Menendez brothers’ claims of abuse supported by newly discovered letter, new allegation. Will their convictions stand?

Menendez brothers’ claims of abuse supported by newly discovered letter, new allegation. Will their convictions stand?

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Lyle and Erik Menendez have been behind bars in California for greater than three a long time for the 1989 killing of their mother and father, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life in jail in a case that captured the nation’s consideration, that they had no hope of ever strolling free. However new evidence could change that.

Erik selected to not communicate with “48 Hours” for this broadcast, however Lyle did, talking with contributor Natalie Morales by telephone from RJ Donovan State Jail in San Diego, California.

Operator: You could have a pay as you go name from—

Lyle Menendez: Lyle Menendez …

Operator: This name and your phone quantity will probably be monitored and recorded.

Natalie Morales: Hello, Lyle. Are you able to hear me?

Lyle Menendez: Hello. Yeah, I can hear you.

Natalie Morales: What did you assume whenever you heard about these … new claims and proof …

Lyle Menendez: I imply, for me, I simply was glad … ‘trigger it is a burden to be telling what occurred to you and simply have a lot doubt within the public air.

The query isn’t whether or not the Menendez brothers killed their mother and father. They admit that they did. As an alternative, the main target of the case has lengthy been why they did it. They insist that they killed out of concern and in self-defense after a lifetime of bodily, emotional, and sexual abuse suffered by the hands of their mother and father. One in every of their legal professionals, Cliff Gardner, says the brand new proof corroborates these claims—and lessens their culpability.

Cliff Gardner: If the choose finds this proof credible, I feel it’s enough to offer them a brand new trial.

THE MENENDEZ MURDERS

However to grasp how we received right here, we’ve got to return to the start: the night of Aug. 20, 1989, when Lyle Menendez made this name to 911 from the household’s Beverly Hills mansion:

911 OPERATOR: Beverly Hills Emergency?

LYLE MENENDEZ: Sure, please, uh —

911 OPERATOR: What’s the issue?

Lyle Menendez: (Crying) Somebody killed my mother and father!

911 OPERATOR: Pardon me? —

LYLE MENENDEZ: (Sobbing) Somebody killed my mother and father!

After officers responded to the scene, then-21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik reported that that they had arrived residence to search out their mother and father shot to dying within the household room. Jackie Lacey was a deputy district legal professional in Los Angeles on the time.

Jackie Lacey: I feel one of many Beverly Hills detectives … described it as some of the … brutal crime scene he had ever seen in his life.

POLICE NEWS CONFERENCE: I have been on this enterprise for over 33 years, and I’ve heard of only a few murders that have been extra savage than this one was.

Jose Menendez, a former prime govt at RCA Data, and his spouse, Kitty, had been shot a number of instances at shut vary with a shotgun.

Jackie Lacey: It was an expression of hatred for these two folks.

Milton Andersen, Kitty’s older brother, nonetheless remembers receiving the information.

Milton Andersen: My brother referred to as me, and he mentioned that Kitty and Jose have been – have been lifeless … I beloved her … Sister Kitty was a really bold gal … She was a really lovely … girl.

A portrait of the Menendez household from October 1988, From left, Lyle, Kitty, Jose and Erik. 

Robert Rand


Kitty and Jose met once they have been in school in Illinois. Jose had come to the U.S. from Cuba. They went on to marry and begin a household. Lyle and Erik have been their solely kids. Over time, with Kitty by his facet, Jose excelled in his profession, working for RCA Data, amongst different main corporations.

Milton Andersen: He was going proper up the ladder … with none hesitation. 

On the time of his dying, Jose was working for a movie studio, operating their residence video division. Investigators initially suspected that the killings could have been tied to his enterprise dealings.

Jackie Lacey: Lyle … type of indicated, you already know, my dad handled shady characters. And when you say one thing like that, detectives are going to start out to have a look at, OK, what have been his enterprise contacts?

Members of the family and investigators questioned whether or not it might have been mafia associated. On the time, the house video business was recognized for having ties to the mob.

Milton Andersen: All people mentioned it was a mob hit.

