Though there’s a lot to think about relating to Erik and Lyle Menendez’s potential launch from jail, one man will decide what that end result may seem like.
The brothers are presently serving life sentences in jail for the 1989 murders of their mother and father Jose and Kitty Menendez. In October 2024, Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, have been on the verge of launch when then-LA District Lawyer George Gascón filed a re-sentencing request that might have probably freed them.
However after Gascón misplaced his bid for re-election, the newly elected district legal professional, Nathan Hochman, isn’t fairly able to open the jail doorways.
True Crime Information journalist Ana Garcia sat down with Hochman, 61, to see which approach the town official is leaning.
“Hochman is a law-and-order kind of guy,” the Emmy award-winning journalist instructed The Publish. “He is radically different from the last DA, so he does believe in punishment for crimes. But he has two cases here where he has to figure out something that has to do with basic fairness.”
A kind of circumstances, as Garcia added, “has to do with this new alleged evidence — if it can be proven that this is truly new evidence.”
The brand new piece of proof is a letter Erik allegedly wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, relaying the torment he felt after years of alleged sexual abuse by the hands of his father.
“He’s a prosecutor and he’s a man of the law,” continued Garcia. “So, we have to figure out — and there are procedures in place. That’s why we’re having a hearing on this filing about this new evidence and what impact it has on that.”
“The other hearing, which is about a sentence reduction, that was initiated by the previous District Attorney,” she defined, noting that for the reason that ball was already rolling, a listening to has to proceed.
“California law says just because there is a change in elected official, it doesn’t mean that the new elected official gets to sign and change everything. The law says he is, by the state of California, required to follow through with this hearing.”
“That doesn’t mean he has to recommend what the previous DA was recommending,” she continued. “But he can’t just toss it out. It must still be heard in a court of law because that’s the way you protect from politics getting in the way of criminal cases.”
The podcast host revealed that Hochman instructed her he’s presently “preparing documentation for two different court hearings.”
The 2 hearings are scheduled to begin in March.
As for why it’s taken a little bit of time for Lyle and Erik to get their day in courtroom, once more?
“The new DA told me that he is taking his time, that he’s trying to review everything and that’s why we’ve had these delays. I think this is the second or the third delay now in these hearings because he needs time to prepare.”
“I asked him, how is he leaning. He wouldn’t say anything, but he did say he met with members of the Menendez family and he has taken his time to hear their side of things,” Garcia shared. “Remember, they hold a very unique position in all of this. They are family members of the murder victims and yet they are the family members of the two convicted killers. So, they have a very strong voice.”
Which, in Garcia’s thoughts, may assist, but it surely won’t be as highly effective of a stance because it as soon as was.
“They had, perhaps a stronger voice under the old DA,” the anchor famous, “but I think this District Attorney just got into office, Los Angeles has been on fire, and he needs to make sure that he sees all of the records and the files and the stuff that is not public.”
“So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to say, ‘Hey, I just need a little time to go over the record to make the best decision and recommendation to the court possible.’”
