In a scathing news conference on Friday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman provided an emphatic takedown of the new evidence provided in the Menendez brothers murder case and said he would take action to limit their potential paths to freedom.
The update comes as the brothers seek release from prison nearly 30 years after being convicted of murdering their parents in 1996. The brothers have spent nearly 35 years behind bars.
On Friday, Hochman’s stance on the matter was clear.
“The court should deny the current habeas petition by the Menendez brothers,” Hochman said.
In October, then-DA George Gascón announced that his office would reexamine the case in the light of new evidence, including a letter purportedly written by Erik Menendez just months before he and his brother, Lyle, killed their parents with a shotgun at their Beverly Hills home in 1989. They were 21 and 18 at the time, respectively.
The letter details alleged sexual abuse committed by their father, Jose Menendez.
Hochman, who unseated Gascón in November’s election, had previously been noncommittal in his opinion on the case. He finally addressed reporters at the L.A. County Hall of Justice on Friday, announcing that his office has issued an informal response requesting the courts deny the brothers’ habeas petition.
A habeas petition is a formal challenge to the legality of a conviction. It is often considered a last resort after appeals have been exhausted. If new evidence is deemed sufficient, it could eventually lead to a convict’s release.
After Friday, it seems that the path to freedom, one of three hanging in the balance for Erik and Lyle, is closed.
Supposedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano about eight months before his parents’ killings, the letter detailed the sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by his father. It wasn’t filed as evidence until 2023.
The problem, Hochman said, is that the letter was never mentioned in either of the brothers’ trials in the 1990s. In testimony, Erik only stated that he spoke to Cano, who died in 2003, about the abuse he allegedly suffered in the early 1980s when he was about 12 or 13.
“[The letter was] never discussed in any of the two trials,” Hochman said. “We believe it’s inconceivable … and defies common sense, that if they had evidence that would show that sexual abuse had been communicated not just six years before the events, but nine months before the 1989 killings, then it would have absolutely come out.”
During Hochman’s takedown of the brothers’ story, lasting nearly an hour, he also claimed that their alibis and explanations had changed five times, and the sexual abuse angle wasn’t brought up until the fourth iteration of their story.
Hochman said that several people denied the brothers’ requests to testify on their behalf, including Lyle’s former girlfriend. She allegedly refused to testify that she was “violently raped” by Jose Menendez.
“We looked at the credibility of the letters, particularly this Andy Cano 1988 supposed letter, weighted in the continuum of lies,” Hochman said. “And it calls into drastic question whether or not this is, in fact, a 1988 letter written by Erik Menendez to Andy Cano about this sexual abuse.”
Now, with the DA opposing the brothers’ habeas petition, two paths exist for their release from prison—although one looks much less likely after Friday.
The least likely would be resentencing.
The decision to consider resentencing, which could see the immediate release of the brothers, was offered one month before Gascón lost his bid for reelection. In the lead-up to the election and the immediate aftermath, he said he was going to “do the hard work” before deciding to proceed with resentencing efforts.
However, Hochman’s rebuttal on Friday suggests that he may not believe that resentencing would be a sensible way to handle the case. Hochman said the public would hear his thoughts on the path forward in the coming weeks.
The more likely option for the brothers’ freedom would go through Sacramento. As Hochman pointed out, Gov. Gavin Newsom has “unilateral” power to grant the brothers clemency, which would free them immediately.
In November, Newsom said he wouldn’t look into that option until after Hochman made his decisions regarding resentencing and the habeas petition. If Hochman comes out against resentencing in a couple of weeks, it could be on the table.
The question of whether the brothers killed their parents was never in doubt. The case gained notoriety after Erik confessed to the killings.
Both were arrested and endured a lengthy legal process which included a 1994 mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. They were later retried and convicted in 1996 and were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Earlier this month, two prosecutors in the DA’s Office said they were demoted by Hochman after showing support for resentencing, a move they said they were “obligated” to do after examining evidence.
The DA’s Office declined KTLA’s request for comment regarding the accusations made.