Jackie Lacey: As a result of it was so brutal. … It – it actually was like a scene out of … “The Godfather” motion pictures.

Initially, Lyle and Erik Menendez weren’t even on investigators’ radar.

Jackie Lacey: They did not do any gunshot residue take a look at on their arms. They allow them to return … and get proof with out even pondering, “hey, might it have been the children?”

Erik, left, and Lyle Menendez

Los Angeles Occasions/Getty Pictures


However they did not keep off investigators’ radar for lengthy. Their conduct within the wake of the crime finally drew scrutiny. The brothers seemed to be spending their mother and father’ cash — and many it.

Jackie Lacey: They have been … Investing in companies. … They acted like that they had received the lottery.

And their conduct at their mother and father’ memorial providers raised some eyebrows.

Milton Andersen: On the podium … Lyle learn a letter from Jose … that was full of love and delight for his sons.

Natalie Morales: Did you see Lyle get emotional as he was studying that letter?

Milton Andersen: No. … Lyle additionally made an announcement that his father at all times mentioned, “you possibly can by no means fill my footwear.” And he jokingly mentioned, “guess what? I am carrying my father’s footwear in the present day.”

Natalie Morales: Struck you as odd that he would say one thing like that.

Milton Andersen: I—very odd.

Whereas all which will have appeared uncommon, it wasn’t exhausting proof. However then, about six months later, police received a tip from an unlikely supply: the girlfriend of a psychologist who Lyle and Erik Menendez had been speaking to. She informed police that the brothers had confessed to the killings in remedy and there was an audiotaped recording of it.

Jackie Lacey: However for that confession, who is aware of whether or not they would’ve ever been caught?

On March 8, 1990, after police received their arms on that tape, Lyle Menendez was taken into custody. Erik Menendez, who was overseas on the time, surrendered to police days later.

DAN RATHER | “CBS Night Information”: Not many Hollywood homicide mysteries ever took a extra dramatic flip than police are describing in a few savage Beverly Hills killings.


NEWS REPORT: Police say the motive was apparently cash. A $14 million inheritance to be shared by the brothers.

However years later, when the case made its method to trial, the brothers would make it clear that it may not be so easy.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY JILL LANSING (in court docket): On August twentieth, 1989, did you and your brother kill your mom and father?

LYLE MENENDEZ: Sure.

JILL LANSING: Why did you kill your mother and father?

LYLE MENENDEZ: As a result of we have been afraid. (emotional)

MURDER OR SELF-DEFENSE? THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS GO ON TRIAL

In the summertime of 1993, practically 4 years after Jose and Kitty Menendez have been gunned down of their residence, their sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez, went on trial. They confronted the dying penalty.

LESLIE ABRAMSON (Protection opening at trial): Good afternoon … The one query on this case is why did these killings happen? … Why they have been killed is what the main target of all of our proof will probably be on.

What the protection was arguing was that since this was a self-defense case, the brothers have been deserving of a lesser cost and punishment. The protection attorneys who tried the case did not reply to “48 Hours”‘ requests for an interview. Cliff Gardner represents Lyle and Erik Menendez in the present day.

Cliff Gardner: That they had the protection of … imperfect self-defense.

Imperfect self-defense, that means the brothers actually believed that they needed to take motion to avoid wasting their lives, regardless that it may not appear rational.

Cliff Gardner: And if it is trustworthy however unreasonable … You’re culpable of manslaughter, not of homicide.

Lyle Menendez testifying on the first trial.

Related Press


Each brothers took the stand. Lyle Menendez spoke of sexual abuse by the hands of his mom and father. He mentioned his father started sexually abusing him when he was solely 6 years outdated.

LYLE MENENDEZ (in court docket): He would, uh, fondle me and he would ask me to do the identical with him.

Over time, he mentioned, it turned worse.

LYLE MENENDEZ (in court docket): He’d rape me (crying).

Erik Menendez testifying on the first trial. 

Related Press


However whereas Lyle mentioned his father stopped sexually abusing him when he was 8, Erik mentioned it by no means ended for him, and that he lastly confided in his older brother days earlier than the crime — at age 18.

