OAN Staff Abril Elfi
6:34 PM – Tuesday, May 13, 2025
A Los Angeles judge has resentenced the Menendez brothers to 50 years to life in prison for the 1989 murders of their parents, revisiting the high-profile case that has captivated the public for decades.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced Erik and Lyle Menendez’s sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life.
After resentencing the brothers, Judge Jesic said he had given the matter “long thought,” emphasizing that the two had committed a “absolutely horrific crime, and there’s no way around it.” However, he also noted that he was moved by the brothers’ community-driven works whilst in jail.
“Life without parole gives an inmate no hope, no reason to do anything good. And I give them a lot of credit. It’s remarkable what they did when they had no hope of getting out,” Jesic said.
The two brothers have already admitted to killing their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez. Nonetheless, they claimed at the time that it was done in “self-defense” after years of sexual abuse.
“I killed my mom and dad. I make no excuses and also no justification,” Lyle said in a statement to the court. “The impact of my violent actions on my family … is unfathomable.”
Prosecutors have argued that the pair should not be released, arguing that they had planned the shotgun killings in order to access their parents’ fortune.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the Menendez brothers gave an emotional statement via video.
The brothers’ cousin, Anamaria Baralt, who has been close with them since they were children, told the judge that her two cousins deserved a “second chance at life.”
“It’s been a nightmare,” she said. “I am desperate for this process to be over.”
The trial resurfaced in May 2023, when the brothers’ attorneys filed a Habeas Corpus petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court, requesting a fresh trial based on new evidence.
The new evidence included a letter by Erik. It was written eight months before the killings and it mentions the purported ongoing molestation, as well as Roy Rosselló’s claims that the boys’ father, José, an entertainment executive at the time, drugged and raped him when he was a younger man — in the 1980s.
Rosselló, who was part of the boy band “Menudo,” still maintains that he was raped by their father in the 1980s — seemingly corroborating the brothers’ arguments regarding the abuse.
By October 2024, the brothers obtained the support of then-Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who formally urged that they be resentenced to 50 years to life, putting them immediately eligible for parole.
However, Gascón lost the November election to District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who later reversed his resentencing recommendation.
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