Los Angeles judge postpones decision on resentencing Menendez brothers until January

LOS ANGELES – A judge on Monday postponed until January his decision on whether to retaliate Erik and Lyle Menendez for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion 35 years ago, dashing their family’s hopes that the brothers would be released and go home for the holidays.

Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said at the hearing in Los Angeles that he needed time to review 17 boxes of documents and give a new Los Angeles County district attorney time to consider the case.

“I’m not ready to move forward yet,” Jesic said, setting the resentencing hearing for Jan. 30 instead of Dec. 11 as originally scheduled.

The brothers were scheduled to appear in court during the hearing for the first time in decades, but technical difficulties prevented them from appearing virtually from a San Diego jail. They were found guilty of the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

While their lawyers claimed during the trial that they had been sexually abused through their father, prosecutors denied this and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.

Now, at 53 and 56, Erik and Lyle Menendez are making a new one offer for freedom. Their lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a court to investigate whether someone is lawfully detained — in May 2023, asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse. The brothers are being held at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

Jesic allowed the brothers’ two aunts to take the stand on Monday after their lawyer argued it was difficult for them to travel to the hearing.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister who turns 93 on Tuesday, and Teresita Baralt, Jose’s older sister who is 85, asked for their release, saying 35 years was a long time for the brothers after they were abused as children. Andersen VanderMolen had said last month that she had hoped her nephews would be released and go home for her birthday or the holidays.

Baralt noted that she was close to Jose and lived across the street from him and Kitty for years, whom Baralt described as her best friend.

“We deeply miss those who are no longer here,” Baralt testified through tears. “But we also miss the children.”

Both aunts said they had kept in touch with the brothers, although they had not seen them.

The hearing lasted less than an hour. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, began speaking to the media outside the courthouse, but he stopped short and walked away as reporters crowded him.

The recent releases of the Netflix drama “ Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez story ” and the documentary “The Menendez Brothers” released in 2024 renewed attention to their plight.

Rose Castillo, a 28-year-old true crime enthusiast, arrived from Miami five minutes late to enter the lottery and win one of the few seats offered to the public to attend the hearing, but caught a glimpse of the brothers’ relatives before entering the courthouse.

“That was crazy,” Castillo said.

A bailiff told people to stop taking photos of the family members as they waited in the hallway before the hearing began.

Prosecutors recommended to punish again for the brothers last month, saying they have worked for redemption and rehabilitation and demonstrated good behavior inside the prison.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón asked for new sentences that would make them immediately eligible for parole.

The brothers’ extended family has said they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Not all members of the Menendez family are in favor of recidivism. Lawyers for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to uphold the brothers’ original sentence. “They shot their mother Kitty while she was reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement last month. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was fair, and the sentence fits the heinous crime.”

The new evidence includes a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his uncle Andy Cano in 1988, describing the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. The brothers asked their lawyers about it after it was mentioned in a 2015 Barbara Walters television special. The lawyers were unaware of the letter and realized it had not been introduced at their trial, making it essentially new evidence that they say supports the accusations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.

Even more new evidence emerged when Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin American pop group Menudo, recently came forward to say he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez as a teenager in the 1980s. Menudo was signed to RCA Records, where Jose Menendez was Chief Operating Officer.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed and provided a signed statement to the brothers’ attorneys.

Had these two pieces of evidence been available at the brothers’ trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, the petition said.

While clemency could be another path to freedom for the brothers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week he won’t decide until new Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who takes office on Dec. 2, has reviewed the case . Hochman, a Republican-turned-independent who unseated progressive Gascón, has said he wants to review the evidence carefully.