Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman filed a reply motion on March 10 to withdraw a previous recommendation by former District Attorney George Gascón to reduce the prison terms of 54-year-old Erik Menendez and 57-year-old Lyle Menendez.
Gascón had recommended in October 2024 that the Menendez brothers be resentenced with the possibility of parole instead of life in prison without parole.
Hochman said he believes that the brothers have not exhibited “full insight and complete responsibility” for their crimes.
In 1996, the Menendez brothers were convicted of first-degree murder in the 1989 deaths of their parents, Mary “Kitty” Menendez and Jose Menendez, in Beverly Hills, California. Jose Menendez was an entertainment executive in the 1980s.
Hochman explained that his position is partly based on the brothers allegedly failing to provide a consistent and clear motive.
“The self-defense defense was a fabrication,” Hochman told reporters. “If they finally acknowledge the lies they have told and persisted in for 30 years, we will evaluate that sincerity and decide if it’s real or fake.”
He further urged the Menendez brothers to come clean so they could be in a position for the court to recommend resentencing.
“If that were to occur, then I’ve said the district attorney’s office, if they believed that these new insights were sincere or unequivocal ... would reconsider whether or not we would go forward on a resentencing motion,” Hochman said.
A 60-page statement of facts detailing the alleged crime was included with Hochman’s filing.
There were allegedly more than 12 shotgun blasts that occurred on the night of the murders, with one shot found through the back of Jose Menendez’s head, according to Hochman. Hochman alleged that when the Menendez brothers ran out of ammunition, they reloaded the shotgun and blasted their mother’s face. Hochman noted that after their parents were dead, the brothers shot them both in the knees to imitate a gangland hit.
Erik Menendez testified during his second trial that between the ages of six and 18, for seven days he had encountered sexual abuse from his father. He also said his brother Lyle had received sexual abuse from his father between the ages of six and eight.
When questioned by a reporter during the press conference, Hochman denied bias against the Menendez brothers.
“We are pulling back or asking the court to withdraw that motion while we’re also indicating to the court that we’re prepared to go forward on the court’s own motion for resentencing,” he said.
Hochman previously denied a new trial during a Feb. 21 press conference, explaining that the evidence of abuse is not pertinent to determining the brothers’ guilt in the case.
“Sexual abuse in this situation may have been a motivation for Erik and Lyle to do what they did, but it does not constitute self-defense,” Hochman said in February.
He also said the brothers’ own testimony of sexual abuse was untrustworthy because they had given five different explanations for why they committed the murder.
