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[Music] you have a prepaid call from Lyle Menendez my name is ly Menendez I'm at
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parg Donovan State Prison in San Diego California and I am here for killing my parents my brother and I were convicted
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together first-degree murder verdicts for both Eric and Lyall Menendez excuse us this is a special report from the
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vanise courthouse both Menendez brothers have been found guilty how big a deal was the Menendez case well when you
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think back it was huge the Mendez family was very wealthy this was Beverly Hills
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murders just don't typically happen Kitty was my baby sister there was a brutal murder everyone from the gardener to the
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president had a view of what happened I'm Jackie Lacy I'm the former elected district attorney of Los Angeles County
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a couple was sitting around watching TV when their adult sons came in with shotguns and slaughtered them what did
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these parents do to deserve that there must be a reason but just never been a kid of kill or innocence it was always
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about why it happened Jose Menendez was the self-made millionaire he was very driven very
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demanding the prosecutions theory was they got tired of their lives being micromanaged they wanted to spend the
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money the way they wanted to spend the money they were buying Rolex watches they were buying real estate the way
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that they acted was not like oh my goodness my parents are dead it was soulless it was strictly Greed from day
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one you believe they wanted a portion of the money they wanted it all my name is Cliff
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Gardner I represent Eric and ly Menendez it's not a complex case it's a simple case they abused their whole life my dad
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had been molesting me he B me did you ask him not to yes the brothers were claiming that
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we were molested by our father when we threaten to go public they threaten to kill us and so we had to go in and kill
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them before they killed us I thought he was going to kill me that night I never saw anything in the home never I have
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got to think that there was their attorney ideas that if your only way you're going to save your ass is to say
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that you were molested and that's what they did it's divided the family immensely I love my cousins they
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shouldn't have gone through what they went through they're not lying they were being abused
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as you sit there in prison there is some news now that could really impact you and your brother's case right yes that's
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pretty just sort of shocking former Mano singer Roy roselo claims he was drugged and raped by Jose
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Menendez in the mid 80s menudo had just signed with RCA records where Menendez was a top executive we now have evidence
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that makes absolutely clear that those boys were molested and if those those boys were molested it would have been
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manslaughter and they would be out the judge in this case if he finds that the New Evidence is credible and
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the conviction should be vacated do you think the DA's office would seek a new trial I think they would spend a lot of
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time thinking about it 34 years of incarceration you wonder when world have Fair review of this so
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maybe now my hope in the case is that they'll finally walk out of prison [Music]
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[Music] Lyall and Eric Menendez have been behind bars in California for more than three
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decades for the 1989 killing of their parents Jose and kitty Menendez convicted of first-degree murder and
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sentenced to life in prison I really can't in a case that captured the nation's attention they had no hope of ever
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walking free but new evidence may change that Eric chose not to speak with us for
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this broadcast but Lyle did you have a prepaid call from Lyle Menendez this call and your telephone number will be
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monitored and recorded hi Lyle can you hear me hi yeah I can hear you what did you think when you heard about these new
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claims and evidence I mean for me I just was happy just a burden to be telling what happened to and just have so much
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doubt in the public a the question is not whether the Menendez brothers killed their parents they admit that they did
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instead the focus of the case has long been why they did it they insist that they killed out of fear and in
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self-defense after a lifetime of physical emotional and and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of their parents
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one of their lawyers Cliff Gardner says the New Evidence corroborates those claims and lessens their culpability if
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the judge finds this evidence credible I think it is sufficient to give them a new
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trial but to understand how we got here we have to go back to the beginning the evening of August 20th
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1989 when Lyall Menendez made this call to 911 from the the family's Beverly Hills mansion Beverly Hills emergency
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yes please uh what's the problem Sor K my parents pardon me after officers responded to the scene
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then 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Eric reported that they had arrived home to find their parents shot to death in
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the family room Jackie Lacy was a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles at the
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time I think one of the Beverly Hills detective is described it as one of the most brutal crime scene he had ever seen
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in his life I've been in this business for over 33 years and I've heard of very few murders that were more Savage than
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this one was Jose Menendez a former top executive at RCA records and his wife Kitty had been shot multiple times at