ERIK MENENDEZ (in court docket): I did not know what to do on the time. So, I figured I would inform Lyle and perhaps he might assist me.

LYLE MENENDEZ (in court docket): He began telling me that … one of many causes he had by no means informed me earlier than was as a result of my dad had at all times threatened his life.

The brothers testified that Lyle quickly confronted their mother and father, and that their mom indicated she knew in regards to the abuse all alongside. In anger, Lyle mentioned he directed a menace at his father.

LYLE MENENDEZ (in court docket): I informed him that I might inform everyone … Then he mentioned, … all of us make selections in life, son. Erik made his. You’ve got made yours.

JILL LANSING: What did you assume was gonna occur?

LYLE MENENDEZ: I assumed we have been at risk. I assumed he had no—he felt he had no alternative.

JILL LANSING: However to what?

LYLE MENENDEZ: That he would kill us.

The brothers testified that they received into one other argument with their mother and father on the evening of the crime and that they believed their mother and father have been about to kill them to maintain the household secret from popping out. So, they mentioned, they grabbed shotguns that that they had purchased two days earlier for defense, went into the household room and began capturing their mother and father — at one level, even stopping to reload.

JILL LANSING (in court docket): And what did you do after you reloaded?

LYLE MENENDEZ (crying): I ran round, shot my mother.

To bolster their claims of abuse, the protection referred to as to the stand quite a few family members, buddies and acquaintances of the household who described incidents of bodily and emotional abuse that they mentioned they noticed. Alan Andersen, Lyle and Erik’s cousin, was a kind of witnesses. Rising up, Alan would spend summers on the Menendez residence. He had so much to say about Jose.

Alan Andersen: Hitting the children with the belt, by no means had an issue with that.

And Kitty.

Alan Andersen: She would not stand up to console the youngsters, nothing.

Whereas not one of the witnesses, together with Alan, ever noticed Lyle or Erik Menendez being sexually abused, Alan did recall one thing that struck him as odd.

Alan Andersen: Jose would inform the boys, “Within the bed room” … after which he would shut the door after which he’d take showers with ’em.

He says throughout that point, Kitty would not let him go close to the room.

Alan Andersen: So, I used to be not allowed, whereas the boys have been alone with Jose with the door closed in the master suite, to go down the corridor to most likely not hear no matter I could hear.

One other cousin, Diane Vandermolen, gave comparable testimony. And he or she additionally recounted a dialog she says she had with Lyle when he was 8.

DIANE VANDERMOLEN (in court docket): Um, he proceeded to point to me by touching himself, uh, down and — and saying that his dad and him had been touching one another down there.

JILL LANSING: And what did you do?

DIANE VANDERMOLEN: I went and received Kitty and, uh, … informed her what was happening.

JILL LANSING: And what occurred when Kitty got here down?

DIANE VANDERMOLEN: Uh, she did not imagine me.

Andy Cano, yet one more cousin, additionally took the stand and testified a couple of dialog he says he had with Erik when Erik was about 13.

ANDY CANO (in court docket): He informed me his father was massaging his d***. He informed me by no means to disclose it to anyone.

Nonetheless, prosecutors argued that even when Lyle and Erik Menendez have been abused, it would not give them the precise to kill. They usually identified that when the brothers confessed to that psychologist, they by no means talked about abuse or self-defense then.

Jackie Lacey: The timing of disclosure was handy.

The prosecutors who tried the case did not reply to “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview. Former Los Angeles County D.A. Jackie Lacey reviewed parts of the trial at our request.

Jackie Lacey: And folks do make issues up when their life is on the road.

However all these years later, Lyle Menendez maintains they’re telling the reality and the explanation they did not come ahead then was difficult.

Natalie Morales: What was holding you again?

Lyle Menendez: Simply disgrace. Simply not wanting it to be public.

The pure nature of the crime, nonetheless, says Lacey, would not help the brothers’ declare that they acted in self-defense. Prosecutors identified that Jose and Kitty have been watching TV on the time they have been killed, they usually weren’t armed.

