The incoming Los Angeles district attorney set to preside over the Menendez brothers’ fate has warned their supporters—who include Kim Kardashian—that they may not understand the facts and the law in the case.
The 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez, the brothers' parents, in ritzy Beverly Hills have electrified the nation once again after Netflix released Monsters, Ryan Murphy’s dramatized version of the story, in September, and put out a companion documentary in which the brothers spoke from behind bars.
Nathan Hochman told the Daily Beast that he has not watched the two Netflix shows, which have led to a clamor of calls for Erik and Lyle Menendez to be freed, but said that he feared people may have been misinformed by them and misleading news coverage of the case. He said that he is committed to getting “this one right.”
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“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 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 Los Angeles County district attorney on Dec. 2 after defeating 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 gunned down their parents in their family home in August 1989. After separate mistrials they were convicted together of murder and conspiracy 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 was split on whether the brothers deserved 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 or “within 30 days.”
But Hochman says the case is complicated and the routes to freedom are unpredictable.
Indeed, the brothers, now 56 and 53, would need a Christmas miracle to spend the holidays as free men—although they have three separate paths to freedom ahead of them, 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, but that because most of their witnesses and evidence to this effect were excluded by the judge at their joint trial, they deserve a new one. 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 corroborates their allegations.
Los Angeles Superior Court judge William Ryan will hold a hearing on November 26 to consider this petition. He could make a ruling, but is more likely to call for another hearing to weigh the evidence. A new trial would require substantially new evidence that would change the course of justice in the case, which is a high bar.
The second path is for the brothers to be resentenced. Gascón recommended in October that their sentences be reduced to 50 years in prison with the possibility of parole, which would make them eligible immediately for release—if a judge agrees and if the California parole board concurs. Gascón argues the brothers have served 34 years as model prisoners, no longer pose a threat to society, and that their age (and accrued trauma) at the time of the crimes should be considered extenuating circumstances.
A resentencing hearing is scheduled for December 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 Jose and Kitty 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 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 grant this request because of his future political ambitions—conservative or independent voters might be displeased with leniency in this case.
Other insiders note that Newsom is under no deadline to respond, cannot seek reelection as governor when his current term concludes, and could still choose to act with compassion at any moment.
“What matters are the facts. What matters is justice and fairness,” Newsom has said 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 leafy street where Lyle and Erik, then 21 and 18, shot and killed their parents.
As a young Ivy League and Stanford-educated prosecutor in the US Attorney’s office, Hochman watched the brother’s 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 say they know the facts after watching the Netflix shows. Many adamantly believe their dramatized version of events: 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 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.
