Lyle Menendez.Photo:Kim Kulish/Sygma via Getty
Kim Kulish/Sygma via Getty
LyleandErik Menendezdo not dispute that they shot and killed their parents, but in an interview withCBS News’48 Hours,Lyle discusses new evidence that could corroborate claims of abuse, which served as the centerpiece of the brothers’ defense during their infamous murder trials in the 1990s.
The Menendez brothers were convicted of the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in their Beverly Hills mansion. In 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole, following their second trial. At the time of the murders, Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.
“There’s just never been a case of guilt or innocence,” Lyle Menendez tells48 Hours’Natalie Morales in an interview set to air Saturday at 10 p.m. “It was always about why it happened.”
Lyle Menendez.
Prosecutors did not buy the abuse claims, pointing to the fact that when they confessed to the killings in therapy, they didn’t mention the alleged abuse.
But in his interview, Lyle says why they didn’t share those claims at the time.
“Just shame,” he claims. “Just not wanting it to be public.”
In the series, which premiered on Peacock in April 2023, former Menudo member Roy Rosselló alleged that Jose, who was an executive for RCA Records, drugged and raped him in the 1980s.
Erik and Lyle Menendez in 1992.VINCE BUCCI/AFP/Getty
VINCE BUCCI/AFP/Getty
“That’s the man here that raped me,” Rosselló said in the series, when shown a photo of Jose. “That’s the pedophile.”
The petition, which hopes to see the convictions vacated, includes Rosselló’s claim, as well as a recently surfaced letter that attorneys claim that Erik sent to his cousin months before the shooting that detailed Jose’s abuse.
During the brothers’ second trial, prosecutors said theirabuse claims were fabricated, PEOPLE previously reported.
But Cliff Gardner, the attorney who filed the May petition, believes these new claims bolster what the brothers had said all along.
“We now have evidence … that makes absolutely clear that those boys were molested,” Gardner tells48 Hours.“And if those boys were molested … It would’ve been manslaughter, and they would be out.”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage?Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Lyle now says he hopes the latest updates could lead to a reevaluation around the cases.
“You wonder, when will there be a fair review of this?" he tells Morales. “So, maybe now.”
source: people.com