Jackie Lacey: With a purpose to get shut sufficient to blow someone away … you’ll’ve been in a position to see that they did not have weapons.

Lyle Menendez is adamant that he and his brother have been in concern for his or her lives.

Lyle Menendez: For me, it was simply darkish and complicated and complete perception that there was hazard. … You realize, it is combat or flight to a level. … It was panic.

Lyle, left, Jose and Erik Menendez

Bob Rand


The prosecution argued the proof proves the killings have been premeditated. When the brothers bought these shotguns, prosecutors mentioned that they took steps to cowl their tracks, like driving to a gun retailer all the best way in San Diego.

Jackie Lacey: San Diego isn’t an across the nook drive. Final time I checked, it was two hours typically.

Jackie Lacey: After they killed their mother and father, they went round and picked up the expended shotgun shell casings in order that their fingerprints would not be found on these shells. … there was numerous thought and numerous deliberation that went into it.

In addition they removed the shotguns, made that 911 name —

OPERATOR: Who’s the individual that was shot?

LYLE MENENDEZ (Crying): My mother and my dad.

— and misled the preliminary investigators. Prosecutors pointed to cash because the motive. They mentioned Jose Menendez informed his sons he had eliminated them from his will—and primarily based on their investigation, they prompt that after the crime, Lyle Menendez tried to destroy a will on the household pc. Lyle denies doing that and insists cash had nothing to do with what occurred. If there was a brand new will, it was by no means discovered.

Lyle Menendez: We by no means had any monetary issues with my mother and father.

Though the brothers have been tried collectively, there have been two separate juries deciding their destiny. When deliberations started, they stretched on for weeks earlier than each juries decided they have been divided over whether or not Lyle and Erik Menendez needs to be convicted of homicide or manslaughter.

JUDGE (in court docket): Due to this fact, I discover that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked.

A mistrial was declared.

Lyle Menendez: It was only a devastating consequence. I wanted it to be over come what may.

However it was removed from over. Prosecutors would strive the case once more.

Jackie Lacey: They wanted a win. … the warmth was on.

THE RETRIAL OF LYLE AND ERIK MENENDEZ

Almost two years handed as Lyle and Erik Menendez sat in jail, awaiting a second trial. A few of their relations, like Alan Andersen, believed that they have been justified within the killings.

Alan Andersen: I do know they did what they did as a result of they have been in concern of their life.

Whereas others — like Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, thought-about them cold-blooded killers.

Milton Andersen: I do not imagine that Jose or Kitty would do any of the issues that they have been accused of. … Jose was altering his will … And that is once they went out and acquired the shotguns.

On the retrial, which started in October 1995, one jury, as an alternative of two, would hear the case, no video cameras have been allowed in court docket—and a brand new staff of prosecutors would make use of a unique technique.

Cliff Gardner: The primary trial was, OK, there could have been abuse, however we do not enable vigilantes in our society. … The second trial, the prosecution’s case, there was no abuse in any respect.

And what made it simpler for prosecutors to argue that, says legal professional Cliff Gardner, is the truth that the prosecution raised new and profitable objections to the admission of a considerable amount of protection proof. Now, the jury would hear from just some — not all—of the witnesses who knew the Menendez household and helped corroborate the brothers’ claims of abuse.

Cliff Gardner: The D.A. was not going to take one other loss. They may not take one other loss.

The choose, who had additionally presided over the primary trial, excluded the testimony on the grounds that it was irrelevant, repetitive and in some cases, missing in basis — as a result of this time, Lyle Menendez wouldn’t take the stand.

Natalie Morales: Erik did testify. Why did you determine to not communicate?

Lyle Menendez: Uh, for 2 causes. I used to be simply achieved after the primary trial. … And I did not have … the legal professional that … I trusted a lot to ask me these deep private questions.

However Carol Najera, the one surviving lead prosecutor from the second trial, who declined to talk with “48 Hours,” prompt in a 1996 interview there might need been one more reason why Lyle did not take the stand.

Carol Najera (1996 interview): There have been issues that had been developed for the reason that first trial that might have broken his credibility a fantastic deal.

