A California judge has delayed the highly anticipated resentencing hearing for Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez, two Beverly Hills brothers serving life without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents.
Outgoing Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon asked the court to reduce their sentences less than two weeks before Election Day – then he lost to independent candidate Nathan Hochman, who takes office on Dec. 2.
Judge Michael Jesic said he likely wouldn’t be ready for the previously scheduled Dec. 11 hearing and said he would push it back to late January “out of respect for the new administration” after both sides agreed.
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Defense Attorney Mark Geragos said he expects the hearing to take more than a day in court.
Both sides tentatively agreed to January 30-31, but the judge did not formally set it in the calendar.
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Due to a technical glitch, the brothers did not appear virtually as expected. Geragos waived their right to appear while the court addressed scheduling.
Two witnesses were still expected to testify Monday due to health concerns – including the brothers’ 93-year-old aunt, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, who is their mother’s sister.
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Mary “Kitty” Menendez was sitting alongside her husband Jose when the brothers barged into their living room and shotgunned them from behind while they were eating ice cream and watching TV. Jose died quickly, but the brothers had to go outside and get more ammunition to finish off their mother.
The brothers later claimed self-defense, arguing they were afraid their father would kill them because they planned to expose him as a child sex abuser.
While two dozen relatives have sided with the brothers in their quest for reduced sentences, Kitty and VanderMolen’s brother, Milton Andersen, remains vehemently opposed to their release.
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“It’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed,” his attorney, Kathleen Cady, told Fox News Digital.
Hochman, a moderate who rejected Gascon’s soft-on-crime approach to running the DA’s office, has pledged to thoroughly review the case before taking a stance on whether he will continue with the resentencing push begun by his predecessor.
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A separate habeas corpus petition is also making its way through the court, which would be an additional path to freedom if successful.
Their petition is based on newly emerged evidence in support of their allegations of child abuse against their father – a corroborating letter of unconfirmed origin and the word of Roy Rosello, a former Menudo member who said he too had been abused by Jose Menendez as a child.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also declined to grant a clemency petition for the brothers – at least for now – stating he would defer to Hochman’s pending review of the case before making a decision.
This is a developing story.
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