A decide has rejected Erik and Lyle Menendez’s petition for a brand new trial, ruling that extra proof that they suffered sexual abuse at their father’s fingers wouldn’t have modified the result of the trial that has put them in jail for greater than 35 years for gunning down their dad and mom.
The ruling, handed down by Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Decide William C. Ryan on Monday, is the most recent blow to the brothers’ bid for launch. Each have been denied parole throughout prolonged hearings in late August.
A habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of the brothers in 2023 argued they need to have been capable of current extra proof at trial that their father, Jose Menendez, was sexually abusive.
The brand new proof included a 1988 letter that Erik Menendez despatched to his cousin, Andy Cano, saying he was abused into his late teenagers. There have been additionally allegations made by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, who claimed Jose Menendez raped him.
The brothers have lengthy argued they have been in concern for his or her lives that their father would preserve abusing them, and that their dad and mom would kill them to cowl up the nightmarish situations of their Beverly Hills house.
Prosecutors contended the brothers killed their dad and mom with shotguns in 1989 to get entry to their large inheritance, and have repeatedly highlighted Erik and Lyle’s wild spending spree within the months that adopted their dad and mom’ deaths. .
“Neither piece of proof provides to the allegations of abuse the jury already thought of, but discovered that the brothers deliberate, then executed that plan to kill their abusive father and complicit mom,” Ryan wrote. “The courtroom finds that these two items of proof offered right here would haven’t have resulted in a hung jury nor within the conviction of a lesser instructed offense.”
Ryan agreed with Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman that the petition mustn’t grant the brothers a brand new trial as a result of the abuse proof wouldn’t have modified the truth that the brothers deliberate and carried out the execution-style killings within the household front room.
Ryan wrote the brand new proof wouldn’t have resulted within the trial courtroom continuing otherwise as a result of the brothers couldn’t present they skilled a concern of “imminent peril.”
A spokesperson for the group of greater than 30 Menendez family who’ve been preventing for the brothers’ launch didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. A spokesman for the district legal professional’s workplace was not instantly out there for remark.
The ugly killings occurred after the brothers used money to purchase the shotguns and attacked their dad and mom whereas they watched a film within the household front room.
Prosecutors mentioned Jose Menendez was struck 5 instances with shotgun blasts, together with at the back of the pinnacle, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the ground wounded earlier than the brothers reloaded and fired a ultimate, deadly blast.
The petition rejected this week was one in every of three paths the Menendez authorized group has pursued in searching for freedom for the brothers. One other decide earlier this yr resentenced them to 50 years to life for the murders, making them eligible for parole after they have been initially sentenced to life in jail.
Each have been denied launch at their first parole listening to, however might find yourself earlier than the state panel once more in as quickly as 18 months. Clemency petitions are additionally nonetheless pending earlier than Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The primary trial ended with hung juries for every brother. Within the second, allegations of abuse and supporting testimonies have been restricted, and Lyle and Erik Menendez have been convicted of first-degree homicide in March 1996.
