Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman met with the families of Lyle and Erik Menendez on Friday as the new top cop weighs up the brothers.
The meeting and subsequent news conference came after the Menendez family called for a new sentence that “reflects Erik and Lyle’s abuse, trauma and proven rehabilitation over the past 35 years.”
“As we prepare to meet with Prosecutor Hochman, our family hopes for an open and honest conversation,” the family said in a statement released Thursday night before the meeting with Hochman. “Despite the abuse they suffered as children and the injustice of their current sentence, Erik and Lyle Menendez have spent the past three decades taking responsibility for their actions and contributing positively to their community through leadership and rehabilitation.”
The brothers are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents at their Beverly Hills, California, mansion. The case returned to the national spotlight after former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón expressed his support for the charge.
BADNESS OF THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS PUSHED AWAY, JUDGE WATCHES AT THE END OF JANUARY
Lyle, left, and Erik, right, are shown in photos from 2023. After years apart, they were moved into the same housing unit at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, according to the New York Daily News. (California Department of Corrections)
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit with defense attorney Leslie Abramson, right, in Beverly Hills Municipal Court during a hearing on November 26, 1990. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
At the press conference, the newly sworn in district attorney he said the meeting with the family was “productive”.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“It was a very productive session where they gave me all of their thoughts on what should happen in this case, their experiences that they wanted to share, the directions that they wanted this case to go,” Hochman said. “It was a very productive conversation over several hours.”
Nathan Hochman speaks during a press conference in Los Angeles on September 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
The district attorney said his office is working diligently to review thousands of pages of transcripts and court files from the case.
“Right now, the re-sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 30th and 31st. That date is the date we’re working against. And if that changes, we’ll be sure to let you know,” he said. “We will continue to do this difficult but important work of reviewing the legal facts in order to make the right decision in this case.”
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
Hochman said his office expects a decision by the Jan. 30 hearing date.
WATCH ON FOX NATION: THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: VICTIMS OR VILLAINS?
Hochman did not reveal what he was talking about with familysaying it was an “informal, informal conversation”.
“We will spend the necessary time to make the right decision,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of free time in my life right now, but that’s okay. I didn’t apply for a job that said I would have a lot of free time.”
