New Evidence May Lead to Retrial for Menendez Brothers

Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor announced on Thursday that his office was reviewing new evidence in the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, a development in the notorious true-crime case that could lead to a retrial or resentencing for the brothers who were convicted of the 1989 murder of their parents.

George Gascón, the county district attorney, said in a news conference that his office had received evidence that the brothers were sexually molested by their father, José Menendez, a former top executive at RCA Records.

The evidence consists of a newly discovered letter one of the brothers sent to a relative months before the murders, describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse, as well as allegations by a former boy band member, who alleged in a docuseries last year that José drugged and raped him as a teenager in the 1980s.

“We are not ready at this point to say we believe or do not believe this information,” Gascón said. “We are here to say we have a moral and ethical obligation to review what has been presented to us.”

The district attorney was careful to reiterate that authorities still believe the Menendez brothers were “clearly the murderers” in the case.

But the question at hand, he said, was whether the jury who sentenced the brothers to life behind bars without the possibility of parole in 1996 would have emerged with a different verdict had they heard the new evidence.

A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Nov. 29.

The announcement comes just days after Talia Menendez, Erik’s daughter, said on her Instagram Story that the family was expecting the district attorney’s office to make a decision on the brothers’ latest petition for freedom, filed last May.

Both the letter and allegations made by former Menudo member Roy Rosselló were included in the brothers’ writ of habeas corpus.

The letter, written by Erik to cousin Andy Rano, was uncovered by Robert Rand, a journalist and documentarian researching the brothers’ case, according to People.

The Menendezes have been behind bars for nearly 35 years. Initially separated and sent to different correctional facilities—against their wishes—they were reunited at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility outside San Diego in 2018, where they have remained ever since.

Erik and Lyle were 18 and and 21, respectively, when José and Mary Louis “Kitty” Menendez were found slaughtered in the family’s multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills mansion. José had been shot six times in the back of the head; Kitty had been shot 10 times, including in the face.

The brothers tearfully summoned police to the scene, and investigators initially believed the brutal double murder was gangland-related.

But Erik and Lyle were arrested in 1990, after Erik confessed their role in the murders to his therapist.

Authorities rapidly built a case against the pair, saying that they’d bought two 12-gauge shotguns with cash and gunned their parents down in the living room as they watched TV. Their trial began in 1993, broadcast by the nascent network Court TV, generating lurid headlines and capturing the world’s imagination.

Prosecutors said that the brothers had their sights set on wresting control of their parents’ estate, pointing to the high-flying lifestyle they’d enjoyed in the months before their arrests, spending lavishly on Rolexes, a Porsche, and private tennis lessons.

But the brothers’ lawyers argued self-defense, saying that the murders had a far grimmer motive: Putting an end to José’s horrific sexual abuse.

The trial ended in early 1994 with two deadlocked juries, one for Erik and one for Lyle. A retrial—which would not be televised—was ordered.

A fresh wave of attention, generated primarily by a splashy new series created by Ryan Murphy, has yanked the spotlight back onto the brothers in recent weeks.

Gascón said Thursday that his office had received “lot of calls” since the series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, hit Netflix last month.

Although audiences received the series warmly, the brothers themselves were not nearly as receptive to their lives being dramatized onscreen by Murphy. The series, among other controversial theories, entertains the suggestion that the two brothers may have engaged in an incestuous relationship.

In a statement shared by his wife, Tammi Menendez, Erik slammed Murphy and the series, saying it was full of “blatant lies” about him and his brother.

“It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naïve and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent,” Erik seethed. “So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”

A few days later, Tammi released another statement signed by 24 members of the extended Menendez family condemning Monsters as “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare” and “a grotesque shockadrama.”

Murphy has since said he doesn’t actually believe the brothers carried on an incestuous relationship, but has repeatedly defended his take on the story.

“The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world. There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case. I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did.”

Gascón also acknowledged that societal views on sexual assault in a post-#MeToo world had changed enough that, were the brothers’ case to be retried, it would undoubtedly be handled with “a greater level of sensitivity.”

Sitting in prison, the brothers are aware of that. “For the first time I feel like it’s a conversation where people now can understand and believe,” Lyle says in a forthcoming Netflix documentary on the case.

The documentary, The Menendez Brothers, drops Oct. 7.