The Menendez Brothers Trial

By Sophie Planos

    On August 20, 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were watching television in their den at their Beverly Hills home when their two sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez came into the den with loaded shotguns and killed their parents. Jose was shot six times, and Kitty was shot ten times in total. After the murders, the oldest brother Lyle called the police to report the murders and said that someone had broken in and killed the parents while they were out watching Batman. At that time the sons were not arrested or treated as suspects. 

    After the parents were killed the sons went on several shopping sprees, buying expensive designer clothes, Rolex watches, and cars worth a thousand dollars. Because of this, the world and media said the boys killed their parents for their multimillion-dollar estate and their money. When in reality, the boys said they did it out of self-defense after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from them. 

    In October 1989, Erik confessed to his therapist, L. Jerome Oziel what happened. Oziel ended up telling his mistress, Judalon Smyth, about the confession and she ultimately went to the police in March 1990 after the two had broken up. Within a week, the Menendez brothers were arrested. Smyth testified in the 1993 trial that Oziel said he ¨needed to get them to say incriminating things on a tape so we would have the tape to protect us. 

    Lyle was arrested first on March 8, 1990, followed by Erik, who turned himself in after flying back from Israel three days later. In July of 1993, the brothers went on trial, each with a separate jury. The trial was televised on Court TV. Prosecutors argued that the two brothers killed their parents for financial gain. The brothers’ defenses admitted they killed their parents, but argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse by their father. 

    In January of 1994, both juries were deadlocked and could not reach a verdict. In October of 1995, a retrial of the brothers began, with one jury. This time around, much of the defense evidence about sexual abuse is excluded, according to defense attorneys. Some of the evidence includes pictures of the brothers’ naked bodies at 6 and 8 years old which had their heads cut off and focused on their genitals. The envelope that contained the pictures had kitty´s handwriting on it that read ¨Eriks 6th birthday¨.