Menendez brothers’ new sentence ignores Kitty’s brutal execution, lawyer says

The Los Angeles district attorney’s decision to grant two convicted murderers, the menendez brothersThe opportunity to get out of prison despite sentences of life without parole has perplexed a Florida counterpart who noted the premeditated brutality Erik and Lyle Menendez inflicted on his mother.

On August 20, 1989, the brothers entered their parents’ Beverly Hills mansion with shotguns and opened fire while José Menéndez and Mary “Kitty” Menéndez were eating in front of the television in their living room at 10:30 p.m.

“I don’t think there’s enough discussion about the murder of Kitty, the mother of the Menendez brothers,” Palm Beach State’s Attorney Dave Aronberg told Fox News Digital. “There is no credible allegation that she was involved in sexual abuse and from what we know…both parents were sitting on the couch, back to back, watching television (and) eating ice cream while the two brothers walked up behind them and they murdered them.”

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Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, right, shakes hands with members of the Menendez family after addressing the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez at a news conference at the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. Angeles on October 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damián Dovarganes)

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who faces a tough reelection bid in less than two weeks, invited the media and some relatives of the Menendez brothers to his announcement Thursday afternoon, when he declared “the new sentence is appropriate” and vowed to ask a court to make the brothers immediately eligible for parole.

They have been locked up for more than 30 years with life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 1989 double murder.

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Lyle and Erik Menendez, center, sit with defense attorney Leslie Abramson in Beverly Hills Municipal Court during a hearing, Nov. 26, 1990. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

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After killing their father, who they accused of abuse and child abuse, and wounding their mother, they had to go out and look for more projectiles. They reloaded and returned inside to finish her off, in a scene so bloody that a forensic investigator later told Fox News Digital. raised an umbrella to block the blood dripping from the ceiling.

“I understand why the district attorney did what he did in regards to the murder of the father,” Aronberg told Fox News Digital. “The father has been accused of sexually abusing the children, and there is new evidence that this may be true.”

However, there is nothing that can mitigate his mother’s murder, he said.

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Dr. Robert Lawrence of Stockton, California, holds a mannequin illustrating Kitty Menendez’s shotgun wounds during the Menendez brothers’ second murder trial on November 6, 1995. Seated to the right is another mannequin illustrating the wounds by José Menéndez. (Boris Yaro/Los Angeles Times)

“There was so much blood it looked like a mob attack, and Kitty didn’t die right away,” he continued. “She was actually crawling away, trying to save her life, trying to escape. And Lyle Menendez got back in his car, got out and reloaded.”

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While Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, 92, and many other family members have publicly supported a reduced sentence for her killers, her brother, Milton Andersen, 90, vehemently opposes any leniency.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez, speaks as relatives of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers convicted of killing their parents, hold a news conference at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on the 16th October 2024. . (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

“Milton Andersen continues to believe that the sexual abuse allegations were fabricated and false, and believes that the correct verdict was given by the jury and the correct sentence was also given,” his lawyer, Kathleen Cady, told Fox News Digital.

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To make matters worse, although Gascon repeatedly met with VanderMolen’s side, he ignored his brother, Cady said.

“In Florida there is Marsy’s Law, which is written in california and other states where you have to listen to families,” Aronberg said. “You don’t necessarily have to do what the families recommend, but you have to listen to them.”

Snow covers the grave of José and Kitty Menéndez on January 10, 1994 in Princeton, New Jersey. (Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images)

Andersen, through his lawyer, has said he rejects the defense’s allegations of child abuse and agrees with prosecutors in the case, who showed that the brothers spent $700,000 following the death of their parents.

“Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the sexual abuse allegations were made up and were false, and he believes that the jury returned the correct verdict and the correct sentence was also committed,” Cady told Fox News Digital. “One of the concerns for him, and really it should be for everyone, was that at trial the Menendez brothers tried to get two specific witnesses to come and lie for them.”

An undated photo of the Menendez family as they appear on screen during a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 2. Brothers Lyle and Erik were convicted of fatally shooting their parents in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)

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A court would have to approve the new sentence for it to become official, and the parole board would have to approve their release before they could be released.

Andersen’s team is asking the court to reject the new sentence and, in court papers, noted that the brothers tried to convince two friends to lie for them at trial.

Erik Menendez, left, and his brother Lyle listen during a pretrial hearing on December 29, 1992 in Los Angeles after the two pleaded not guilty in the gun death of their wealthy parents, José and María Luisa Menéndez , Beverly Hills, August 1989. California. (Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images)

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Because they were under 26 years old at the time of the murders, under current California law, new sentences of 50 years to life in prison would make them immediately eligible for a parole hearing.

During his briefing Thursday, Gascon also rejected the argument that the father’s abuse suggested the brothers may have committed manslaughter, rather than murder. He said premeditation was too difficult for that defense to overcome.

“They’ve been in prison for almost 35 years,” he said. “I think they have paid their debt to society.”

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Gascón is seeking re-election in less than two weeks and faces a strong challenge from independent candidate Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor.

Critics have called his involvement in the high-profile case a move of political desperation.

However, there is also some public support for the brothers’ release after a series of recent documentaries brought new attention to their case, including one on FOX Nationand the defense presented two new pieces of evidence that could corroborate the brothers’ claim that their father was a child molester.

Fox News’ Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.