Lyle Menendez and his legal professional, Terri Towery, in the course of the retrial for Menendez and his brother, Erik, on Oct. 12, 1995. He didn’t testify.

AP Photograph


Prosecutors mentioned that they had new proof that Lyle had requested a buddy and a former girlfriend to manufacture testimony. Lyle admits to “48 Hours” that he did try this, however says he later withdrew these requests. As a result of Lyle did not take the stand, his cousin, Diane Vandermolen, was prohibited from testifying about that dialog she says she had with Lyle when he was 8, by which she says Lyle informed her that his father was touching him. The jury did nonetheless hear from cousin Andy Cano about that comparable dialog he claimed to have had with a 13-year-old Erik, however the prosecution attacked his credibility.

Cliff Gardner: The state’s place was that Andy was a liar.

And when cousin Alan Andersen took the stand, prosecutors attacked his credibility too — mentioning the truth that Lyle Menendez gave him cash after the crime. Andersen says it was to assist pay for a medical process.

Alan Andersen: He did not say something like, effectively, if I’m going to court docket, you already know, or no, he, it was simply straight up between him and I, him being a pleasant cousin, understanding I used to be in monetary bind, he knew he had the sources to assist me.

On the second trial, prosecutors positioned extra of a deal with the brutality of the crime. They usually painted Jose as a restrained, loving father—somebody incapable of molesting his kids. Prosecutors referred to the brothers’ protection as “the abuse excuse.” Within the first trial, the protection referred to as greater than 50 witnesses, this time they referred to as about half.

Cliff Gardner: It wasn’t that they did not wish to current them. They weren’t allowed.

The jury deliberated for days, after which a verdict: responsible of first-degree homicide.

Lyle Menendez: I hugged my brother, we cried, and I mentioned, “look, we’re gonna be OK.”

Alan Andersen: I used to be not glad in any respect.

On the jury’s suggestion, the brothers have been sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. 

Natalie Morales: And also you imagine they deserved that?

Milton Andersen: Oh, what they did to my sister … they need to have gotten the dying penalty.

Lyle and Erik Menendez have been despatched to separate prisons. Greater than twenty years handed after which, round 2020, the case made a stunning resurgence on social media. Following a documentary that aired on the case by which Erik Menendez repeated his claims of abuse, droves of individuals took to TikTok and Instagram to precise help for him and his brother.

Dr. Judy Ho is a neuropsychologist who makes a speciality of childhood intercourse abuse trauma. Dr. Ho can be a “48 Hours” guide. We requested her to evaluate the case.

Dr. Judy Ho: I undoubtedly assume that our society has simply develop into extra educated about trauma and the influence of sexual trauma.

Erik, left, and Lyle Menendez with their father Jose. 

Milton Andersen


Dr. Ho says analysis exhibits that simply because the brothers delayed reporting abuse, it does not imply they made it up.

Dr. Judy Ho: That is all very in step with individuals who have been via trauma and perhaps really feel prefer it was even their very own fault in some methods … Or they’re ashamed of the trauma … And there is much more self-stigma and disgrace related to male victims.

She additionally says that the abuse the brothers describe, might even assist clarify why the crime was so brutal.

Dr. Judy Ho: It is sensible that in that second, it is nearly like a breakdown. … And that is to not make an excuse for something that they’ve achieved, however it’s simply to explain the way of thinking of that is years and years of abuse, the place they … could not act to guard themselves … And as soon as they pulled the set off, it was like, there was no turning again.

However might Lyle and Erik Menendez have really been in concern for his or her lives that evening?

Natalie Morales: They’re 18 and 21. … Why could not they depart?

The Menendez household on trip. From left, Lyle, Erik, Kitty and Jose

Bob Rand


Dr. Judy Ho: Proper. Effectively, definitely there was a path that they may have taken is to attempt to get away from the household … However it appears like even at that age, they have been very a lot below the management of their father nonetheless. … I feel that oftentimes what persons are not conscious of is that trauma fully rewires the mind … They most likely did assume at one level it was both them or their mother and father. That it was a combat or flight conditioning that had come up.

Legal professional Cliff Gardner believes the case can be tried in another way in the present day.

