen the report, but his understanding is that there are only a few marks on their prison record over decades of positive activity and helping other inmates. He told THR that he’s “been told by family members, 95 percent of that CRA report is really positive to the brothers.”

The report is one element that Judge Jesic will consider, but if he is to rule from the bench on Wednesday for a reduced sentence of 50 years to life with eligibility for parole or some other reduced sentence, the brothers could immediately become eligible for parole. However, they would still need to convince a state parole board that they are no longer a danger to society.

The brothers are already set to appear before the parole board on June 13 in a hearing related to the possibility of clemency from California Governor Gavin Newsom. The parole board will make a recommendation to the governor based on its assessment of whether the brothers would pose a risk to public safety if released following the hearing.