LOS ANGELES (AP) — Erik and Lyle Menendez still have a long way to go before they can walk out of prison, even though the Los Angeles County district attorney has recommended their life-without-parole sentences be thrown out and the brothers be resentenced and immediately eligible for parole. The brothers, convicted in the 1989 killings of their parents at the family’s Beverly Hills mansion, will need to get a judge to go along with the recommendation Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón made Thursday and then a parole board must approve their release. The final stop is with Gov.
Gavin Newsom, who could reject the board’s decision. It’s an uncertain process likely to stretch out over months. Lyle Menendez , then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez.
The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years. Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation. The brothers’ first trial ended in a hung jury, and prosecutors secured a conviction in the second after much of the evidence of abuse was disallowed from the trial.
The district attorney’s office also said back then that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate. Now, the DA and relatives say the world better understands the role of trauma i.