LOS ANGELES (Reuters)

Lyle and Erik Menendez, serving life sentences for the shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home 35 years ago, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom by video on Tuesday for a key hearing in their bid to win release from prison.

Defence lawyers are seeking a re-sentencing of the brothers, now 57 and 54, that might shorten their prison term to time already served or make them eligible to be considered for parole.

The outcome could hinge on fresh defence evidence in support of the brothers’ assertion since the early days of the sensational case that they had been sexually abused by their father, a record company and entertainment industry executive.

The brothers were found guilty in 1996 of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life in prison terms without the possibility of parole for shooting to death their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, as the couple watched television in the family room of their home.

The brothers, dressed in blue jail garb, appeared in court via video camera from the San Diego prison where they are incarcerated, as they have done during a series of previous hearings.

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon petitioned for a re-sentencing last autumn, citing the new sexual abuse evidence and the brothers’ clean prison records.

Gascon said the pair had paid their debt to society and should be eligible for parole under the state’s youthful offender statute since they were younger than 26 at the time of their offence. Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.

But Gascon’s successor as DA, Nathan Hochman, opposed the re-sentencing after taking office earlier this year, arguing that the brothers have yet to fully acknowledge and accept responsibility for the killings.

Taking the stand on Tuesday to testify on the brothers’ behalf, their first cousin Anamaria Baralt, 54, said the two “are universally forgiven” by everyone on both sides of their family.

“They are different men from the boys that they were when they committed these crimes,” she testified.

Baralt has been a leading advocate for the brothers’ release and said they were like her own siblings growing up.

Questioned by defence lawyer Mark Geragos about whether she felt the brothers would ever commit another violent crime, Baralt answered: “There’s no chance. I would bet my life on it. I would welcome them into my home with my children.”

Under prosecutor Habib Balian’s cross-examination, however, she answered, “Yes,” when asked whether she would have given the same assessment before the murders.

CONVICTED AFTER TWO TRIALS

The brothers’ 1996 conviction capped the second of two highly publicised trials – the first ended in a hung jury – focusing attention on the darker sides of wealth and privilege.

Before their arrest, the brothers had claimed to have come home from the movies to find their parents slain by intruders.

At trial they admitted to committing the killings but insisted they did so out of fear that their parents were about to kill them following years of sexual abuse by their father and emotional battering by their mother.

Prosecutors argued that the murders were coldly calculated and motivated by greed, namely the brothers’ desire to inherit their parents’ multimillion-dollar fortune.

The result of the re-sentencing hearing, expected to last two days, could turn on new defence evidence, including a letter Erik Menendez purportedly wrote to a cousin eight months before the killings, in which he described sexual abuse by his father.

The defence also points to allegations from a member of the 1980s pop band Menudo, who said he was abused by Jose Menendez. The allegations were highlighted in a 2023 Peacock documentary series about the case, while a nine-part Netflix drama and a documentary film last autumn also renewed public interest.