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close range with a shotgun it was an expression of hatred for these two people and that was the last time I saw
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alive Milton Anderson Kitty's older brother still remembers receiving the news my brother called me and he said
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that kitty and Jose were were dead I loved her sister Kitty was a very ambitious girl she was a very beautiful
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woman Kitty and Jose met when they were in college in Illinois Jose had come to the US from Cuba they went on to marry
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and start a family like and Eric were their only children over the years with Kitty by his side Jose excelled in his
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career working for RCA records among other major companies he was going right up the ladder without any hesitation at
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the time of his death Jose was working for a film studio running their home video division investigators initially
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suspected that the killings may have been tied to his business dealings Lyall sort of indicated you know my dad dealt
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with Shady characters and once you say something like that detectives are going to start to look at okay what were his
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business contacts family members and investigators wondered whether it may have been Mafia related at the time the
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home video industry was known for having ties to the Mob everybody said it was a
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mob headit because it was so brutal it it really was like a scene out of The Godfather movies initially Lyall and
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Eric Menendez were not even on investigators radar they didn't do any gunshot residue test on their hands they
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let him go back and get evidence without even thinking hey could it have been the
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kids but they didn't stay off investigators radar for long their behavior in the wake of the crime
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eventually Drew scrutiny the brothers appeared to be spending their parents' money and lots of it they were investing
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in businesses they acted like they had won the lottery and their Behavior at their
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parents Memorial Services raised some eyebrows at the podium L read a letter from Jose there was filled with love and
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pride for his sons did you see Lyall get emotional as he was reading that letter
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no l also made a statement that his father always said you can never fill my shoes and he jokingly said guess what
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I'm wearing my father's shoes today struck you as odd that he would say something like that I was very odd while
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all that may have seemed unusual it wasn't hard evidence but then about 6 months later police got a tip from an
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unlikely Source the girlfriend of a psychologist who Lyle and Eric Menendez had been talking to she told police that
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the brothers had confessed to the killings in therapy and there was an audio taped recording of it but for that
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confession who knows knows whether they've ever been caught on March 8th 1990 after police got their hands on
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that tape ly Menendez was taken into custody Eric Menendez who was out of the country at the time surrendered to
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police days later not many Hollywood murder mysteries ever took a more dramatic turn than police are describing
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in a couple of savage Beverly Hills killings police say the motive was apparently money a 14 million
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inheritance to be shared by the brothers but years later when the case made its way to trial the brothers would
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make it clear that it might not be so simple in August 20th 1989 did you and your brother kill your
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mother and father why did you kill your parents cuz we were afraid [Music] in the summer of
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1993 nearly four years after Jose and kitty Menendez were gunned down in their home their sons Lyle and Eric Menendez
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went on trial they face the death penalty good afternoon the only question in this case
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is why did these killings occur why they were killed is what what the focus of all of our evidence will be on what the
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defense was arguing was that since this was a self-defense case the brothers were deserving of a lesser charge and
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Punishment the defense attorneys who tried the case didn't respond to our request for an interview Cliff Gardner
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represents Lyall and Eric Mendez today they had the defense of imperfect self-defense imperfect self-defense
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meaning the brothers honestly believe that they had to take action to save their their lives even though it might
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not seem rational and if it's honest but unreasonable you are coupable of manslaughter not of murder both brothers
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took the stand ly Menendez spoke of sexual abuse at the hands of his mother and father he said his father began
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sexually abusing him when he was only 6 years old he would uh fondle me and he would ask me to do the same with him
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over time he said it became worse he break me but while Lyall said his father stopped sexually abusing him when
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he was eight Eric said it never ended for him and that he finally confided in his older brother days before the crime
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at age 18 I didn't know what to do at the time so I figured I'd tell Lyall and maybe he could help me he started
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telling me that one of the reasons he had never told me before was cuz my dad had always threatened his life the
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brothers testified that Lyall soon confronted their parents and that their mother indicated she knew about the
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abuse all along in Anger Lyle said he directed a threat at his father I told him that I would tell everybody then he
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said we all make choices in life son Eric made his you've made yours what did you think was going to happen I
