Amid a growing effort to free Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989, the brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, speaks with NBC4 about the movement. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024.
In the case of the Menendez brothers, not all murder victims feel the same about what happened on the fateful night of Aug. 20, 1989 inside a Beverly Hills mansion.
While the sisters of Jose and Kitty Menendez believe their nephews, Lyle and Erik, shot and killed their own parents out of fear of their father, Kitty’s brother has taken the entirely opposite stance on the issue.
Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, said through an attorney that his nephews’ “cold-blooded actions shattered their family.”
“Mr. Anderson believes that the reason that his nephews murdered Kitty and her husband was because of greed,” said Kathy Cady, Andersen’s attorney, adding that the brothers had learned that their father, Jose, was planning to take them out of the will.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
“He prefers that (the Menendez brothers) stay in prison because he believes that’s what justice requires,” Cady said.
Andersen's sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, was among a dozen people who gathered in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday to hold a news conference, expressing support for their release from prison.
On the controversial question over whether the Menendez brothers were sexually molested by their father, Milton Andersen also sided with previous prosecutors’ opinion that rape never happened.
Les Zoeller, the Beverly Hill Police Department detective who investigated Jose and Kitty’s murders, also said previously that there was no evidence of rape and sexual molestation.
“It is a big fairy tale,” Zoeller, who died in 2021, told NBC Los Angeles in 2017. “They murdered the best witnesses we had.”
The Menendez brothers’ uncle also blasted Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, saying the decision to consider the possible release of the brothers from prison is politically motivated.
“(Gascón) is certainly concerned that it’s not about justice,” Cady said. “This case is in a court of law. It’s not in a court of public opinion.”
Cady claimed previous Los Angeles district attorneys, including “the previously assigned prosecutor” kept Andersen up to date with any developments on the Menendez case until Gascón took office.
“To hear about what's going on in your sister's murder case, essentially from the media, is really inappropriate. and it lacks complete and utter respect for victims' rights,” Andersen’s attorney said.
Gascón said Wednesday a decision on the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez could be coming "within the next 10 days or so."
A new hearing is scheduled for Nov. 26.
“Mr. Andersen is now 90 years old. He's lived through many, many years without his sister. And he certainly deserves that whatever decision is made that it be done for the right reasons,” Andersen’s attorney said.
