In a jailhouse interview in 2017, Lyle Menendez described to NBCLA what his true state of mind was when he and his brother killed their parents.
As a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Friday ruled that the resentencing request for the Erik and Lyle Menendez can go forward, the Beverly Hills brothers are pursuing legal avenues that could lead to reduced sentence and possibly even a release from prison after 35 years behind bars.
Judge Michael Jesic denied LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s petition to withdraw the original resentencing request put forward by the previous DA, George Gascon.
During the upcoming resentencing hearing on April 17 and 18, prosecutors will argue that the brothers have not taken full responsibility for the shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty.
The defense attorneys for the Menendez brothers will focus on their rehabilitation and behavior during their decades of incarceration.
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In September 2017, Lyle Menendez gave NBCLA an extensive interview from jail, addressing, at length, many of the issues that could come up in the resentencing and clemency proceedings.
Lyle, the older of the two brothers, described his state of mind when he and Erik repeatedly opened fire on their parents as they were seated watching TV on the night of Aug. 20, 1989.
Lyle said his father had threatened to kill them if they reported him to authorities for alleged rape and sexual abuse, which the brothers claimed had been going on for years.
Describing his slain father in the present tense, Lyle said Jose Menendez was a "very brutal man."
"I don't think there’s any chance that he was going to sit through a child molestation trial where he was a defendant," Lyle said in 2017, adding his father did not make idle threats. "I don’t think he was going to allow my brother to ruin his life, his career and what he had made for himself.”
In the summer of 1989, Erik had been living at home, and Lyle had returned from college.
Speaking about the night of the shooting, Lyle said he and his brother's lives were definitely on the line.
He went on to explain, however, that because his parents were “clearly unarmed” the threat was not imminent on the night of the murders.
“Clearly not that moment, that day. In the end I’m understanding that, in the aftermath," he explained.
In 2017, Lyle appeared to still hold onto the anger against his mother, who he said was complicit about the sexual abuse he claims had gone on for years.
“My mother had made a series of choices, choosing her husband over her children,” Lyle said, adding while he was not sexually abused by Kitty, he saw his mother and father as co-perpetrators. “It was such a betrayal for me. There was no separating my mother from my father at that point for me.”
During NBCLA’s nearly 90-minute interview with Lyle, Reporter Robert Kovacik asked if Lyle was aware of reporting that Lyle’s father, Jose, may also have been a victim of childhood sexual abuse.
Lyle said his father’s past of being a victim did not soothe his pain nor exonerate him from the brutality.
“I don’t believe I would molest any children I had. Thousands of adults who were abused as children, as they wrote to me, and they don’t molest their children,” Lyle said.
Mark Geragos, the attorney representing the Menendez brothers, said he hopes the state will resentence the brothers or grant clemency based on their life and behavior in prison.
As LA County's resentencing hearing for Lyle and Erik Menendez is scheduled for April 17 ad 18, the brothers are also scheduled for California Board of Parole Hearing on June 13.
What the full interview with Lyle Menendez below.