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thought we were in danger I thought he had no he felt he had no choice but to what that he would kill us
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the brothers testified that they got into another argument with their parents on the night of the crime and that they
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believed their parents were about to kill them to keep the family secret from coming out so they said they grabbed
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shotguns that they had bought 2 days earlier for protection went into the family room and started shooting their
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parents at one point even stopping to reload and what did you do after you Reloaded
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I ran around and shot my mom the defense may call its next witness to bolster their claims of abuse
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the defense called to the stand numerous relatives friends and acquaintances of the family who described incidents of
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phys physical and emotional abuse that they said they observed Alan Anderson Lyall and Eric's cousin was one of those
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Witnesses growing up Allan would spend summers at the Menendez home he had a lot to say about Jose hitting the kids
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with a belt never had a problem with that and kitty she wouldn't get up to console the children nothing while none
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of the witnesses including Allan ever saw Lyle or Eric Mendez being sexually abused Allan did recall something that
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struck him as odd Jose would tell the boys in the bedroom and then he would close the door and then he'd take
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showers with him he says during that time Kitty wouldn't let him go near the room so I was not allowed while the boys
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were alone with Jose with the door closed in the master bedroom to go down the hall to probably not hear whatever I
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may hear another cousin Diane Vander Molen gave similar testimony and she also recounted a conversation she says
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she had with Lyle when he was eight um he proceeded to indicate to me by touching himself uh
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down and and saying that his dad and him had been touching each other down there
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and what did you do I went and got Kitty and uh told her what was going on and what happened when Kitty came down she
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didn't believe me Andy Cano yet another cousin also took the stand and testified
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about a conversation he says he had with Eric when Eric was about 13 He told me his father was massaging
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his he told me never to reveal it to anybody still prosecutors argued that even if Lyle and Eric Mendez were abused
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it doesn't give them the right to kill and they pointed out that when the brothers confessed to that psychologist
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they never mentioned abuse use or self-defense then the timing of disclosure was convenient the
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prosecutors who tried the case didn't respond to our requests for an interview former Los Angeles County DA Jackie Lacy
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reviewed portions of the trial at our request and people do make things up when their life is on the
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line but all these years later ly Menendez maintains they are telling the truth and the reason they didn't come
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forward then was complicated what was holding you back just shame just not wanting it to be public the pure nature
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of the crime however says Lacy doesn't support the brother's claim that they acted in
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self-defense prosecutors pointed out that Jose and kitty were watching TV at the time they were killed and they
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weren't armed in order to get close enough to blow somebody away you would have been been able to see that they
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didn't have weapons ly Menendez is adamant that he and his brother were in fear for their lives for me it was
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just dark and confusing and total belief that there was danger you know it's fight or flight to a degree that was
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Panic the prosecution argued the evidence proves the killings were premeditated when the brothers purchased
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those shotguns prose computer said that they took steps to cover their tracks like driving to a gun store all the way
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in San Diego San Diego is not a Round the Corner Drive last time I checked it was
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two hours sometimes after they killed their parents they went around and picked up the expended shotgun shell
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casings so that their fingerprints wouldn't be discovered on those shells there was a lot of thought and a lot of
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deliberation that went into it they also got rid of the shotguns made that 911 call who is the person that was shot my
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mom and my dad and misled the initial investigators prosecutors pointed to money as the motive they said Jose
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Menendez told his sons he had removed them from his will and based on their investigation they suggested that after
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the crime Lyall Menendez attempted to destroy o will on the family computer Lyall denies doing that and insists
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money had nothing to do with what happened if there was a new will it was never found we never had any financial
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problems with my parents although the brothers were tried together there were two separate juries deciding their fate
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when deliberations began they stretched on for weeks before both juries determined they were divided over
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whether Lyall and Menendez should be convicted of murder or manslaughter therefore I find that the jury is
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hopelessly deadlocked a mistrial was declared it was just a devastating result I needed it to be over one way or
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the other but it was far from over prosecutors would try the case again they needed a win the heat was on
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[Music] nearly two years passed as Lyall and Eric Menendez sat in jail awaiting a
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second trial some of their family members like Alan Anderson believed that they were justified in the killings I
