Should the Menendez Brothers Be Released? Relatives Ask Judge to Give Pair Break in Connection to Parents’ Grisly Murders
Family members of the Menendez brothers have signed letters of support that were given to the judge being asked to reduce their sentences.
June 20 2024, Published 3:00 a.m. ET
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were just 21 and 18, respectively, when they gunned down their multi-millionaire businessman father, Jose, 45, and their mother, Kitty, 48, in the den of their family's Beverly Hills mansion, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The trial caused a national sensation when it was broadcast in 1993 on the then-new cable network Court TV, Front Page Detectives reported.
Lyle Menendez previously called into CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville to talk about the possibility of being released from prison.
On August 20, 1989, Lyle called 911, frantically telling the operator: “Somebody killed my parents!"
During the trial, it was determined the Mendez brother's father was repeatedly shot at point-blank range in the back of the head. Their mother was blasted as she tried to flee, suffering bullets to the leg, arm, chest, and face.
The mansion where the shooting rampage took place.
Cops at the grisly scene determined the victims were killed by 15 shotgun blasts.
The brothers initially seemed to have an airtight alibi. However, the pair raised suspicion with investigators when they almost immediately started running through their father's fortune, spending nearly $1 million on the high life in mere months.
Mugshots of both Lyle Menendez and Erick Menendez.
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In March 1990, the case broke wide open when Erik confessed to his shrink, who then told cops after being threatened by Lyle.
However, it wouldn’t be easy to convict the deadly pair. The emotional testimonies — weaving a tale of a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse — ended in a mistrial. After a second trial in 1996, the brothers were convicted.
The Menendez brothers' attorney thinks they should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder.
Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, as RadarOnline.com previously reported, the brothers recently appealed their convictions and are seeking reduced sentences under a new California law, which gives district attorneys the authority to make resentencing recommendations.
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The Menendez brothers have the support of more than two dozen family members, who all signed a letter to the judge asking him to resentence them, Fox News reports.
In addition to the family support, their attorney, Mark Geragos, believes the brothers should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder. If that was the case, he states they likely would have already been released from prison.