Less than a month before a California state judge could decide if the Menendez brothers get out of jail before they die, the Los Angeles County District Attorney today said he has “not” made a decision about recommendations to the court over the sibling’s fates.
Speaking not long after nearly three-hour meeting with 20 members of the Menendez family who want to see lenience to their relatives Nathan Hochman in a hastily called press conference didn’t play his hand on where he and his office is leaning. Calling the gathering with the family “off the record, Hochman would only say it was a “productive meeting.”
“We are going to spend the time necessary to get this decision right,” Hochman said Friday in language he used even before his landslide win over incumbent George Gascón. “No decision has been made to speak with the Menendezs themselves,” he added, even after saying he would talk to anyone impacted by the brothers’ horrific killing of their parents over 35 years ago.
Milton Andersen, the brother of the Menendez’s mother and the brothers’ uncle, has been very vocal in his opposition to any resentencing effort ever since a poll struggling Gascón finally put forth a filing on resentencing that could get the Menendezs out years before their life without parole sentence is over. Anderson’s longtime lawyer Kathleen Cady, a big Hochman supporter and former Assistant DA, has been named the director of the Bureau of Victims Services at the D.A.’s office. Lawyers for the members of the Menendez family who want the siblings out of jail have pointed at this as a messy conflict of interest.
Previously scheduled for December 11 and pushed back to give newly elected DA Hochman time to get up to speed, a resentencing hearing for the 1996 convicted siblings has now been set for January 30. If necessary, a second resentencing day on January 31 is on the calendar.
While additional time may be needed, Hochman declared today that the January 30 date is when he intends to make his recommendation to the court known. Discussions among the family and their lawyers to petition Californian Attorney General Rob Bonta step in over that perceived conflict of interest in the D.A.’s office were given short shrift by Hochman in his remarks today.
The influence of a 2023 Peacock docuseries on the Menendez case, plus Ryan Murphy and Netflix’s hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has been undeniable in getting this case back on first Gascon and now Hochman’s desk. While this could end up at the parole board or on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, evidence of a letter from
Behind bars in the same state prison near San Diego, the now middled aged Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez brutally murdered their record executive father Joes and their mother Kitty in 1989 in a premediated event at the family’s Beverly Hills home.
As a part of their defense following an ostentatious spending spree and the young men’s arrest a year later the brothers claimed their father repeatedly sexually abused them and the shotgun shootings were self-defense. A media circus from start to finish, the Menendez brothers first trial ended in mistrials. With a lot less cameras in the courtroom and reporters outside, a second trial in 1996 found the brothers convicted of first-degree murder. Those sentences were reaffirmed by two appeals courts over the years.
Before the meeting between the DA and Menendez relatives, the family put out a statement of their own: “As we prepare to meet with DA Hochman, our family is hopeful for an open and fair discussion. Despite the abuse they endured as children and the unfairness of their current sentence, Erik and Lyle Menendez have spent the last three decades taking responsibility for their actions and contributing positively to their community through leadership and rehabilitation. During our meeting with DA Hochman, we look forward to sharing our perspective on Erik and Lyle’s immense personal growth over the last 35 years, and the ways in which we plan to support them in their next chapters. We hope that this meeting will put us a step closer to spending next Christmas reunited as a family.”
The Menendez family and lawyers Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman plan to join the D.A.’s press conference Friday was was suddenly cancelled just before the 4:30 media scrum began. Hochman today said he has no idea why the plug was pulled on the family’s presence at the press conference. Representatives for the Menendez family did not provide any details on the change of plans.