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know they did what they did because they were in fear of their life While others
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like Kitty's brother Milton Anderson considered them coldblooded Killers I don't believe that Jose or Kitty would
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do any of the things that they were accused of Jose was changing his will and that's when they went out and bought
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the shotguns at the retrial which began in October 1995 one jury instead of two would hear
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the case no video cameras were allowed in court and a new team of prosecutors would employ a different strategy the
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first TR was okay there may have been AB but we don't allow vigilantes in our society the second trial of the
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prosecution's case there was no abuse at all and what made it easier for prosecutors to argue that says attorney
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Cliff Gardner is the fact that the prosecution raised new and successful objections to the admission of a large
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amount of Defense evidence now the jury would hear from only some not all of the
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witnesses who knew the Menendez family and helped corroborate the brother's claims of abuse the da was not going to
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take another loss they could not take another loss the judge who had also presided over the first trial excluded
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the testimony on the grounds that it was irrelevant repetitive and in some instances lacking in Foundation because
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this time ly Menendez would not take the stand Eric did testify why did you decide not to
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speak uh for two reasons I was just done after the first trial and I didn't have
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the attorney that I trusted so much to ask me these deep personal questions but Carol Nara the only surviving lead
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prosecutor from the second trial who declined to speak with us suggested in a 1996 interview there might have been
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another reason why Lyall didn't take the stand there were things that had been developed since the first trial that
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would have damaged his credibility a great deal prosecutors said they had new evidence that Lyle had asked to friend
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and a former girlfriend to fabricate testimony Lyall admits to 48 hours that he did do that but says he later
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withdrew those requests because Lyall didn't take the stand his cousin Diane vandermolen was
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prohibited from testifying about that conversation she says she had with Lyle when he was eight in which she says Lyle
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told her that his father was touching him the jury did still hear from cousin Andy Cano about that similar coners
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ation he claimed to have had with a 13-year-old Eric but the prosecution attacked his credibility the state's
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position was that Andy was a liar and when cousin Alan Anderson took the stand prosecutors attacked his credibility too
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bringing up the fact that ly Mendez gave him money after the crime Anderson says
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it was to help pay for a medical procedure he didn't say anything like well if I go to court know or no he it
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was just straight up between him and I him being a nice cousin knowing I was in financial bind he knew he had the
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resources to help me at the second trial prosecutors placed more of a focus on the brutality of the crime and they
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painted Jose as a restrained loving father someone incapable of molesting his children prosecutors referred to the
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brother's defense as the abuse excuse in the first trial that defense called more than 50 Witnesses this time
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they called about half it wasn't that they didn't want to present them they were not
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allowed the jury deliberated for days and then the verdicts are in in the retrial of Eric and Lyle
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Menendez guilty of first-degree murder I hugged my brother we cried and I said look we're going to be okay I was
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not happy at all at the jury's recommendation the brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the
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possibility of parole and you believe they deserve that oh what they did to my sister they
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should have gotten a death penalty Lyall and Eric Mendez were sent to separate prisons more than two
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decades ped and then around 2020 the case made a surprising Resurgence on social
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media following a documentary that aired on the case in which Eric Menendez repeated his claims of abuse droves of
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people took to Tik Tok and Instagram to express support for him and his brother Dr Judy ho is a neuros pychology who
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specializes in childhood sex abuse trauma Dr Ho is also a 48 Hours consultant we asked her to review the
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case I definitely think that our society has just become more knowledgeable about
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trauma and the impact of sexual trauma Dr Ho says research shows that just because the brothers delayed reporting
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abuse it doesn't mean they made it up that's all very consistent with people who have been through trauma and maybe
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feel like it was even their own fault in some ways or they're ashamed of the trauma and there's a lot more
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self-stigma and shame associated with male victims she also says that the abuse the brothers describe could even
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help explain why the crime was so brutal it makes sense that in that moment it's
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almost like a break down and that's not to make an excuse for anything that they've done but it's just to describe
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the State of Mind of this is years and years of abuse where they couldn't act to protect themselves and once they
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pulled the trigger it was like there was no turning back but could Lyle and Eric
