Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters Monday that he is seeking to withdraw his predecessor’s motion to have a resentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers – two convicted killers, Erik and Lyle – who hope to be freed from life imprisonment without parole.
He said the brothers have failed to come clean about a motive or display meaningful self-reflection that would warrant a resentencing.
“The self-defense defense was a fabrication,” Hochman said. “They need to admit to that.”
They had previously exhausted all appeals and had no hope of freedom, until a new California law made resentencing hearings possible.
Any reduction could make them immediately eligible for parole. Hochman said the brothers have repeatedly lied about the case, their parents, and their interactions with witnesses.
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This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP, File)
In a statement following Hochman’s remarks, relatives of the brothers who have been pushing for their release accused the DA of holding their family “hostage.”
“He appears fixated on their trauma-driven response to the killings in 1989 with blinders on to the fact they were repeatedly abused, feared for their lives, and have atoned for their actions,” the family saidd in a statement. “How many times do we have to hear the same attempts to bury who they are today and rip us back to that painful time?”
In an 88-page filing, Hochman’s office said prosecutors were ready to proceed with the scheduled resentencing hearings on March 20 and 21 – but would formally ask the court to withdrew the initial resentencing request under former District Attorney George Gascon.
“The basis for that request is that the prior motion did not examine or consider whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight and taken complete responsibility for their crimes by continuing for the past over 30 years to lie about their claims of self-defense, that is, their fear that their mother and father were going to kill them the night of Aug. 20, 1989, justifying the brutal murders of their parents with shotgun blasts through the back of their father’s head, a point-blank blast through their mother’s face, and shots to their kneecaps to stage it as a Mafia killing,” Hochman said.
“As a full examination of the record reveals, the Menendez brothers have never come clean and admitted that they lied about their self-defense as well as suborned perjury and attempted to suborn perjury by their friends for the lies, among others, of their father violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, their mother poisoning the family, and their attempt to get a handgun the day before the murders.”
Read the filing
Hochman noted that jurors had rejected the self-defense claim at trial.
“We are basically, in some ways, offering a path to the Menendez brothers, and here’s what the pathway looks like: If the Menendez brothers, at some point unequivocally, sincerely and fully accept complete responsibility for all their criminal actions, acknowledge that the self-defense defense was phony as their parents weren’t going to kill them the night of August 20th when they murdered them in cold blood, acknowledged that they suborned or attempted to suborn perjury and all the various ways I have outline, if they go ahead and finally come clean with the court, with the public, with the DA’s office, with their own family members, and acknowledge all these lies, and then can be said to have fully and completely accepted responsibility for their actions in the future,” Hochman said. “[Then] the court can weigh these new insights into making a determination as to whether they now qualify for rehabilitation and re sentencing, and the people will do the same.”
The Menendez brothers have never come clean and admitted that they lied about their self-defense as well as suborned perjury and attempted to suborn perjury by their friends for the lies, among others, of their father violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, their mother poisoning the family, and their attempt to get a handgun the day before the murders.
If they don’t, he said, they don’t deserve reduced sentences.
The brothers’ resentencing hearing has been postponed following November’s Los Angeles district attorney election, and was rescheduled to March 20 and 21.
The brothers killed their parents, Mary “Kitty” Menendez and Jose Menendez, with shotguns from behind in their Beverly Hills living room in 1989.
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They claimed self-defense, arguing that they were afraid their father was going to kill them after they threatened to expose him as a child sex abuser.
The brothers are pursuing two other avenues that could set them free – clemency from Gov. Gavin Newsom and a habeas petition seeking new trials, which could result in lesser sentences.
Since then, roughly two dozen relatives have come out in support of their freedom, including Kitty’s sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen, 92.
Her brother, Milton Andersen, was the sole family member who spoke out publicly in opposition to their release. He died on March 3 at the age of 90, according to his attorney – just weeks before his nephews were expected to appear in front of a California judge.
Milton Andersen and his sister, Kitty Menendez, in an undated family photo. Kitty was killed in a 1989 ambush shooting carried out by her own sons. Anderson died earlier this month at the age of 90 as the family’s sole public voice opposing releasing his nephews, Erik and Lyle Menendez, from life imprisonment. (Courtesy of RJ Dreiling)
“Milton Andersen was a devoted and loving husband, father, and grandfather,” attorney RJ Dreiling told Fox News Digital. “He served his country with honor as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. Kitty Menendez wasn’t just his sister—he helped raise her after their father left when they were young. He loved her deeply and missed her every single day.”
Andersen had vehemently opposed a sentence reduction for his nephews and previously told Fox News Digital he does not believe their claims of sex abuse against their father.
Erik Menendez (C) and his brother Lyle (L) are pictured on August 12, 1991 in Beverly Hills. (MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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“It’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed,” his previous attorney, Kathleen Cady, told Fox News Digital at the time. She later recused herself from his case in order to take a new role within the DA’s office.
VanderMolen and other relatives in the pro-clemency faction met with former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon to push for their freedom, but he never met with Andersen.
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Gascon initiated the push for sentence reductions but lost re-election to Nathan Hochman in November. Hochman then met with both sides of the family.
Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez, speaks as family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers convicted of killing their parents, hold a press conference at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, California, U.S., October 16, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Blake)
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“Milton was profoundly grateful that District Attorney Nathan Hochman took the time to personally meet with him,” Dreiling said. “He found comfort in knowing that Hochman was not only well-versed in the facts and the law but also approached their conversation with genuine compassion and concern. DA Hochman’s willingness to listen meant a great deal to Milton in his final days.”
Andersen spent 26 years in the Army and Army Reserve, serving with the 82nd Airborne and U.S. Army Special Forces and retiring as a 1st sergeant, according to an online obituary.
He is survived by his wife, Sandra Rose Andersen, three children, 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
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