The Menendez brothers are one step closer to freedom after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón recommended they be resentenced for killing their parents.
Gascon held a press conference Thursday afternoon where he recommended that Erik and Lyle receive a new sentence, 35 years after they murdered their parents Kitty and Jose inside their Beverly Hills mansion.
Their recommendation is that they be eligible for parole immediately.
It will be up to a court to ultimately determine the final sentence for the brothers.
The announcement comes after growing community pressure to reconsider the life-without-parole sentences Erik and Lyle received at their 1996 trial.
The brothers have never denied killing their parents, but have long claimed they were driven to do so after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, a businessman.
The public was not convinced of their claims in the 1980s, believing rather that they were ruthless monsters.
But in recent months, a TikTok movement of more understanding fans and a duo of Netflix shows have won them favor.
Now armed with Gascón’s recommendation, the Menéndez case will return to court, where a judge will ultimately decide its fate.
If the brothers’ charges are reduced from murder to manslaughter, it could lead to their release considering time already served.
The Menéndez brothers could soon be released from prison after more than 30 years behind bars
Family members of victim Kitty Menendez spoke among themselves before the district attorney’s announcement Thursday. In the photo: Arnold VanderMolen whispering in the ear of Kitty’s sister, Joan VanderMolen, 92 years old.
The siblings have also enjoyed endorsements from celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell.
Gascón approached the Menendez brothers’ relatives when he arrived at the news conference Thursday afternoon and greeted Kitty’s sister, Joan, 92, who has long been pushing for her nephews’ release.
“After careful review of all the arguments of people on both sides… I believe that, under the law, a new sentence is appropriate and I will recommend it to a court tomorrow,” Gascon said.
“Given that they were under the age of 26 at the time these crimes occurred…they will be eligible for parole immediately.”
Gascón’s decision has been welcomed, but critics have suggested he is using the Menéndez case to curry favor ahead of his re-election bid in November.
Gascón recently said his office was examining evidence that was not allowed in his trial, but insisted he was not compromised in any way.
Specifically, he was reviewing the shocking allegations made last year by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the band Menudo, who claimed that José Menéndez sexually abused him as a teenager while working as a music executive in the 1980s.
The accusations opened the door to appeals by the Menendez brothers over allegations that critical evidence of their father’s alleged abuse was not admitted at their 1996 trial.
Erik had also allegedly written a damning letter to his cousin Andy Cano, in which he alluded to serious and prolonged abuse at the hands of his father José.
Erik, 53 (pictured here in January 2023), revealed that he found it absurd that the police working on the case did not arrest him and his brother at the crime scene.
Lyle (pictured in January 2023) bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants immediately afterward.
Mark Geragos, defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menéndez, appeared in good spirits before the official announcement.
The letter, first revealed by DailyMail.com, was written eight months before his parents were killed.
Gascon said earlier this month “given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in prison until they die.”
After killing their parents in August 1989, they made a frantic call to police claiming that they returned home to discover their parents had been murdered, raising fears within one of America’s wealthiest communities that a murderer was on the run.
Police announced they would arrest Lyle Menendez in March 1990, seven months after the crime.
They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers would inherit $14 million from their parents and set out to spend it shortly after their parents died.
Pictured: Mark Geragos, defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez, speaks with Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez.
The Menéndez brothers spent seven months on the streets after murdering their parents, Kitty and José (pictured center).
Relatives of the Menéndez brothers are in Los Angeles to learn the result of the press conference
Diane, Kitty Hernandez’s niece, put her hands to her face and closed her eyes before the announcement.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to start competing in tournaments.
In total, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990.
But Erik insisted in the new Netflix documentary that it is “absurd” to suggest he was having a good time immediately after the murders.
Erik and Lyle, now ages 53 and 56, claimed they acted in self-defense. They said they were victims of sexual abuse throughout their lives at the hands of their father.
More than a dozen of Menendez’s relatives and defense attorney Mark Geragos held a news conference in Los Angeles this month calling for a revised sentence.
“If it were the Menendez sisters, they wouldn’t be in custody,” Geragos said of the treatment the brothers received at their trial.
The family argued that at the time of the brothers’ trial, the public did not understand sexual abuse of children.
Kitty’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, said: “His actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two children trying to survive their father’s unspeakable cruelty.”
The duo, then only 18 and 21 years old, killed their parents, José and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menéndez, inside their million-dollar home in Beverly Hills in August 1989.
“The truth is that Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them: their parents, the system and society at large.”
The family introduced a coalition called ‘Justice for Erik and Lyle’ and talked about how the brothers have lived a purposeful life in their 35 years in prison, even though they never expected to be released.
But the family is not entirely united in their fight for Erik and Lyle’s release.
Kathleen Cady, an attorney representing Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, said, “Mr. Andersen does not support a new sentence for the Menendez brothers.”
Andersen believes the initial sentence (life without parole) was a fair outcome for the crimes committed against his sister and her husband.
‘He believes this should remain and is certainly entitled to his opinion. “You have the right to have your concerns and thoughts considered, but Gascón has ignored you,” Cady said.
Chilling crime scene photos show blood-soaked couch where José Menéndez was shot
Andersen has filed a brief with the court requesting the “right to reasonably consult” with Gascón on matters related to the cases of his sister and nephews.
In an email sent to Gascón seen by DailyMail.com, the District Attorney was warned that “any decision you make should not be political.”
Cady wrote: “Mr. Andersen… requests to confer with you immediately and hear your decision before holding another press conference to announce your decision to the press and the general public.”
The filing implies that Gascón’s upcoming re-election campaign could be pushing his decision on the matter, in an effort to gain more public support.
But a petition seeking a new sentence revealed that the brothers had worked as hospice aides in prison helping sick inmates and had led Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Both also completed college courses and have letters of reference from prison officials speaking of their exemplary behavior behind bars.
One of those reference letters, written by Víctor H. Cortés, said: “It is extremely rare to find an individual who, despite facing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, has dedicated himself to personal growth, improvement of his fellow prisoners. and the general stability of the prison environment.’
