After serving 35 years behind bars for a bloody and notorious crime, the Menendez brothers might actually walk free—thanks to two documents, one a lost-and-found letter, and the other a sworn statement revealing a decades-old secret.
Their case has taken a sudden and dramatic twist as public fascination with a gruesome crime in one of America’s most exclusive enclaves is whipped up by a controversial Netflix drama series, and a follow-up documentary released Monday.
In 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez shotgunned their parents 16 times in the family room of their Beverly Hills mansion. Lyle was, 21 and Erik was 18. They are now 56 and 53.
A jury convicted them of murder and conspiracy in 1996 after separate trials ended in deadlock and mistrials. They were spared the death penalty and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, an apparent end to a grisly case that gripped and horrified America.
But now their sentence is under review by Los Angeles’ progressive district attorney George Gascón, who will tell a court on November 29 if he has decided to ask for the brothers to be resentenced or even freed.
Their fate centers on new evidence in the same defense that they put forward 35 years ago, an argument that was rejected in their first trial and then mostly excluded by a judge and challenged by prosecutors in their second trial: that they killed their parents in self defense after years of psychological and sexual abuse by their father José Menendez.
But it also comes amid renewed public interest in their case thanks to Netflix’s hit drama series created by star producer Ryan Murphy, and the intervention of a series of celebrities including Kim Kardashian, the reality star and criminal justice campaigner.
What the Menendez Brothers Say Happened—and Why it Was Rejected in Court
In their original defense, both brothers claimed that they had been physically and emotionally abused for years by their father José, a hard-charging Cuban immigrant and entertainment executive. They also claimed their mother Kitty was an alcoholic who enabled their cruel father and was indifferent to their suffering.
Lyle said the molestation began when he was only six, and Erik alleged he had been raped by his father for years.
Lyle (left) and Erik Menendez (right) in their most recent mugshots. They will learn in weeks whether it is possible that they could be freed.
Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
On the night of the murders in August 1989, the brothers said that they killed their parents after a heated confrontation in their family room. They claimed they feared for their lives after threatening to expose the family’s dark secret.
The brothers were tried separately and both of their juries deadlocked leading to mistrials. Half the jurors reportedly voted for a lesser charge, manslaughter, because of the abuse. The other half voted for first-degree murder, believing they killed their parents in cold blood for their $14 million inheritance.
When they were tried again together and convicted by one jury, the judge didn’t allow most of the testimony about abuse and prosecutors accused the brothers of lying about the molestation.
Lyle Menendez broke down in tears as he told jurors at his first trial that his father had sexually abused him.
Lee Celano/Reuters
Erik Menendez had also testified in his own trial and then when both brothers went on trial together. This was how he reacted when he was asked about being molested by his father.
Reuters
For 35 years, the brothers served their time, repeatedly appealing their conviction and sentence, insisting that they only killed their parents to save themselves.
The Missing Letter to Erik’s Cousin
District Attorney Gascón stunned the media when he announced that his office would review the case.
“We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation,” Gascon told reporters.
Last year, the Menendez brothers filed court papers including a copy of the handwritten letter that their lawyers claim was sent by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano in late 1988, nine months before the murders.
In the first Menendez trial, Cano testified that Erik had told him about his father’s sexual abuse at age 13. Cano died of a drug overdose in 2003.
Both brothers have long claimed their father, José, abused them and that their mother was complicit.
A&E
An author claims he found Erik’s letter in 2018 after Cano’s mother Maria let him look through her son’s dresser that was filled with private papers.
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad,” Erik writes in the letter. “It’s still happening Andy, but it’s worse for me now. I can’t explain it. … I never know when it’s going to happen, and it’s driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind.”
According to the Menendez legal team, the Cano letter “not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that — in fact — he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988. Just as the defense had argued all along.”
The Boy Band Member’s Sworn Affidavit
The second new piece of evidence is a sexual assault allegation against José Menendez from Menudo boy band member Roy Rosselló, 54.
Rosselló swears in an affidavit that around 1983 or 1984 José drugged and raped him when he was a teenage member of the Puerto Rican band. José was a music executive at RCA at the time.
Erik (left) and Lyle (right) murdered their parents inside on the steps of their Beverly Hills home, where they posed for a photograph at the same time as denying they had killed them. They now admit killing them, but say it was because they were abused.
Ronald L. Soble / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The sworn affidavit echoes claims Rosselló made in a 2023 Peacock documentary, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.”
“That’s the man here that raped me,” Rosselló says, pointing to a photo of José. “That’s the pedophile.”
“It’s time for the world to know the truth,” Rosselló says.
Who will decide?
Running for reelection in November, District Attorney Gascón hasn’t tipped his hand about the case, saying he’s “not leaning in any direction right now” and is “keeping an open mind.”
“None of this (new) information has been confirmed,” he said. “We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information.”
The Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascón, is now deciding what to tell a court about whether the brothers should have their sentence reduced, which could lead to them being freed rapidly.
Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
“We have people in the office that are looking at this very carefully, very experienced lawyers that are looking at this,” Gascón said. “That evidence will be presented to me. Their recommendations will be presented to me, but the final decision will be mine.”
How Resentencing law has changed
Gascón is re-examining the case as part of a larger initiative spearheaded to address what he calls “over-incarceration.” Since 2021, Gascón has resentenced more than 300 inmates under policies aimed at reducing what he has said were sentences, especially in cases where trauma or other mitigating factors were not fully considered by the court at the time.
He has been able to do it because California’s penal code now requires courts to consider factors like the defendant’s age at the time of the crime, psychological trauma, and evidence of rehabilitation in prison—meaning that he can recommend re-examination of previous sentences in cases where those factors were not considered.
In the Menendez brothers’ case, the abuse they allegedly endured could be a key factor, especially since it was not fully weighed in their 1996 trial and sentencing.
“Given today’s very different understanding of how sexual and physical abuse impacts children — both boys and girls — and the remarkable new evidence, we think resentencing is the appropriate result,” Menendez lawyer Cliff Gardner wrote in an email to the Associated Press.
“The brothers have served more than 30 years in prison,” Gardner wrote. “That is enough.”
What Happens Next?
Murphy, the megaproducer who created the controversial Netflix series “Monsters” about the Menendez saga believes that the brothers will be home for the holidays.
The streaming series “gave them their moment in the court of public opinion,” Murphy told Variety. “I think they can be out of prison by Christmas. I really believe that.
The new show by Ryan Murphy (center) has both proved intensely controversial for its suggestion that the brothers had an incestuous relationship and cast new light on their case.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Actress and former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, a close friend of Lyle Menendez for decades, agrees. She told Variety that the brothers will be released “sooner than later.”
Reality star Kim Kardashian, who recently met the brothers in prison, wrote an essay for NBC News arguing the brothers were ”denied a fair second trial and that the exclusion of crucial abuse evidence denied Erik and Lyle the opportunity to fully present their case, further undermining the fairness of their conviction.”
“We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved,” Kardashian wrote.
At this point, four known options are possible after the hearing on November 29.
The most radical option is that the brothers could see their life sentences vacated sentences and be released immediately. They could also be resentenced with the possibility of parole or given a release date. They could be given a new trial with new evidence.
Or, the worst-case for them and their supporters, they could be sent back to the Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego for the rest of their lives.
Gascón has emphasized that while his office is reviewing the case, no outcome is guaranteed.
“Until we get there, we’re not sure yet which direction this will go,” he said.
Ben Sherwood has tracked the Menendez story since 1989 when he began working at ABC News and helped cover the unfolding saga as an associate producer with an award-winning investigative team from PrimeTime Live.
