Menendez brothers score crucial legal victory in decades-long fight as they await potential freedom
The pair, who admitted to killing their parents, Mary "Kitty" and Jose Menendez, in a bloody 1989 shotgun massacre inside their Beverly Hills home, claimed for years that their actions were self-defense stemming from a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse.
A July 8 court order obtained by Fox News Digital will force the state to explain why evidence to that effect was barred from their trial.
About eight months before the double-homicide, Erik allegedly wrote a letter to his cousin, Andy Cano, claiming that Jose had sexually abused him and Lyle.
Further, an affidavit from Roy Rossello, a member of a boy band called Menudo, claimed Jose, a record executive, raped him when he was a 14-year-old boy in 1983 or 1984. Rossello made the claim almost 40 years after the alleged rape.
In March 2023, the brothers filed a habeas petition claiming that if they had been allowed to use the Cano letter as evidence, and if Rossello's claim had been made before and presented at their second trial, a jury would not have convicted them.
In an informal response to that petition, filed by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman's office in February of this year, prosecutors denied that the letter and the affidavit constituted new evidence. They said that the Cano letter was "untimely." They also said the Rossello affidavit was "inadmissible, immaterial, and lacks credibility."
But the July 8 order, handed down by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan, said that the letter and the affidavit constitute a prima facie showing that the brothers are entitled to habeas relief.
The district attorney's office is now subject to a "show cause" response in the next 30 days. In their response, Hochman's office must explain why the brothers' habeas relief should not be granted.
The brothers sought a new trial in 2023, but have since shifted their focus to their own resentencing, which they were granted in May. Judge Michael Jesic resentenced the brothers to 50 years to life with the possibility of parole. They were previously serving life without parole.
Since, the brothers have been eagerly awaiting that parole hearing. After it was initially scheduled for June 13, it was postponed until August 21 and 22.
They have spent 35 years behind bars.
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