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Mendez have truly been in fear for their lives that night they're 18 and 21 why couldn't they leave right well certainly
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there was a path that they could have taken is to try to get away from the family but it sounds like even at that
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age they were very much under the control of their father still I think that often times where people are not
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aware of is that trauma completely rewires the brain they probably did think at one point it was either them or
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their parents that it was a fight ORF flight conditioning that had come up attorney Cliff Gardner believes the case
00:27:13
would be tried differently today the idea back then was a dads don't molest their children and if by chance it
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happened these are 18 and 21y old kids they're strapping young men they just leave and both those I think are
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undercut in in what we know today still a better understanding of the effects of
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sexual abuse and some social media support would do little on their own to make a difference in the brother's case
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legally instead what their defense needed was new evidence and eventually that's what it got did you or Eric think
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that another person would accuse your father of child molestation I did not I could not
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believe it [Music] over the years Lyall and Eric Mendez appealed their convictions but were
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unsuccessful it seemed unlikely that they would ever see beyond Prison Walls but then new evidence began to
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surface the first piece in the form of a letter just kind of out of the blue one
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of uh my father's sister found a letter in store appet attorney Cliff Gardner says
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the letter was written by Eric Mendez to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988 about 8 months before the crime
00:28:52
it's not dated but you were able to get a frame of reference of the timing of it
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based on the contents of the letter exactly he talks about the Christmas party we know the Christmas party that
00:29:03
they put on was in Christmas of 88 he talks about hiring a new tennis coach there's a number of things in the letter
00:29:10
that allow us to authenticate when it was written and it's a particular section of the letter that Gardner says
00:29:16
is key he says I've been trying to avoid Dad it's still happening Andy but it's worse for me now every night I stay up
00:29:25
thinking he might come in I'm afraid he's crazy he's warned me a hundred times about telling anyone especially
00:29:34
ly no one knew about it a trial it was never presented remember Andy Cano did testify
00:29:42
at both trials he said that Eric Mendez at age 13 confided in him that his dad had been touching him prosecutor
00:29:51
suggested that Cano was lying he explained to me that these massages that his father was giving him were beginning
00:29:58
to hurt the letter is significant why well the state's position was that Andy was a
00:30:05
liar Andy was making it up this shows that Andy wasn't making it up it's contemporaneous evidence from Eric to
00:30:13
his cousin Andy about what was happening but the letter was just the beginning more evidence has surfaced that Gardner
00:30:20
says further supports ly and Eric Mendes's long-standing claims that they were sexually abused
00:30:28
a man named Roy roselo has come forward claiming that he was sexually abused by Jose Menendez too I was a member of the
00:30:37
boy band menudo which was big in late 70s mid 80s there a sensation in the Spanish-speaking world and throughout
00:30:49
Latin America their appeal has caught on big menudo originated in Puerto Rico the
00:30:57
band is best known for producing bigname Talent like singer Ricky [Music] Martin the idea behind the band was to
00:31:08
keep it perpetually young few of the performers remained in the group beyond the age of 16 instead being rotated out
00:31:16
for younger Talent it turns out Jose Menendez had ties to the group Jose Menendez was working at RCA at the time
00:31:24
and RCA signed menudo to a recording contract former menudo member Roy roselo now 54 was not available for an
00:31:32
interview with 48 hours but in a sworn affidavit filed just last year he claims he went to Jose menendez's home in the
00:31:41
early 80s at the direction of the band's then manager Edgardo Diaz roselo would have been between 14 and 15 years old at
00:31:49
the time he says he drank a glass of wine then felt like he had no control over his body
00:31:58
he says Jose Menendez took him to a room and raped him roselo first spoke publicly about
00:32:06
the allegations in a [Music] [Music] documentary roselo also alleges that he was sexually abused by Jose Menendez on
00:32:24
two other occasions right before and right after the performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York I met Roy
00:32:33
and he talked to me about it it was a difficult conversation for him it was difficult for me to hear but I thought
00:32:40
Roy was credible it can take years for people to recognize what happened to have the
00:32:47
courage to come forward when I first heard I cried for me it was very meaningful to
00:32:57
just have things come out that caused people to really realize okay at least this part of what it's about is
00:33:05
true ly Menendez says he remembers mudo band members coming over to the family home when they lived in New Jersey
00:33:13
before moving to Beverly Hills he does not recall roselo specifically what do you remember about the mudo band members
00:33:22
going to your home only that my father had sort of intimate involvement with that particular group they usually would
00:33:31
not have too much involvement with groups other than negotiations but with Mano and Ardo Diaz he traveled with them
00:33:39
he went to their concerts he stayed in hotels that they stayed at Lio Menendez says he didn't think
00:33:45
much of it until rumors began surfacing towards the end of he and his brother's first trial people in the industry were
00:33:52
talking about that maybe something had happen because there was a sex scandal in the group
00:33:57
Roso along with other former menudo members have long accused Edgardo Diaz the band's one-time manager of sexual
00:34:05
abuse Diaz has always denied the allegations and no charges have been filed against him the Los Angeles Police
00:34:13
Department recently investigated a specific incident in which Roso alleged Diaz raped him at this hotel in the
00:34:20
1980s the LA County DA's office is now reviewing the case but what does this new evidence mean in terms of of Lyle
00:34:28
and Eric mendez's case importance of the New Evidence you have to look back and understand what the state's position was
00:34:33
at the second trial the state's position was that the sexual abuse never happened and the state's position as to
00:34:41
Jose Menendez was he wasn't the type of person who would molest a young boy this
00:34:45
new evidence takes both those arguments and undercuts them entirely Gardner has filed a habous
00:34:52
petition asking that his client's convictions be vacated the boy who abused his children they were abused
00:34:59
