LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California judge has rejected a request for a new trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, shutting down another possible path to freedom for the brothers who have served decades in prison for killing their parents in 1989 at their Beverly Hills mansion.
The ruling Monday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan comes just weeks after the brothers were denied parole. Ryan denied a May 2023 petition seeking a review of their convictions based on new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father.
Evidence that “slightly corroborates” the allegations that the brothers were sexually abused does not negate the fact that the pair acted with "premeditation and deliberation" when they carried out the killings, Ryan wrote.
“The evidence alleged here is not so compelling that it would have produced a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror or supportive of an imperfect self-defense instruction,” the judge wrote.
Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the brothers, wouldn't immediately comment on the judge's ruling.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman praised Ryan's decision, saying that the judge agreed with prosecutors who have maintained that the petition's claims were deficient and baseless. Hochman said at a Tuesday news conference that he expects the brothers to appeal the judge's decision.
“And I trust that the appellate courts will reach the same result that Judge Ryan has reached here and find it utterly meritless,” he said.
A panel of two commissioners on Aug. 22 denied Lyle Menendez parole for three years after a daylong hearing. Commissioners noted the older brother still displayed "anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule-breaking that lie beneath that positive surface.”
Erik Menendez, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, was similarly denied parole a day earlier after commissioners determined that his misbehavior in prison made him still a risk to public safety.
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion almost exactly 36 years ago on Aug. 20, 1989. While defense attorneys argued that the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers sought a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
A judge reduced their sentences in May, and they became immediately eligible for parole. The parole hearings marked the closest they have come to winning freedom since their convictions almost 30 years ago.
Another path to freedom could come from clemency petitions that are still pending before Gov. Gavin Newsom.