The Los Angeles County district lawyer met with the Menendez brothers‘ family on Friday, however stated he’s nonetheless reviewing the information within the case and hasn’t but determined if he is in assist of the brothers’ bid for freedom.
LA County District Legal professional Nathan Hochman stated that when he got here into workplace on Dec. 3, he promised to overview all of the information in Erik and Lyle Menendez’s case. He stated that effort has concerned reviewing hundreds of pages of confidential jail data, trial transcripts, talking to all of the prosecutors and protection attorneys concerned and reviewing courtroom filings.
Hochman stated that effort continues, noting that he isn’t completed reviewing all of the jail information from the brothers’ many years behind bars.
In these reserving images taken Oct. 10, 2024, Erik and Lyle Menendez are proven.
CRDC
Over 20 Menendez family met with Hochman on Friday of their continued push for the brothers’ launch from jail.
Hochman described the dialog as “very productive” and “in some methods, an off-the-cuff, off-the-record dialogue.”
“They gave me all their ideas about what ought to occur, their experiences they wished to share, the final word route they wished this case to go,” he stated.
Hochman didn’t reveal the small print of the dialog.
In a short deal with to reporters, Anamaria Baralt, cousin of the Menendez brothers, spoke out after the household’s assembly with Hochman Friday afternoon.
“We did have a gathering with the district lawyer and we’re grateful for his time,” she stated in an announcement. “I wish to reiterate our place as a household and because the victims’ households that this 35-year course of has been extremely traumatizing for us as I am positive that you may all think about.”
She stated she the household hoped to see an instantaneous launch of the brothers, saying that going earlier than a parole board “will solely serve to re-traumatize us.”
The earlier district lawyer, George Gascón, introduced in October that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life with out the potential for parole be eliminated, and they need to as a substitute be sentenced for homicide, which might be a sentence of fifty years to life. As a result of each brothers had been underneath 26 on the time of the crimes, they’d be eligible for parole instantly with the brand new sentence.
The DA’s workplace stated its resentencing suggestions keep in mind many elements, together with rehabilitation in jail, and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and assist different inmates.
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he misplaced his race for reelection to Hochman.
Erik and Lyle Menendez subsequent seem in courtroom for a listening to within the resentencing case on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.
This comes on the heels of an lawyer for the brothers petitioning to maneuver the case from the DA’s workplace to the California Legal professional Common’s Workplace, claiming a battle of curiosity between Hochman and Kathleen Cady, whom Hoch simply appointed director of the division’s Bureau of Sufferer Providers.
Cady not too long ago resigned as lawyer for Milton Anderson, the one Menendez relative who has been pushing to maintain the brothers in jail.
Hochman stated Friday that Cady is “walled off from the Menendez case.”
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit with protection lawyer Leslie Abramson, proper, in Beverly Hills Municipal Court docket throughout a listening to, Nov. 26, 1990.
Nick Ut/AP
Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 of the 1989 murders of their mother and father, Jose and Kitty Menendez, who they gunned down within the household’s Beverly Hills residence.
The protection claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father, however prosecutors alleged they killed for cash.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, who had been 21 and 18 on the time of the crime, respectively, had been sentenced to 2 consecutive life jail phrases with out the potential for parole.
Apart from the resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two different paths to freedom.
In 2023, the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition for a overview of recent proof not offered at trial.
In addition they submitted a request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In November, Newsom stated he’d defer to Hochman’s “overview and evaluation of the Menendez case prior to creating any clemency selections.”
ABC Information’ Amanda M. Morris contributed to this report.