their whole life and this is a manslaughter case not a murder case it's just that
00:35:03
simple and if they were convicted of manslaughter they would have received a much shorter sentence and been out a
00:35:11
long time ago but will a judge by Gardner's argument it is very very possible that
00:35:20
Jose Mendez was a child molester but you don't get to murder him and his wife in Cold
00:35:35
Blood what do you make of the New Evidence to see a timeline of how the case unfolded go to 48
00:35:47
[Music] hours.com after attorney Cliff Gardner filed the habus petition in May 2023
00:35:57
asking that that Lyle and Eric Menendez convictions be vacated it turned into a waiting game for a judge to rule we ask
00:36:05
former da Jackie Lacy what she makes of the New Evidence starting with that letter the one that appears to have been
00:36:11
written by Eric Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano months before the crime the interesting thing about the letter is
00:36:19
that there are only two people who can authenticated Andy Kano and Eric Mendez Andy Cano died in 2003
00:36:28
and Lacy points out that he never mentioned the letter when he testified you would think when Andy was
00:36:35
on the stand twice he'd have brought that up and oh yeah he told me about it recently and here's the letter the
00:36:42
timing of that letter though you are able to sort of pin down because you know he the holidays because he writes
00:36:48
about his Christmas plans but Natalie look at it another way and you could include those details and get that
00:36:55
letter together after they were caught this letter for all we know could have been written by Eric Menendez shortly
00:37:03
after the murder given to Kano and Kano may have gotten cold feed about it and not submitted it but Gardner argues the
00:37:11
New Evidence is sound he says the reason the letter was not brought up at trial is likely because Eric Menendez and Andy
00:37:19
Cano forgot about it if you look at the letter it's not just about what Jose's been doing it's about all sorts of other
00:37:26
things was just one of many letters that they wrote to each other there really shouldn't be any doubt about the
00:37:33
authenticity of the letter and as for Roy roselo the former mudo band member can you discount his claims alog
00:37:41
together no I think what the judge has to away and consider is is this newly discovered evidence that would have
00:37:48
changed the verdict and Lacy says she does not believe it would have they're still stuck with the planning the cover
00:37:56
up the money that they spent afterwards I think that you could argue the sexual abuse
00:38:04
occurred on the other hand at the moment these men are driving down to San Diego
00:38:12
paying for the murder weapons coming back and waiting for an opportune time to go in and kill their parents the
00:38:21
molestation is not occurring right then I do not believe that at the time they murdered them that they were in danger
00:38:29
at that particular minute of being murdered by those people I think they hated them they might have had a good
00:38:35
reason to hate them but we can't condone vigilantism when you calmly and logically looked at the facts
00:38:44
surrounding the killing it's a murder but Gardner believes the New Evidence would have made a difference to the
00:38:52
jurors he says evidence of abuse can mitigate a crime and that's why pro prosecutors fought so hard to keep it
00:38:59
out of the second trial sexual abuse physical abuse is relevant to your state of mind uh and state of mind is the key
00:39:07
in determining whether something's murder or whether something's man what this evidence does is it puts
00:39:13
you back in the situation that they were in with the first trial that there was corroboration for the abuse and in the
00:39:19
first trial remember two jurries were divided over whether the brothers should have been convicted of murder or
00:39:26
manslaughter the court declares a mistrial Gardner thinks this new evidence combined with that of the first
00:39:33
trial rules out murder entirely My Hope in the case is that the judge will realize that this new evidence is indeed
00:39:41
credible and persuasive and he'll vacate the convictions if that happens it would
00:39:45
be up to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office whether to retry the case in a statement the District
00:39:52
Attorney's office said it is investigating the claims made in the habius petition
00:39:57
Alan Anderson wants to see his cousins released what I would say the prosecutor as a judge would be please look at all
00:40:05
of the evidence they are speaking the truth they shouldn't be in there as long as they've been but
00:40:12
still Kitty Mendes's brother Milton Anderson feels just the opposite he says he doesn't believe the New Evidence is
00:40:19
credible I don't think it's evidence and he wants his nephews to stay put I think
00:40:25
they should die of old age and prison I loved my sister and I protected her in life and I will love my sister
00:40:34
and protect her in her death ly Mendez says he understands his uncle's Pain part of my remorse is for the pain I
00:40:42
caused people like him as they await a judge's decision ly and Eric Menendez who reside in the same prison since 2018
00:40:51
are focused on Rehabilitation and continuing their education I connect with other prisoners
00:40:58
that have sex abuse histories and work with them both brothers are married to women outside prison I think it has made
00:41:05
a huge difference to have love and support like that I try not to be defined by that one
00:41:14
night and so of a lifelong journey not to be defined by that one night new CBS next a former state trooper's
00:41:34
wife found dead in her bathtub it was a gunshot but was it a cover up for murder
00:41:38
Dan thought he was smart enough to trick everybody the packed duffel bag wet towels it looks odd a new 48 Hours next
00:41:46
on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus [Music] welcome to postmortem I'm your host
00:42:10
anarie green now throughout the '90s notorious murder cases grip the nation there was serial killer Jeffrey dmer the
00:42:18
unsolved murder of John B Ramsey the OJ Simpson trial but among these shocking cases was a pair of brothers who
00:42:26
admitted to killing their parents it's the story of the Menendez brothers they've been behind bars now for over
00:42:33
three decades but could new evidence result in the reopening of the case of Lyle and Eric Menendez with me today are
00:42:41
CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales and coordinating producer Alicia tahada welcome guys good to be with you anory
00:42:49
thank you this was a blockbuster case in the '90s Natalie yes well yeah if you were around in the late ' 80s early '90s
00:42:57
and I was I mean you were watching this case you were talking about this case it
00:43:01
grabbed all the headlines let me take you back though to the beginning and it goes back to the night of August 20th
00:43:09
1989 the night Eric and Lyle uh mendis gunned their parents down in the den of their Beverly Hills California Mansion
00:43:19
at the time the brothers Eric was 18 Lyall 21 their father Jose Menendez was a welltoo entertainment executive shot in
00:43:29
the head from Point Blank Range their mother Kitty was shot multiple times um the Brother's first trial broadcast on
00:43:38
court TV in 1993 it was gavel to gavel coverage it became a national sensation and the question was not did
00:43:48
they do it they admitted to killing their parents it really became at the trial why they did it they claimed
00:43:57
self-defense citing years of abuse at the hands of their mother and father the brothers were tried together separate
00:44:04
