The incoming Los Angeles County district attorney who will have major influence over the fate of Lyle and Erik Menendez has warned the brothers’ supporters—who include Kim Kardashian—that they may not understand all of the facts and law in the case.
The brutal Beverly Hills murders of Kitty and Jose Menendez in 1989 have electrified the nation all over again since Netflix released Monsters, Ryan Murphy’s dramatized version of the saga, in September, and put out a companion documentary with the brothers speaking from behind bars.
Incoming Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told the Daily Beast that he has not watched the Netflix shows, which have sparked a clamor for Erik and Lyle Menendez, 53 and 56, to be freed, but said that he feared people may have been misinformed by the programs and also by misleading news coverage of the case. He said that he is committed to getting “this one right.”
“I purposely just didn’t want to see (them) because what’s the point?” Hochman said in an interview with the Daily Beast. “It’s not like I’m going to watch the movie. I’d rather read the book.”
“I have some vague recollections of the case 30 years ago and that’s all the more reason why I feel compelled to… really get deep into the facts," he continued, “because, you know, newspaper accounts are wildly inaccurate often on what the true facts of a case look like.”
Hochman also cautioned against relying on the legal opinions of celebrities like Kardashian, who visited the Menendez brothers in San Diego prison with actor Cooper Koch (who played Erik in the Netflix series). Kardashian later wrote an essay arguing for the brothers’ release.
Hochman, 60, will be sworn in as district attorney on Dec. 2 after defeating progressive incumbent George Gascón in a landslide election this month.
The Republican-turned-independent, who ran as a tough-on-crime prosecutor, will be confronted immediately with what to do with the brothers, who shotgunned their parents in their family room in August 1989. After separate mistrials they were convicted together of murder and conspiracy in 1996, and sentenced to life without parole.
One of Gascón’s last acts in office was to ask a judge to re-sentence the brothers to 50 years with the possibility of parole, which would make them eligible for immediate release. But he admitted his own office—including prosecutors who worked on the case in the 1990s—was split on whether the brothers deserve to go free. The judge in the case set the date for Dec. 11, putting it at the top of Hochman’s agenda.
The incoming DA, however, has signaled that he may change course, making the Menendez brothers’ prospects far more complicated.
“This (case) is a high priority,” Hochman said. “Any time a particular case gets this level of attention, it’s even that more important to get it right.”
Pundits, celebrities and Netflix fans had seemed convinced the brothers would be released in time for Thanksgiving with their wives and families. Last month, Murphy, the Netflix show’s producer and Rosie O’Donnell, who has befriended the brothers, all predicted the brothers would be home for the holiday.
But Hochman says the case itself and the brothers’ routes to freedom are complicated.
Indeed, the brothers would need a Christmas miracle to spend the holidays as free men. They have three separate paths to freedom, two of which run through California’s politically ambitious Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
The first path involves a habeas corpus petition filed by the brothers’ lawyers in May 2023. The brothers claim they killed their parents in self-defense after years of sexual and psychological torment. Their lawyers argue that they deserve a new trial because most of the witnesses and evidence about alleged sexual abuse were excluded by the judge at their joint trial. Their lawyers insist a 1988 letter sent to a cousin proves the boys feared for their lives, while another claim of sexual abuse leveled against Jose Menendez by a former member of the boy band Menudo supposedly corroborates their allegations.
Los Angeles Superior Court judge William Ryan will hold a hearing on Nov. 26 to consider this petition. He could make a ruling, which could lead to a new trial, but he is more likely to call for another hearing to weigh the evidence. Calling for a new trial would require the judge to determine that new evidence could change the course of justice in the case, which is a high bar.
The second path is for the brothers to be resentenced. If a Los Angeles judge agrees with Gascón‘s recommendation that the brothers get new sentences of 50 years with the possibility of parole, they would be eligible for a California parole board hearing, which could lead to freedom. Gascón argues the brothers have served 34 years as model prisoners, no longer pose a threat to society, and their age (and alleged trauma) at the time of the crimes should be considered extenuating circumstances.
A resentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11, and the brothers’ lawyers plan to bring at least six witnesses from the Department of Corrections to testify to their rehabilitation.
Some 24 family members, including the brothers’ wives and elderly relatives of both Kitty and Jone Menendez, support resentencing and release. Only one family member, Milton Anderson, the brother of Kitty, strongly opposes their freedom.
If Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic agrees to resentencing, a parole hearing would be set. California’s 21-member parole board is appointed by Governor Newsom, and its recommendations are subject to his approval. Newsom could agree with or reject a grant of parole—or ask for further review.
The third path involves the brothers’ petition to Newsom for clemency. Some observers believe the governor is unlikely to set the brothers free because of his future political ambitions—conservative or independent voters might be unhappy with a show of clemency in this case.
On Monday, Newsom punted any decision until after Hochman has had a chance to review the case.
“The governor respects the role of the district attorney in ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility,” Newsom’s office said in a statement. “The governor will defer to the D.A.-elect’s review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”
“What matters are the facts. What matters is justice and fairness,” Newsom said previously about the case. “Not treating them any worse because they’re celebrities, not treating them certainly any better because they’re celebrities.”
A native of Beverly Hills, Hochman grew up less than a mile from the quiet, leafy street where Lyle and Erik, then 21 and 18, shot their parents 16 times, reloading their Mossberg shotguns during the murders.
As a young Ivy League and Stanford-educated prosecutor in the US Attorney’s office, Hochman watched the brothers’ first trials deadlock in a courtroom across the street from his desk in downtown LA.
Since their 1996 convictions for murder and conspiracy, Hochman says he hadn’t keep up with the case. But as soon as he takes office, Hochman promised to work “extremely quickly” and with “an open mind” to review the confidential Menendez files and “not seek delay for delay’s sake.”
Meanwhile, buses and looky-loos flock daily to the Menendez murder scene; many visitors claim they know the facts after watching the Netflix shows. Many wholeheartedly believe the dramatized version of events—that the brothers were sexually and physically abused by their parents and deserve to be released after 34 years behind bars.
Hochman counters that the Menendez case is “a perfect example where people have reached conclusions based on a very limited review of the facts and pretty much no knowledge of most of the law.”
He plans to approach his review as a former prosecutor and former criminal defense lawyer—with appreciation for each side of the case.
“You want to get this one right,” he said.
Editor’s note: Ben Sherwood has followed the Menendez story since 1989 when he began working at ABC News and was assigned to help cover the saga with an award-winning team from PrimeTime Live.
