Menendez brothers finally admit to decades of lies and killing parents as they become eligible for parole

Daily Mail​

14-05-2025

The Menendez brothers took full responsibility for their heinous crimes moments before a judge agreed to resentence them against the advice of state authorities.
Erik and Lyle were just 18 and 21 when they brutally murdered their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez inside their swanky Beverly Hills home in 1996.
The brothers allege they snapped after suffering years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, and were let down by their mother who turned a blind eye.
Admission: The Menendez brothers took full responsibility for their heinous crimes moments before a judge agreed to resentence them against the advice of state authorities
Speaking to Judge Michael Jesic in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, the duo both made extraordinary admissions of the guilt and shame they've carried in the decades that followed.
'I take full responsibility. I killed my parents,' Lyle, now 56, told the court. 'I made the choice to kill my mom and dad in their own home.'
'I made the choice to make a mockery of the justice system. I offer no excuse and I don't blame my parents.'
Lyle went on to express his 'deep shame for what I did,' adding: 'I was impulsive and immature.
'I bottled up my own emotions and anger. I was scared but also filled with rage. Had I had the coping skills and trusted others, I would have not done this. Even after I killed him, I still heard his voice.'
Erik also took full responsibility for his actions on the fateful night, telling the court - and a room full of his relatives and supporters - 'I lied to police. I lied to my family.'
'I fired all five rounds at my parents and went back to reload. I'm truly sorry.
'My actions were criminal, selfish, cruel and cowardly. I have no excuse, no justification for what I did. I take full responsibility for my crimes.'
The duo won over former LA District Attorney George Gascon, who supported their bid to be resentenced.
However when he was ousted in late 2024, incoming DA Nathan Hochman took a vastly different approach to the case, rescinding the recommendation from his office to allow the men to walk free.
Hochman argued that the duo were 'not ready' to be resentenced because they had not entirely accepted guilt for their actions.
He said he does not believe the pair were sexually abused.
'Our position is not 'no,' it's not 'never,' it's 'not yet,'' Hochman said. 'They have not fully accepted responsibility for all their criminal conduct.'
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Joy: Erik's stepdaughter Talia Menendez appeared to fight back tears of joy after the resentencing, left, as the duo's cousin beamed
It is unclear whether Tuesday's wholehearted confessions eased the DA's mind at all about the judge's ruling.
Judge Jesic ultimately agreed Lyle and Erik had earned a chance at freedom, opting to reduce their sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life.
The change means they're immediately eligible to apply for parole under California's youthful offender law because they committed the crime under the age of 26.
The state parole board must still decide whether to release them from prison.
'I'm not saying they should be released, it's not for me to decide,' Jesic said. 'I do believe they've done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.'
But the Menendez brothers' elated family celebrated the decision on Tuesday evening.
Ana Maria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers who testified in court on Tuesday, shared her joy after the hearing on Instagram.
During the hearing, she said: 'We all, on both sides of the family, believe that 35 years is enough. They are universally forgiven by our family.'
After, she revealed she'd spoken with Lyle on the phone and had been in touch with Erik's wife, Tammi.
'We are so excited. We still have to go through the parole process, but the bottom line is Lyle and Erik are not going to die in prison.
'They are going to get out. They are going to rejoin our family... [Erik and Lyle] are also excited.'
Baralt offered 'a huge shoutout to Judge Jesic for restoring our faith in the justice system, for reading the law, for applying it appropriately.'
Her overjoyed video was shared by Erik's stepdaughter Talia, who was in the courtroom on Tuesday and has tirelessly advocated his release.
'PAROLE BOARD HERE WE COME!' Talia wrote on Instagram. 'Thank you everyone for your countless prayers and support, we truly wouldn't be here without you all. Special thank you to our legal team and everyone involved with making this come to fruition.'
The brothers are broadly supported by their relatives, many of whom testified on their behalf on Tuesday.
Another cousin, Tamara Goodell, said she had recently taken her 13-year-old son to meet the brothers in prison, and that they would contribute a lot of good to the world if released.
Diane Hernandez, who also testified during Erik and Lyle's first trial, spoke about the abuse she witnessed in the Menendez household when she lived with them and the so-called 'hallway rule.'
Victims: Jose and Kitty were killed in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989
'When Jose was with one of the boys … you couldn't even go up the stairs to be on the same floor,' Hernandez said of the father.
On August 20, 1989, armed with two shotguns, the brothers shot both parents to death as they watched a movie at their Beverly Hills mansion.
Their trial prompted worldwide headlines. Prosecutors said their motive was greed, as they stood to inherit $14million from their parents.
The brothers insisted they acted against a father who sexually abused them for years and a mother who turned a blind eye to the abuse.
The first trial ended with a hung jury. But at a second trial in 1996 - where the judge refused to allow any evidence about the brothers being molested by their father - they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
New interest in the case was sparked by the recent Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the true crime documentary The Menendez Brothers.
Both films explain how the brothers claimed to police that they returned home from the theater to find their parents had been slaughtered.
At first it was feared that a vicious killer was on the loose in Beverly Hills, one of America's wealthiest communities.
Doubt: DA Hochman has argued that 'the prior DA's motion did not examine or consider whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight and taken complete responsibility for their crimes by continuing over 30 years to lie about their claims of self-defense
Chhilling: A crime scene photo shows the blood-soaked couch where Jose Menendez was shot
But cops switched their suspicions to Lyle and Erik after they set about spending their inheritance soon after their parents' deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.
In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents' deaths and their arrests in March 1990, seven months after the murders.
Erik - who said his father abused him from the age of six to 12 - insisted in the new documentary that it's 'absurd' to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
'Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,' he said.
'One of the things that stopped me from killing myself was that I would be a complete failure to my dad.'
The duo also addressed the lies they told during the initial investigation in order to escape punishment.
Erik said: 'There should've been a police response, and we would've been arrested. We had no alibi. The gunpowder residue was all over our hands.
'Under normal circumstances, they give you a gunpowder residue test. We would have been arrested immediately.
'There were shells in my car - my car was inside the search area. All they had to do is search my car. If they had just pressed me, I wouldn't have been able to withstand any questions. I was in a completely broken and shattered state of mind.
'I told the detectives I saw smoke which would've been impossible if I didn't do it. It's pretty incredible we were not arrested that night. We should've been.'
Gascon had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers last fall by asking a judge to reduce their sentences.
Gascon's office said the case would've been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and the brothers' rehabilitation over three decades in prison.
A resentencing petition laid out by Gascon focuses on the brothers' accomplishments and rehabilitation.
Since their conviction, the brothers have gotten an education, participated in self-help classes and started various support groups for their fellow inmates.