juries though deciding their fate both though in that first trial deadlocked between murder and manslaughter
00:44:12
convictions the second time around the prosecutors attacked the brother's abuse allegations more aggressively the number
00:44:19
of witnesses allowed to testify were reduced substantially the jury convicted the two Brothers two counts each of
00:44:29
first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1996 they were sentenced to life in prison without
00:44:35
parole so the Mendez Brothers have been in prison almost 27 years but it's been 34 years since they've been arrested but
00:44:43
now the case is back in the spotlight because there is new evidence and a habous petition to try to vacate their
00:44:52
convictions so this wasn't just a national story it was an international story because I'm living up there in
00:44:59
Canada and I remember being drawn in by it part of it had to do with the two brothers they're goodlooking they're
00:45:08
living a life that is the Envy of so many people and then the narrative was but they just wanted more so you
00:45:16
couldn't help but to be drawn in by the opportunity to look behind the scenes at
00:45:24
what it was like in Beverly Hills and hey hey all those rich people they're not so happy after all and it's
00:45:30
interesting that you said uh it's a international Case Jose Menendez was Cuban and was known to be very outspoken
00:45:37
about Cuban politics in Miami um so this was very popular amongst the Latin Community as well yes and as you said
00:45:45
this case though it it happened in Beverly Hills I think what really grabbed people's attention was this is a
00:45:51
a wealthy neighborhood it's not known for violent crime the former Los Angeles district attorney who we talked to in
00:45:58
the hour Jackie Lacy she described these murders being so brutal by these two very privileged young men there they are
00:46:05
in their Polo sweaters and their Oxford shirts and they do appear to have everything but as we hear at the trial
00:46:14
and as their story unfolds and what they tell us is emotional uh abuse and physical and sexual abuse that they were
00:46:23
enduring at the hands of both their mother and father was so horrendous and awful and and that's where this case
00:46:30
really now in hindsight we can look at this case in this lens now we look at it much more differently we can understand
00:46:39
uh especially men as victims of sex abuse and sex crimes in a much more different way yeah culturally um we were
00:46:47
very different particularly around our sensitivity to um sexual abuse and also what was happening at that time was
00:46:55
there was this expansion of new coverage right we had CNN we had court TV and so
00:47:02
we were really able to watch these cases unfold in a way that we never had before
00:47:10
and so these cases kind of seeped into the culture as well like part of the pop culture our conversations at the water
00:47:16
cooler um everyone remembers watching OJ Simpson you remember exactly where you were and the verdict came down and this
00:47:21
was another case like that in fact Saturday Night Live that late night sketch comedy show on NBC even did a
00:47:29
skit on it I want to play that let me ask you once again is it your testimony that you and
00:47:43
your brother Eric in fact had nothing to do with the murder of your parents Jose
00:47:48
and kitty Menendez that's correct then can you tell the court who did murder your
00:47:54
parents our other two brothers others Danny Menendez and Jose Menendez Jr what's happening in this scene and
00:48:08
part of the reason that the audience is laughing at the end is because the actor
00:48:12
playing Lyall Menendez is sobbing he's sort of bent over acting pretending to cry in real life Lyle was on the stand
00:48:23
talking about horrendous sexual abuse that he had endured and he was crying he was sobbing but that was fod for humor
00:48:33
at that time yeah it it was very emotional that testimony and it's it's interesting to hear that clip now and it
00:48:41
almost kind of makes your skin craw now with the sensitivities that we have to to sex abuse victims the prosecution
00:48:49
coined what the brothers were saying as as the abuse excuse and and they were ridiculed they were mocked at the time
00:48:56
particularly in the second trial and this this became a Crux of their argument according to the prosecution so
00:49:04
I talked about how sort of what was New Media back then um Drew us into this case right and now there's social media
00:49:13
that has helped to renew interest in this case right people are are starting to look at this differently uh if you go
00:49:20
to YouTube there's several sitcoms from the 9s that were making fun of uh the Menendez brothers and and now uh social
00:49:28
media especially the Tik Tok Community is very outspoken about this case so I think Society is seeing um abuse victims
00:49:37
very differently now and especially male abuse victims yeah I guess for younger people this is all brand new right A lot
00:49:46
of these uh social media users have watched the trial the trial is on YouTube and they're reacting to the
00:49:54
brother's testimonies it's one thing though to have a new point of view but an Marie the the reason why now what is
00:50:02
new in this case and there is now new evidence and new information that is coming to light and that's why we're
00:50:11
taking a look in this 48 Hours again and let's begin with first a letter that the
00:50:17
brother's attorney Cliff Gardner has brought to our attention the defense said Eric wrote a letter to his cousin
00:50:26
Andy in the months before the murder Andy died in 2003 but this letter was written in the months before the murder
00:50:35
of the Menendez parents and the letter reads in part I've been trying to avoid Dad it's still happening Andy but it's
00:50:42
worse for me now every night I stay up thinking that he might come in I'm afraid this letter is such a key piece
00:50:49
of evidence according to um the Menendez attorney Cliff Gardner says this is contemporaneous proof that
00:50:57
supports once again that the brothers were telling the truth that the abuse was happening we've seen cases of abuse
00:51:06
before where it seems like the victim should be able to get out of it should be able to leave but
00:51:14
instead the victim chooses murder the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case is probably the most recent case to sort of really
00:51:22
make the headlines and she was just released from prison Gypsy rolls pled guilty to second degree murder uh her
00:51:28
boyfriend stabbed her mom uh to death and she was part of the planning in that murder it was later theorized that her
00:51:36
mother suffered from Moon chowen by proxy so Gypsy endured many years of abuse in order for her mother to
00:51:42
maintain the image that she was a very sick child she says she wanted to escape from her situation not necessarily kill
00:51:48
her mother uh but that's what ended up happening she says that she thought that running away would make things worse so
00:51:55
this is similar to what the NZ brother's claim in that they didn't see another way out that it was a fight ORF flight
00:52:01
type of situation and Gypsy Rose she served her time um and now she's out and and she's speaking uh about abuse so
00:52:10
it's interesting because people on social media are talking about the Menendez brothers and relating it to the
00:52:17
Gypsy Rose case and saying well she served her time um perhaps the Menendez brothers have served their time as well
00:52:25
I think the other thing that's really interesting about this case is the way the brothers were portrayed in the media
00:52:31
right particularly after the murders so right after the murders the the brothers
