Convictions in Menendez family murders in jeopardy after new letter, abuse claim bolster brothers' defense

Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers behind bars for more than three decades for the 1989 killings of their parents, hope that new evidence of their alleged abuse may set them free. 

The two brothers, now 56 and 53, admit that they gunned down Kitty and Jose Menendez in their Beverly Hills home – what is in question is why they did it. 

While prosecutors argue the brothers carried out the killings for access to their family's sizable fortune, the brothers claim that they did so out of fear after a lifetime of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. 

"When I first heard about it … I cried," elder brother Lyle Menendez told "48 Hours." "For me, it was very meaningful to just have things come out that caused people to really realize, OK … at least this part of what it's about is true."

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The Menendez brothers, Erik, left, and Lyle on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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Cliff Gardner, one of the brothers' attorneys, told "48 Hours" that the brothers should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder in light of their alleged abuse, which would have carried lighter sentences that the brothers would have finished years ago. 

In their initial 1993 trial, which became a national sensation when it was broadcast by Court TV, the two brothers claimed that their father threatened to kill them if they spoke out about the abuse they were experiencing. Two relatives, including the brothers' cousin, Andy Cano, claimed that Erik confided in them about the abuse long before Jose and Kitty were killed on Aug. 20, 1989. 

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Lyle, left, and Erik, right, are pictured in mugshots from 2023. After years apart, they were moved into the same housing unit at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, according to the New York Daily News. (California Department of Corrections)

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The brothers were initially tried separately; prosecutor Pam Bozanich argued that "men could not be raped because they lack the necessary equipment to be raped," according to Yahoo News.

Immediately after the killings, the brothers told police that an intruder had killed their parents. In the following months, prosecutors said they began to spend extravagantly on travel, businesses and luxury items. 

Erik confessed the killings to his psychologist, Jerome Oziel, who told his then-mistress Judalon Smyth. When Oziel ended the relationship, Smyth told police about the brothers' involvement in the murders, the Los Angeles Times reported. The brothers were arrested in 1990. 

Both brothers' trials ended in mistrial when neither jury could decide whether the men were guilty of manslaughter or murder, according to the "48 Hours" special.

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Pictured is a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez and sent to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez. ( SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY)

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In their second trial, Judge Stanley Weisberg limited testimony about the sexual abuse claims and did not allow jurors to vote on manslaughter charges instead of murder charges, according to ABC News. 

But a letter that Gardner said was written by Erik Menendez to his cousin, Cano, about eight months before the crime in 1988, which was recently unearthed from a storage unit by Cano's mother, supports the men's abuse claims. 

"I've been trying to avoid dad. It's still happening, Andy, but it's worse for me now," reads the letter, in part. "Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. … I'm afraid… He's crazy. He's warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle."

Roy Rossello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, has made claims that also support the brothers' story. Rossello, now 54, said Jose Menendez, an executive at RCA records at the time, abused him when he was between 14 and 15 years old.

Roy Rossello, member of pop group Menudo, is pictured in New York City in 1985. This year, at 54 years old, he said in a sworn affidavit that Jose Menendez sexually abused him. ( Michael Ochs archives/Getty Images)

In a sworn affidavit filed in 2023, he said that he went to the Menendez home in the fall of 1983 or 1984. He felt like he had "no control" over his body after drinking a "glass of wine." Then, Rossello claims, the elder Menendez took him to a room and raped him. The former performer said that the elder Menendez abused him two other times, before and after a performance at Radio City Music Hall. 

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Gardner cited the letter and the affidavit in a habeas petition filed in May 2023, asserting that the brothers' convictions should be vacated. 

If the brothers' convictions are vacated, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office will need to decide whether to retry their cases. In a statement, the office told "48 Hours" it is investigating the new claims. It is unclear when a judge will make a ruling.