Sources Tell VF the Menendez Brothers May Be Headed for Freedom

The Menendez brothers may be closer to freedom.

A source close to the case says that Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón will recomending the re-sentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez, with an eye toward releasing them. It’s said that Gascón is planning a press conference at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, and has invited the brothers’ extended family to be in attendance. If he does in fact make the recommendation, a judge would then preside over a hearing. Gascón did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair’s request for a comment.

The brothers have spent 34 years in custody without the possibility of parole, but this could be the beginning of the end of their sensational case. Erik and Lyle were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, with shotguns in the den of their Beverly Hills home in 1996. At their trials, the prosecution said they acted out of greed. The defense argued that the brothers killed their parents because Jose had sexually abused them, and that they feared for their lives. The details of the murders were harrowing , as was the testimony of the molestation allegedly suffered.

According to the sources, Erik and Lyle’s extended family were invited to attend Wednesday’s announcement by the D.A. Among those believed to be coming are the brothers’ nonagenarian aunt, Joan VanderMolen; her children, Diane, Arnie, and Kathy VanderMolen, and her grandson Erik Vandermolen. Kitty and Joan’s brothers, Milton Anderson and Brian Anderson, are not expected be in attendance. Unlike much of the family they have said that they don’t believe that Erik and Lyle were abused.

The Menendez case first roared back to life on TikTok during the pandemic, when Court TV re-released all its episodes of the first trial. Public fascination reached new heights in September, after the release of Ryan Murphy’s hit show on Netflix, Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story, and the case is once again a pop culture phenomenon. This time earnest Menendez supporters who believe Erik and Lyle should not have been charged with first degree murder are posting on social media and signing petitions, while those who believe the brothers should serve out their sentences post make their case in the TikTok and Instagram comment threads. the story has inspired tabloid ephemera like the T-shirts that can be found on Etsy: one is emblazoned with a photo of the brothers and the words “Nightmare on Elm Street” in bright red letters—their former home is on Elm Drive in Beverly Hills— another reads “Dimes, dimes, dimes,” a reference to a montage of Lyle frantically trying to make phone calls from in Murphy’s show.

Under Penal Code 1172.1, the DA can consider whether someone who was convicted suffered “preconviction psychological trauma or physical abuse, if they were given a harsh sentence compared to other cases, and whether or not he or she would be a threat to society. “The point of resentencing is to help us undo the crazy things that happened in the nineties,” says Menendez attorney Mark Geragos. Erik and Lyle’s first trial, during which sexual abuse testimony was admitted, resulted in a hung jury. Judge Stanley Weisberg wouldn’t allow the brothers’ attorney Leslie Abramson to present evidence that they were molested in their second trial.

In May of 2023, Cliff Gardener, the brothers’ other lawyer, and Geragos notified the D.A. that there was new evidence in the case: most strikingly, a letter Erik allegedly wrote to his cousin, Andy Cono, that says he was still being raped by his father eight months before the murders, along with a statement by former Menudo band member Roy Roselló saying that he was drugged and raped by Jose when he was 13 or 14. At a press conference on October 3rd, Gascón said that he hadn’t made up his mind yet: “We are reviewing the new information, but I think it’s also important that we recognize that both men and women can be the victims of sexual assault. ”

When Gascón ran for DA in 2019, he promised to make “justice more just.” He’s currently in a tight re-election race against Nathan Hochman. Voting will take place on November 5th.

It’s unlikely the family will find out what Gascon has to say before Wednesday, but Joan VanderMolen tells me that Erik and Lyle are aware that the press conference is taking place. VanderMolen says that Erik called his aunt Kathy from prison late last week to urge her to find someone to cover for her at work so she could be present for DA’s announcement.

VanderMolen has been standing by her nephews since their arrest in 1990, and is nervous about what Gascon will say. “What if it’s not that they’ll be released?” she asked this reporter on Saturday. It seems unlikely that the D.A. would ask a 92-year-old with constant back pain to travel over an hour to Los Angeles only to say that he thinks her nephews should spend the rest of their lives in prison. Hearing this, Joan said, “Thank you,” and released a shaky sigh. “I really needed to hear that.”

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