00:52:37
spent a significant amount of money uh they bought Rolex watches uh cars Lyall invested in a business so that's why the
00:52:48
prosecution said this was murder out of greed and like Jackie Lacy uh who we interviewed in our hour said they wanted
00:52:55
to spend the money the way they wanted to spend the money so part of something that came up recently um in in the past
00:53:03
few years uh was an NBA trading card and it appears as though Lyle and Eric are sitting courtside at a New York Nicks
00:53:13
game and uh this would have been taken uh in between the time they committed the murders and before their arrest
00:53:33
this was such a well-known case and the images of these two young men I mean I could still remember exactly what they
00:53:40
look like what was it like to interview Lyall all these years later yeah it was it was uh very enlightening Lyle is now
00:53:49
a 56-year-old man he speaks as somebody who has done a lot of therapy and is somebody who speaks with a lot of
00:53:58
self-reflection um he also is somebody who works with a lot of sex abuse victims in prison that's part of the
00:54:07
work that he likes to do now and he does have a lot of regrets and he talks about
00:54:13
that at length all these years later it's still very emotional for him to talk about what happened on that night
00:54:21
and the events leading up to what happened to his parents said did you try to speak with
00:54:29
Eric we did ask Lyle if Eric would speak to us uh Lyle says that this is very traumatic for them to to speak uh about
00:54:40
and and it's very exhausting and he chose uh to just uh speak to us himself and speak on Eric's behalf as well do
00:54:50
they have a relationship cuz I know sometimes when people are involved in a crime together um authorities do not let
00:54:57
them stay connected so they do when they were uh initially convicted they were sent to separate prisons uh so they were
00:55:07
separated for several years and uh they were reunited a few years ago and they actually share cells right next to each
00:55:15
other so they see each other every day wow that must mean a lot for both of them when he spoke about uh that reunion
00:55:23
with his brother and how they were given a moment to to embrace and just H have a
00:55:28
solo moment with each other after being separated for so many years Lyle was very emotional I can imagine um for the
00:55:37
hour you interviewed two family members of the Mena's brothers and they had very
00:55:41
different opinions on the convictions do you know how this case has impacted the
00:55:46
menendez's family oh yes I mean it's completely shattered uh the families some family members that you know don't
00:55:54
talk to one another anymore Uncle Milton who is is very much of the thinking that
00:56:01
the Menendez brothers are where they are and deserve to be locked up for life and
00:56:05
they deserve to die in prison and then we have cousins who feel that they have serve their time and that they deserve
00:56:15
to be free that they have done the time they've done their Penance and that they've gone through enough in the hour
00:56:24
you Incorporated Dr Jud Ho's expertise about childhood sex abuse trauma and I thought she really did an excellent job
00:56:32
discussing sexual trauma but can you share just how you decided that it was important to include an expert Voice who
00:56:41
doesn't have anything to do with the case directly but to add to this hour Dr Judy hoe uh is a clinical forensic
00:56:49
neuropsychologist also a professor at Pepperdine University uh she specializes in child abuse but but she also
00:56:57
specializes in evaluating the minds of criminals and alleged criminals so we thought this is our expert uh so she
00:57:06
reviewed the case and um and she gave us her analysis she's also really good at being able to to talk about like what
00:57:15
happens in in the brain for example with with childhood sex abuse victims and how
00:57:22
brains can can be rewired and how the Menendez brothers were 18 and 21 year-old young men why couldn't they
00:57:31
just pick up and leave the reality according to Dr hoe is those who have endured that kind of abuse still feel
00:57:40
like that control never goes away and it's not going to go away until that person who is controlling goes away and
00:57:50
that's perhaps what contributed to the Menendez brothers killing their parents yeah when listening to Dr Judy ho I just
00:57:59
kept on thinking my how far we have come in society when it comes to understanding um the trauma um the
00:58:07
enduring trauma of sexual abuse but I also thought we still have much further to go and in the hour I think it's the
00:58:16
doctor that kind of points out that there's still less sympathy for male victims um which brings me to uh Roy
00:58:24
rosello he he's come forward uh to say that he was sexually abused and raped by Jose Menendez he spoke about this for
00:58:31
the very first time in the peacock documentary Menendez plus manuno boys betrayed do you know why uh Roy rousell
00:58:41
finally came forward why he decided to talk about this Roy roselo is a former member of the boy band Mano which was
00:58:48
big back in the 80s back then Jose Menendez worked as an executive for RCA records and RCA signed manulo to a
00:58:56
recording contract roselo along with other former menudo members have long accused Edgardo Diaz the band's one-time
00:59:03
manager of sexual abuse Diaz has always denied the allegations and no charges have been filed against him but two
00:59:10
journalists Robert Rand and NY inlan began investigating whether Jose Menendez was somehow tied to the alleged
00:59:17
sex scandal within menudo they ended up interviewing roselo and produced that peacock documentary that you mentioned
00:59:25
wow and the significance of Roy roselo coming forward uh according to Cliff Gardner who is one of the brothers
00:59:31
defense attorney is that during the second trial uh the prosecution said there is no evidence that Jose Menendez
00:59:40
was a child abuser there's no evidence of him ever abusing any children and he was a restrained man and so Cliff
00:59:48
Gardner says now we have evidence that Jose Menendez was a child abuser according to Roy roselo so this this is
00:59:56
significant new evidence all the evidence that we have talked about what is next for the Menendez brothers then
01:00:02
well right now we're waiting for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office to respond to the habius petition
01:00:08
with their own Court filing we've reached out to the district attorney's office they're investigating the claims
01:00:14
made in that habus petition and it will come down to whether or not a judge is going to uh decide whether the
01:00:22
convictions will be vacated if they are then it's going to be up to the district attorney's office
01:00:27
as to whether or not they want to retry the case but that's a lot it's a lot to be decided it is a lot yes and Cliff
01:00:36
Gardner the brother's appet attorney hopes that the convictions will be overturned and that the brothers will
01:00:41
walk free he says the brothers killed in self-defense and they never should have
01:00:45
been convicted of first-degree murder he says that manslaughter was a more appropriate charge and had they been
01:00:51
convicted of manslaughter they would have been released from prison a long time ago
01:00:56
well this is another fascinating hour once again I thought I knew the story and there's so much more to it um that
01:01:06
is all for this week's postmortem Natalie Alicia thank you so much thank you for having
01:01:13
us join us next Tuesday everyone for another postmortem and watch 48 hours Saturdays 10 9 Central on CBS and of
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