New Los Angeles DA asks to withdraw prior DA’s motion for resentencing in Menedez brothers’ case

March 10, 2025

As reported in this ABC News piece, “Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Monday he’s asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense part of a litany of ‘lies’.” Here is more:

“We are prepared to go forward” with the hearing regarding their resentencing case, Hochman said at a news conference Monday. “However, we are asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing, because we believe there are legitimate reasons and the interests of justice justifies that withdrawal.”

The resentencing hearing is set for March 20 and 21.

The request to withdraw the resentencing motion is “based on the current state of the record and the Menendez brothers’ current and continual failure to show full insight and accept full responsibility for their murders,” Hochman said in a statement. “If they were to finally come forward and unequivocally and sincerely admit and completely accept responsibility for their lies of self-defense and the attempted suborning of perjury they engaged in, then the Court should weigh such new insight into the analysis of rehabilitation and resentencing — as will the People.”

Hochman said his decision comes after reviewing trial transcripts from both trials, prison records and videotaped trial testimony, as well as meeting with Menendez family members, defense attorneys and past prosecutors. Hochman stressed the premeditation, noting the brothers drove to San Diego days before the murders to buy guns with a fake ID and on the night of the murders, they planned an alibi and went to buy movie tickets, he said….

Hochman said the brothers told 20 lies and admitted to four; he said 16 lies remain “unacknowledged.” Hochman stressed the brothers changed their story multiple times…. The “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,” the DA said in a statement.

The court needs to “analyze whether the Menendez brothers’ lack of full insight and lack of complete responsibility for their murders overcomes … the other factors justifying a resentencing like the Menendez’ length of time in prison, their age at the time of the murders, their upbringing and any sexual abuse they experienced, their extensive rehabilitation efforts in prison including getting educational degrees and involvement in community and prison programs, any supportive letters from prison officials and victim family members, their health, and the low prison risk score,” Hochman said.

Lyle and Erik Menendez are serving life without the possibility of parole. In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence….

Besides resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom. One is their habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.

The third path to freedom is through the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. On Feb. 26, Newsom announced that he’s ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released. “There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom said. “But this process simply provides more transparency … as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”

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