The Los Angeles County District Prosecutor Nathan Hochman said he reconsidant to resentment Lyle and Erik Menendez that if the brothers admit to what he said to be decades of lies, doubling his position in a new interview with ABC News on Wednesday.
“If they sincerely and unequivocally admit for the first time in more than 30 years, the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies they talked about,” Hochman told ABC News, the national correspondent Matt Gutman, that he would then be ready to recommend resentment.
The remarks come after Hochman announced last week that he asked the court to withdraw the request of his predecessor in matters of non-compliance, arguing that the brothers do not meet the standards of renown or rehabilitation because they “persist in telling these lies in recent years on their defense of self-defense”.
The Los Angeles County District Prosecutor Nathan Hochman speaks with ABC News on March 19, 2025.
ABC News
Questioned by Gutman if he has a control list of each individual lie, Hochman said: “I do it.”
“The essence of this control list is that they should finally admit after 30 years, they killed their parents deliberately, deliberately and premeditated, not because they thought that their parents were going to kill them that evening,” said Hochman.
Hochman said that his office had identified 20 lies that they have said since the day of the murder, and that the brothers admitted four of them when there are 16 additional lies “which are the essence of their self -defense” which remain unrecognized.
The brothers serve life without the possibility of parole for the 1989 parents’ shotgun murders, Kitty and Jose Menendez.
When asked if he believed that the brothers deserve to die in prison, Hochman said: “My personal conviction is completely out of words.”
“What I do is that I am the facts and the law in each case,” he said.
Hochman died if the brothers were definitively sexually abused by their father, like them, and the surviving family members have said for decades. But Hochman stressed that sexual abuses have never been their defense.
This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections Watch Erik Menendez, on the left, and Lyle Menendez.
California DEPT. of Corrections via AP
“There was no additional corroboration of anyone in 12 years-whether it was another adult, a friend, a coach, a teacher-who reported information on the beneficiaries that sexual abuses had taken place during these 12 years. But was there any evidence presented at the trial? Yes. Was it the defense that the Menendez used for a first degree murder? “This is what we focused on.”
Menendez family members who want the freed brothers said that the brothers endured horrible abuses, admitted guilt and apologized, and rejected Hochman’s insistence that the brothers were not sexually abused, with a cousin calling for the tone of the “hostile, disdainful and patronage” district prosecutor.
Asked by Gutman if he understands the family’s desire to release the brothers, Hochman said: “I do it.”
“I absolutely see the sincerity of their belief, that they want the Menendez brothers to go out. 100%,” he said.
A hearing on the request of the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office to withdraw the renowned petition is scheduled for April 11.
According to the court then decides, an hearing against the summary could be set for April 17 and April 18, said the office of the district prosecutor.
On the question of whether he would appeal if the judge decides that the brothers should be seen by a parole commission, starting the way for resentment, Hochman said: “We would certainly examine the justification of the judge for any resentment, and if the judge does his work and would examine all the factors and succeed in a different conclusion from that of us, but that the law also to that. “
If the case is advancing, a parole commission would submit its recommendation to the governor of California Gavin Newsom, who can then accept or reverse his recommendation, or have the entire parole card said, said Hochman.
Hochman initially announced the decision to withdraw the countering request on March 10, qualifying the claims of the self -defense brothers part of a litany of “lies”. After the press briefing, Lyle Menendez posted on Facebook that “of all these” lies ” [Hochman] Talked down, several of them were admitted / stipulated during the first trial. … and several other “lies” were absolutely refuted or reasonably disputed. “”
Hochman’s predecessor George Gascón announced in October that he had supported the fight against the brothers. Gascón recommended that their sentence without the possibility of parole is withdrawn and said that they should rather be condemned for murder, which would be a 50 -year sentence. Because the two brothers were under 26 years old at the time of the crimes, they would be immediately eligible for parole with the new sentence.
The DA office said at the time that its renowned recommendations held in account of many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and the abuses or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work that Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate and help other prisoners.
A few weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for re -election against Hochman. When Hochman came into office on December 3, he promised to review all the facts before making his own decision.
In addition to feeling, the brothers continued two other ways towards freedom.
One is their Habeas Corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for an examination of two new evidence not presented at the trial: a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuses of his father, and allegations of a former group of boys who revealed in 2023 that he had been violated by Jose Menedez.
Hochman announced in February that he had asked the court to refuse the Habeas Corpus petition, arguing that the new proof was not credible or eligible.
The third path to freedom is by the request for the mercy of the brothers, who was submitted to Newsom.
On February 26, Newsom announced that he ordered the commission of parole to conduct a 90 -day investigation investigation “to find out if the brothers presented” an unreasonable risk for the public “if they are granted to leniency and released.
