Why were there multiple trials? Lyle and Erik Menendez leave the courtroom in Santa Monica, California, on Aug. Shortly after police confiscated recordings of the brothers' therapy sessions which contained incriminating information, and about seven months after the murders, the couple's oldest son, Lyle Menendez, was arrested on March 8, 1990.Įrik Menendez surrendered to authorities three days later, and both brothers made their first appearance in court on March 12. However, the Menendez brothers' financial behavior following the slayings began to attract the attention of investigators: Lyle Menendez bought a Porsche, a Rolex and thousands of dollars worth of clothing, while Erik Menendez purchased a custom Jeep Wrangler. The brothers are both apparently “Group A” prisoners who have earned special privileges.Investigators described the murders as a "gangland-style killing," the Times reported citing police reports, and detectives suspected the slayings were perpetrated by mobsters or Jose Menendez's business rivals who may have had a grudge. Therefore, today, having accepted that neither of them will probably ever leave California’s prison system, Joseph Lyle Menendez, 53, and Erik Galen Menendez, 50, remain behind bars at the San Diego facility, just happy to be in close proximity. Until that time, they still communicated via letters during that time, even managing to play chess by sending moves to one another. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in April 2018. Lyle and Erik have served the better part of their 31-year incarceration away from each other, only reuniting at the Richard J. I killed the two people I loved the most.” I’m not saying what I did was right or justifiable… But place another child in my life and see what happens… The way I reacted was so destructive to all. Erik, who is shier than his brother when it comes to speaking with the press, expressed a similar regret in 2005, saying, “I don’t deserve. “If I could take my consciousness now and go back, I would have gone to the police and taken my chances in exposing what was happening,” Lyle admitted to ABC7 News in 2018. And while they maintain their sexual abuse story, the prosecutors and the media have painted them to be greedy rich kids who were hoping to get their hand of their parents’ fortune for their own benefits. Since then, they have exhausted almost all their appeal processes, and the chances of them receiving a new trial have diminished to nearly nothing. Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and of conspiracy to commit murder, resulting in them getting sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thus, they later stood a combined trial, where they were eventually found guilty. The brothers were tried separately at first, but both their juries deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial. On the other hand, they portrayed their mother as a selfish addict who turned a blind eye to her husband’s abuses. Their defense was that José was a pedophile who took advantage of both his sons at different times. When the brothers stood trial for the charges against them, they alleged a lifetime of abuse at their parents’ hands, particularly their father, to be the driving force for them to commit murder. Lyle was taken into custody on March 8, 1990, whereas Erik turned himself in three days later. However, it was only when Erik confessed to his psychologist that the brothers were arrested. Furthermore, as Lyle, then 21, and Erik, then 18, went on an exorbitant shopping spree in the months after the slayings, spending nearly $700,000 on cars, clothes, condos, and branded watches, it only added to the doubts that they were somehow involved. Initially, because of how brutal the crime scene was, rumors of it being a mob hit came to light, but as time passed by, the police began suspecting the brothers. On August 20, 1989, José and Kitty were shot to death in their mansion, with Lyle and Erik calling 911 shortly after to report the double homicide. But, as it soon turned out, their wealthy upbringing was not all sunshine and roses. After all, their father, José Menendez, was a LIVE Entertainment executive, and their mother, Mary “Kitty,” was a full-time homemaker after working as a school teacher. Born on January 10, 1968, and November 27, 1970, respectively, Joseph Lyle Menendez and Erik Galen Menendez are brothers who grew up in a lavish surrounding in New Jersey and Beverly Hills, California.
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