Cliff Gardner: The concept again then was, A, dads do not molest their kids. … And if by likelihood it occurred, these are 18 and 21-year-old youngsters. They’re strapping younger males. They simply depart. … And each these, I feel, are undercut in — in what we all know in the present day.

Nonetheless, a greater understanding of the consequences of sexual abuse and a few social media help would do little on their very own to make a distinction within the brothers’ case legally. As an alternative, what their protection wanted was new proof, and finally, that is what it received.

Natalie Morales: Did you or Erik assume that one other particular person would accuse your father … of kid molestation?

Lyle Menendez: I didn’t. … I couldn’t imagine it.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CASE

Over time, Lyle and Erik Menendez appealed their convictions, however have been unsuccessful. It appeared unlikely that they might ever see past jail partitions. However then, new proof started to floor. The primary piece within the type of a letter.

Lyle Menendez: Simply form of out of the blue, considered one of, uh—my father’s sister discovered a letter in storage.

Appellate legal professional Cliff Gardner says the letter was written by Erik Menendez to his cousin, Andy Cano, in December 1988, about eight months earlier than the crime.

Natalie Morales: It is not dated, however you have been in a position to get a body of reference of the timing of it primarily based on the contents of the letter, proper?

Cliff Gardner: Precisely. … he talks in regards to the Christmas social gathering. We all know the Christmas social gathering that they placed on … was in Christmas of ’88. He talks about hiring a brand new tennis coach … There’s quite a few issues within the letter that enable us to authenticate when it was written.

A letter written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988 was hooked up as an exhibit to the habeas petition that was filed in Might 2023.

Superior Court docket of the State of California, Los Angeles County


And it is a explicit part of the letter that Gardner says is essential.

Cliff Gardner: He says … “I have been making an attempt to keep away from dad. It is nonetheless taking place, Andy, however it’s worse for me now. … Each evening I keep up pondering he may are available. … I am afraid … He is loopy. He is warned me 100 instances about telling anybody, particularly Lyle.”

Cliff Gardner: Nobody knew about it at trial. … It was by no means introduced.

Keep in mind, Andy Cano did testify at each trials. He mentioned that Erik Menendez, at age 13, confided in him that his dad had been touching him. Prosecutors prompt that Cano was mendacity.

ANDY CANO (in court docket): He defined to me that these massages that his father was giving him have been starting to harm.

Natalie Morales: The letter is important, why?

Cliff Gardner: Effectively, the state’s place was that Andy was a liar. Andy was making it up. This exhibits that Andy wasn’t making it up. … It is contemporaneous proof from Erik to his cousin, Andy, about what was taking place.

However the letter was only the start. Extra proof has surfaced that Gardner says additional helps Lyle and Erik Menendez’s longstanding claims that they have been sexually abused. A person named Roy Rossello has come ahead claiming that he was sexually abused by Jose Menendez, too.

Cliff Gardner: Roy … was a member of the boy band Menudo, which was massive within the late ’70s, mid-’80s.

Menudo originated in Puerto Rico. The band is greatest recognized for producing massive title expertise like singer Ricky Martin. The concept behind the band was to maintain it perpetually younger. Few of the performers remained within the group past the age of 16, as an alternative being rotated out for youthful expertise. It seems, Jose Menendez had ties to the group.

Cliff Gardner: Jose Menendez … was working at RCA on the time and RCA signed Menudo to a recording contract.

Jose Menendez, prime row, second from left, is pictured with former members of Menudo in 1983, together with Roy Rossello, backside proper. Additionally pictured is the band’s one-time supervisor, Edgardo Diaz, prime row, second from proper.

Sony Music/RCA Data


Former Menudo member Roy Rossello, now 54, was not obtainable for an interview with “48 Hours,” however in a sworn affidavit filed simply final yr, he claims he went to Jose Menendez’s residence within the early-80s on the route of the band’s then-manager Edgardo Diaz. Rossello would have been between 14 and 15 years outdated on the time. He says he drank “a glass of wine,” then felt like he had “no management” over his physique. He says Jose Menendez took him to a room and raped him. Rossello first spoke publicly in regards to the allegations in a documentary.

