NOTORIOUS killers Lyle and Erik Menendez could face a new trial – three decades after being convicted of shooting dead their parents.
District attorneys in Los Angeles are examining allegations regarding whether the brothers were sexually assaulted by their father, Jose.
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George Gascon, the Los Angeles District Attorney, shared the revelation at a press conference on Thursday.
The brothers, now in their 50s, reportedly watched the briefing from prison, according to TMZ.
He revealed the evidence would be considered before deciding if the brothers should reveal a new trial.
Alternatively, prosecutors might push for a new sentence, but Gascon told reporters the decision would be his.
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The district attorney warned that no decision has been made.
A hearing has been slated for November 29.
The Menendez brothers were convicted for the 1989 killings in a re-trial held in 1996 following a mistrial.
And Gascon was adamant that he wasn’t any questions over whether the brothers committed the murders.
But the Menendez brothers have strongly claimed they acted in self-defense after allegedly enduring years of abuse.
Erik, now 53, penned a letter to his cousin Andy Cano and this note was received around eight months before the killings happened, the brothers’ attorney Mark Gerangos told the Fox affiliate KTTV.
During the first murder trial, Cano testified in court as he delved into the allegations.
Erik told his cousin that he had been trying to avoid his father, according to the letter seen by the ABC affiliate KGTV-TV.
“Every night I stay up thinking he might come in,” one excerpt said.
Timeline of the Menendez brothers case
Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving life sentences in prison after being found guilty of shooting their parents to death over 30 years ago.
August 20, 1989 – José and Kitty Menendez are shot to death
March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested for the murders
March 11, 1990 – Erik turns himself in
July 20, 1993 – Highly publicized trial begins and ends weeks later in a mistrial
October 11, 1995 – Second trial begins
March 20, 1996 – Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder
July 2, 1996 – Menendez brothers are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons
February 2018 – Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison where Erik is held
April 4, 2018 – Erik and Lyle are reunited
May 2023 – Attorney representing the Menendez brothers files a habeas petition
September 19, 2024 – Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story comes out on Netflix
“I need to put it out of my mind.”
But the letter wasn’t presented at either trial.
Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boyband Menudo, previously claimed he was sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez.
He claimed the alleged abuse happened when he visited the Menendez home in New Jersey.
Lyle, now 56, and Erik were kept apart in prison for decades before they were re-united in 2018.
The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time of the slayings, bought a gun just days before they shot music exec Jose and ex-beauty queen Kitty.
They initially told Los Angeles cops that they found their parents dead after discovering their bodies in their sprawling Beverly Hills home.
Lyle called the cops and screamed down the phone claiming someone had killed his parents.
Horror pictures from the crime scene showed blood-soaked sofas
In the months following the shootings, Lyle and Erik went on a spending spree, splashing out on watches and luxury motors.
But in March 1990, Lyle was arrested before Erik turned himself in just days later.
The duo went on trial in 1993 and it ended in a mistrial.
This was because there was a deadlocked jury.
HORROR SLAYINGS
Lyle and Erik went on trial for a second time in 1995 before both were convicted of first-degree murder charges in March 1996.
Prosecutors labeled the abuse allegations as the “abuse excuse.”
In July 1996, the Menendez brothers were sentenced without the possibility of parole.
They served their sentences in separate prisons before being reunited in 2018.
The infamous killings are now the subject of the hit Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Kim Kardashian has written an essay that calls for the brothers to be freed, as reported by NBC News.
She claimed the brothers are not monsters, but intelligent and honest men.
Kardashian doesn’t believe that the sentencing isn’t the right punishment.
“Had this crime been committed and trialed today, I believe the outcome would have been dramatically different,” she claimed in the letter.
Anamaria Baralt, the brothers’ first cousin, also called for the pair to be released in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun.
She claimed the Netflix series is “way off the mark” in its portrayal of Erik and Lyle.
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