LOS ANGELES – Erik and Lyle Menendez could be one step closer to freedom.
The brothers’ fate will be revealed Thursday as Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon will announce whether he recommends the two be resentenced or get a new trial.
FOX 11 will stream the press conference live at 1:30 p.m. You can watch the press conference live on Channel 11, on foxla.com, on our YouTube channel, or on the FOX LOCAL streaming app.
If prosecutors do recommend resentencing, they would need court approval.
If the judge accepts a recommendation of resentencing with time served, it is possible the Menendez brothers could be out of prison by Nov. 26, which was their originally scheduled court date.
Their defense attorney, Mark Geragos, said if all goes well, Erik and Lyle would be home by Thanksgiving.
This comes after an investigation that was spurred by new evidence presented to the DA’s office – recently revealed allegations that their father also molested Roy Rossello, a former member of the boy band Menudo, in the 1980s, and a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, which surfaced in 2015, years after his death.
Menendez Brothers resentencing decision coming today
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. news conference to announce his decision in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life prison terms for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
The brothers have been serving life sentences without parole for the killings of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 in Beverly Hills.
Erik and Lyle were 21 and 18 at the time of the murders. The brothers never denied carrying out the killings, and said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendedz had sexually abused Erik for years.
The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.
Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in their story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said back then that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.
In 1995, the brothers were retried, but this time the judge did not allow cameras in the courtroom and placed limits on the defense’s presentation of evidence regarding the abuse allegations. During the second trial, the brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder of both their parents and conspiracy to commit murder. Both brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They have repeatedly appealed their convictions to no avail.
The case drew significant media attention due to the family’s wealth, the gruesome nature of the killings, and the defense’s strategy during the trial. The courtroom became a battleground of narratives, pitting accusations of cold-blooded murder for inheritance against claims of self-defense rooted in a history of abuse.
Erik and Lyle Menendez. (FOX 11)
Interest in the case has recently been renewed by the release of Netflix’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” and an upcoming documentary, in which the brothers will tell their side of the story.
Last week, nearly two dozen relatives of the brothers held a joint press conference pushing for the release of Erik and Lyle, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.