ROY ROSSELLO (from Peacock documentary, translated from Spanish): I used to be in horrible ache for per week. I might barely stand the ache. I could not even transfer.

Rossello additionally alleges that he was sexually abused by Jose Menendez on two different events, proper earlier than and proper after a efficiency at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor in New York.

Cliff Gardner: I met Roy and he talked to me about it. … it was a troublesome dialog for him. And it was troublesome for me to listen to … however I assumed Roy was credible … It might take years for folks to acknowledge what occurred to have the braveness to come back ahead.

Lyle Menendez: Once I first heard about it … I — I cried. … For me, it was very significant to only have issues come out that prompted folks to actually understand, OK … at the least this a part of what it is about is true.

Lyle Menendez says he remembers Menudo band members coming over to the household residence once they lived in New Jersey, earlier than shifting to Beverly Hills. He doesn’t recall Rossello particularly.

Natalie Morales: What do you keep in mind in regards to the Menudo band members going to your house?

Lyle Menendez: Solely that my father had some intimate involvement with that exact group. … He normally wouldn’t have an excessive amount of involvement with teams aside from negotiations. However with Menudo and Edgardo Diaz … he traveled with them. … He went to their concert events. He stayed in inns that they stayed at.

Lyle Menendez says he did not assume a lot of it— till rumors started surfacing in the direction of the top of he and his brothers’ first trial.

Lyle Menendez: Folks within the business have been speaking about that perhaps one thing had occurred … as a result of there was a intercourse scandal within the group.

Roy Rossello, left, in 1985 as a member of Menudo, and in 2018.

AP/Fb


Rossello, together with different former Menudo members, have lengthy accused Edgardo Diaz — the band’s one-time supervisor— of sexual abuse. Diaz has at all times denied the allegations and no costs have been filed in opposition to him. The Los Angeles Police Division is presently investigating a particular incident by which Rossello alleges Diaz raped him at The Biltmore Resort in Los Angeles within the Nineteen Eighties. However what does this new proof imply by way of Lyle and Erik Menendez’s case?

Cliff Gardner: The significance of the brand new proof, you need to look again and perceive what the state’s place was on the second trial. The state’s place was that the sexual abuse by no means occurred. … And the state’s place as to Jose Menendez was he wasn’t the kind of one that would molest a younger boy. This new proof takes each these arguments and undercuts them totally …

Gardner has filed a habeas petition asking that his purchasers’ convictions be vacated.

Cliff Gardner: The boys have been abused as kids. They have been abused their entire life. … and it is a manslaughter case, not a homicide case. It is simply that easy.

And in the event that they have been convicted of manslaughter, they might have acquired a a lot shorter sentence and been out a very long time in the past. However will a choose purchase Gardner’s argument?

Jackie Lacey: It’s … very, very potential that … Jose Menendez was a baby molester. … However you do not get to homicide him and his spouse in chilly blood.

COULD THERE BE ANOTHER TRIAL FOR THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS?

After legal professional Cliff Gardner filed the habeas petition in Might 2023 asking that Lyle and Erik Menendez’s convictions be vacated, it changed into a ready sport for a choose to rule. “48 Hours” requested former D.A. Jackie Lacey what she makes of the brand new proof, beginning with that letter – the one which seems to have been written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano months earlier than the crime.

Jackie Lacey: The fascinating factor in regards to the letter is that … there are solely two individuals who can authenticate it. … Andy Cano … and Erik Menendez.

Erik Memendez, left, and cousin Andy Cano.

Bob Rand


Andy Cano died in 2003. And Lacey factors out that he by no means talked about the letter when he testified.

Jackie Lacey: You’d assume … when Andy was on the stand twice, he’d have introduced that up. And, oh yeah. He informed me about it just lately. And here is the letter.

Natalie Morales: The timing of that letter, although, you’ll be able to type of pin down as a result of you already know, it was the vacations, as a result of he writes about his Christmas plans.

