Menendez brothers’ resentment sought | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors will suggest Erik and Lyle Menendez are angry about the 1989 murder of their parents at the family’s Beverly Hills home, giving the brothers a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced at a press conference Thursday that his office will recommend that the brothers be sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Because they were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for immediate parole, he said.

“I came to a place where I believed it was OK to be angry, according to the law,” Gascón said. He said some members of his office opposed the decision.

Prosecutors will file the petition on Friday, and a hearing could be held before a judge as soon as next month.

The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996.

Lyle Menendez, 21, and Erik Menendez, 18, admitted to fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The siblings said they feared their parents were about to kill themselves to keep people from finding out Jose Menendez had been sexually abusing Erik Menendez for years.

The brothers’ extended family has demanded their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Many family members said that in today’s world, where the effects of sexual abuse are more aware, the brothers would not be convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Many members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday’s press conference. VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and publicly supported their release. The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, was also there.

Anamaria Baralt, Jose Menendez’s niece, said the district attorney’s “brave and necessary” decision means “Lyle and Erik can finally begin to heal from the trauma of their past.”

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for the murder of their parents, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time argued there was no evidence of abuse and that many details of the sexual abuse story were not allowed at the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said at the time that the brothers were after their parents’ millions of dollars in property.

Gascón said he made his final decision just an hour before the press conference, and family members were notified only minutes beforehand.

Even though they were sentenced to life in prison, the brothers worked toward redemption and rehabilitation in prison, Gascón said.

“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

Not all members of the Menendez family support resentment. Lawyers for Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, Milton Andersen, have filed a legal brief asking the court to preserve the brothers’ original sentence. “They shot their mother, Kitty, while reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s lawyers said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence is crystal clear: The jury’s verdict was fair and the sentence fits this heinous crime.”

Although Kitty Menendez is not accused of abusing her sons, she appears to have facilitated the abuse, according to her sons’ legal filings. At the brothers’ first trial, a cousin testified that Lyle told her he was too scared to sleep in his room because his father would come in and touch his genitals. The petition stated that when the cousin told this to Kitty Menendez, “she angrily dragged Lyle up by his arm.”

Another family member testified that while Jose Menendez was in his bedroom with one of the children, no one was allowed to pass through the hallway outside.