Erik and Lyle Menendez appeared in a resentment hearing in Los Angeles on Tuesday, when relatives begged the judge to release them by time. The three cousins said they believe the brothers have paid off the debts of society and their release will help end the "generational trauma" that has plagued their families.
“On both sides of the family, we think 35 years is enough,” testified by cousin Anamaria Baralt. “They are universally forgiven by everyone in our family and we really hope they will get a second chance.”
Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, spent the last 35 years in their family’s Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, killing their parents’ shotguns.
During the trial, the brothers said they had suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father and believed that their parents planned to kill them to cover the cover with a dark secret to the family. Prosecutors argued that the brothers resorted to murder to obtain a multimillion-dollar estate out of greed before being cut off their parents’ will.
In Tuesday's testimony, cousin Diane Vandermolen talked about something she told jurors during the fraternity trial. She recalls Lyle's childhood when his father had been harassing him. She also described the “corridor rules” in the Menendez family’s family.
"You don't allow you to walk along the hall when Jose is with one of the boys," she testified. No one dares to challenge Jose because he is incredibly "fabulous." She explained that while Katie was once the second mother and her mentor, Katie's personality "had changed a lot" because she allegedly "had an affair."
"Jose is so powerful. Katie becomes the executor," Van der Moron's soft voice testified. Erik and Lyle are afraid of their parents' bad killings, she said. "They are scared, it's simple and clear."
"They didn't see a way out," she testified. "They now realize that they have other opportunities as they get older."
Los Angeles County Judge Michael Jesic held a pivotal hearing last week after Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman tried to derail. The process was initiated last October by Hochman's more liberal predecessor, George Gascón. Gascon said he considered the brothers’ youthful age when he was killing—Erik 18 and Lyle 21—the model behavior behind the jail. He said they had paid the society “debt” and should be immediately eligible for parole.
Another cousin, Tamara Lucera Goodell, testified Tuesday that the brothers have recovered. She pointed to other inmates’ green spaces, hospice and meditation programs that they have started in prison and asked the judge to reject their life sentence so that Joan Vandermolen, the mom of her bedridden grandmother, Diane, will have the chance to die in person.
"For 35 years, I've been seeing my entire family spiral in different conversations about what happened," she testified. "I watched my grandmother and aunt (Be) get traumatized. This will help them recover."
She said grandmother’s family “has a history of abuse in many forms.”
"My grandmother moved out at the age of 17 so she wouldn't continue the cycle of abuse. (It's hard to) learn that her sister continues the cycle of abuse in the form she and her sisters survived," she said. "(The release) will bring a lot of closures for us all."
Another cousin's mother is Jose's sister, and she said her mother was also very ill and hoped that the two brothers would be released when she was still alive. "Currently, we are borrowing time," she said.
Bharat said her entire adult life was under “ruthless” scrutiny from the highly anticipated homicide. She hopes the brothers’ release will bring recovery.
"For decades, it has been torture to endure this trauma in the eyes of the public," she said. As a relative of the victims of the case and perpetrators, the trauma was 360 degrees."
Bharat said she did not hesitate to support the release. The prosecutor asked whether the brothers had the ability to kill their parents in early 1989 and whether she would guess. But she added that everyone is older and smarter now.
The judge who heard the resentful bid is expected to rule at the end of the scheduled two-day hearing.