Jackie Lacey: However Natalie, have a look at it one other means. … You can embody these particulars and get that letter collectively … after they have been caught. … This letter for all we all know might have been written by Erik Menendez … shortly after the homicide, given to Cano and Cano could have gotten chilly toes about it and never submitted it.

However Gardner argues the brand new proof is sound. He says the explanation the letter was not introduced up at trial is probably going as a result of Erik Menendez and Andy Cano forgot about it.

Cliff Gardner: If you happen to have a look at the letter, it is not nearly what Jose’s been doing. It is about all kinds of different issues … it was simply considered one of many letters that they wrote to one another. … There actually should not be any doubt in regards to the authenticity of the letter.

And as for Roy Rossello, the previous Menudo band member?

Natalie Morales: Are you able to low cost his claims altogether?

Jackie Lacey: No … I feel what the choose has to weigh and think about is: is that this newly found proof that might’ve modified the decision?

And Lacey says she doesn’t imagine it will have.

Jackie Lacey: They’re nonetheless caught with the planning … the cover-up, the cash that they spent afterwards. … I feel that you would argue … the sexual abuse occurred … Alternatively, for the time being these males are driving all the way down to San Diego, paying for … the homicide weapons, coming again and ready for an opportune time to go in and kill their mother and father, the molestation isn’t occurring proper then. … I don’t imagine that on the time they murdered them, that they have been at risk at that exact minute of being murdered by these folks. I feel they hated them. They may have had an excellent cause to hate them. … However we won’t condone vigilantism. … While you calmly and logically regarded on the information surrounding the killing, it is a homicide.

PIC FROM SECOND TRIAL

However Gardner believes the brand new proof would have made a distinction to the jurors. He says proof of abuse can mitigate a criminal offense— and that is why prosecutors fought so exhausting to maintain it out of the second trial.

Cliff Gardner: Sexual abuse, bodily abuse is related to your way of thinking. And way of thinking is the important thing in figuring out whether or not one thing is homicide or whether or not one thing is manslaughter.

Cliff Gardner: What this proof does, is … it places you again within the state of affairs that they have been in with the primary trial, that there was corroboration for the abuse.

And within the first trial, keep in mind, two juries have been divided over whether or not the brothers ought to have been convicted of homicide or manslaughter. Gardner thinks this new proof, mixed with that of the primary trial, guidelines out homicide totally.

Cliff Gardner: My hope within the case is that the choose will understand that this new proof is certainly credible and persuasive, and he’ll vacate the convictions.

If that occurs, it will be as much as the Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace whether or not to retry the case. In an announcement, the District Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned it’s investigating the claims made within the habeas petition. Alan Andersen needs to see his cousins launched.

Alan Andersen: What I might say to the prosecutor, or the choose can be, please have a look at all the proof … they’re talking the reality … They should not be in there so long as they have been.

Jose and Kitty Menendez photographed in New Jersey in the1980s.

Robert Rand


However nonetheless, Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, feels simply the alternative. He says he would not imagine the brand new proof is credible.

Milton Andersen: I do not assume it is proof.

And he needs his nephews to remain put.

Milton Andersen: I feel they need to die of outdated age in jail … I beloved my sister, and I protected her in life, and I’ll love my sister and defend her in her dying.

Lyle Menendez says he understands his uncle’s ache.

Lyle Menendez: A part of my regret is for the ache I prompted to folks like him.

As they await a choose’s determination, Lyle and Erik Menendez, who reside in the same prison since 2018, are centered on rehabilitation and persevering with their schooling.

Lyle Menendez: I join with different prisoners which have intercourse abuse histories, work with them.

Each brothers are married to girls outdoors jail.

Lyle Menendez: I feel it has made an enormous distinction to have love and help like that … I strive to not be outlined by that one evening. It is type of a lifelong journey to not be outlined by that one evening.

It’s unclear when a ruling will probably be made within the case.


Produced by Stephanie Slifer and Chuck Stevenson. Alicia Tejada is the coordinating producer. Michelle Fanucci and Anthony Venditti are the event producers. Chelsea Narvaez is the affiliate producer. Ken Blum, Marlon Disla and Diana Modica are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.

 

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