A California choose has delayed the extremely anticipated resentencing listening to for Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez, two Beverly Hills brothers serving life with out parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their mother and father.
Outgoing Los Angeles District Lawyer George Gascon requested the court docket to scale back their sentences lower than two weeks earlier than Election Day – then he misplaced to impartial candidate Nathan Hochman, who takes workplace on Dec. 2.
Choose Michael Jesic mentioned he seemingly would not be prepared for the beforehand scheduled Dec. 11 listening to and mentioned he would push it again to late January “out of respect for the new administration” after each side agreed.
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Tammi Menendez, Erik Menendez’ spouse, and Erik Menendez’ stepdaughter stroll close to the Van Nuys Courthouse West, on the day of a listening to within the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez on whether or not to rethink the first-degree conviction of the Menendez brothers in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 25, 2024. (REUTERS/Daniel Cole)
Protection Lawyer Mark Geragos mentioned he expects the listening to to take greater than a day in court docket.
Either side tentatively agreed to January 30-31, however the choose didn’t formally set it within the calendar.
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Protection Lawyer Mark Geragos, arrives on the Van Nuys courthouse in Los Angeles, for a listening to for Erik and Lyle Menendez, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photograph/Damian Dovarganes)
Attributable to a technical glitch, the brothers didn’t seem just about as anticipated. Geragos waived their proper to look whereas the court docket addressed scheduling.
Two witnesses have been nonetheless anticipated to testify Monday resulting from well being considerations – together with the brothers’ 93-year-old aunt, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, who’s their mom’s sister.
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Mary “Kitty” Menendez was sitting alongside her husband Jose when the brothers barged into their front room and shotgunned them from behind whereas they have been consuming ice cream and watching TV. Jose died shortly, however the brothers needed to go outdoors and get extra ammunition to complete off their mom.
Lyle Menendez, left, and his brother Erik are pictured of their most up-to-date jail mugshots, taken on Oct. 10, 2024. (California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
The brothers later claimed self-defense, arguing they have been afraid their father would kill them as a result of they deliberate to reveal him as a baby intercourse abuser.
Whereas two dozen family have sided with the brothers of their quest for decreased sentences, Kitty and VanderMolen’s brother, Milton Andersen, stays vehemently against their launch.
Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascon, proper, shakes palms with members of the Menendez household after addressing the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez at a information convention on the Corridor of Justice in Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photograph/Damian Dovarganes)
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“It’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed,” his legal professional, Kathleen Cady, informed Fox Information Digital.
Hochman, a reasonable who rejected Gascon’s soft-on-crime method to working the DA’s workplace, has pledged to completely overview the case earlier than taking a stance on whether or not he’ll proceed with the resentencing push begun by his predecessor.
An undated photograph of the Menendez household because it seems on display screen throughout a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, June 2. The brothers Lyle and Erik have been convicted of fatally taking pictures each of their mother and father in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox Information Digital)
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A separate habeas corpus petition can be making its approach by the court docket, which might be a further path to freedom if profitable.
Their petition relies on newly emerged proof in assist of their allegations of kid abuse in opposition to their father – a corroborating letter of unconfirmed origin and the phrase of Roy Rosello, a former Menudo member who mentioned he too had been abused by Jose Menendez as a baby.
New Los Angeles District Lawyer Nathan Hochman at Crypto.com Area in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. ( Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Occasions through Getty Photos)
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Gov. Gavin Newsom additionally declined to grant a clemency petition for the brothers – not less than for now – stating he would defer to Hochman’s pending overview of the case earlier than making a choice.
It is a growing story.
