Menendez Bros Resentencing Hearing Delayed, Aunt Tells Court: ‘I Want Them Home’

Erik and Lyle Menendez made their first court appearance in years on Monday as they hope to be resentenced for the 1989 murders of their parents due to possible new evidence, but the judge pushed back the hearing until January. 

The brothers, who were convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 in their second trial, were in the courtroom virtually for a status hearing on a habeas corpus petition their attorneys filed last year, per CBS News. The document states that key evidence was not presented during their trials, which could help prove sexual abuse claims the Menendezes made against their father, which was used as a motive for the killings.

No cameras were allowed in court, and the brothers couldn’t be seen on screen due to technical difficulties, per CNN.

Their attorney, Mark Geragos, said two of the brothers’ aunts spoke in court.

“It was quite a moving experience, at least where we sit, to listen to Aunt Terry [Baralt] and Aunt Joan [VanderMolen], who are respectively, Jose and Kitty’s older sisters,” Geragos said. “Both made impassioned pleas with the judge to send the brothers home.”

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“I want them home,” VanderMolen, 92, said in the courtroom on Monday. “They should have never been in such situations. What can a kid do when his father’s — I can’t stand it.”

“No child should have to endure what Erik and Lyle did,” she continued. “No children should have to live in fear day by day that their dad would come and rape them.”

“Thirty-five years is a long time,” Baralt, 85, agreed, saying she would like to “hug them and see them.”

Geragos said the Menendez brothers’ hearing, initially scheduled for December 11, has been pushed back to the end of January.

“We’re hoping that by the end of that, or sometime sooner, that we will, in fact, get the brothers released,” the attorney added.

Current Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who was just voted out of office, recommended the resentencing, which could lead to the brothers’ release from prison. District Attorney-elect Nathan Hochman takes office on December 2. Hochman said the resentencing hearing delay would give him time to review the case and “consult with prosecutors, law enforcement, defense counsel, and victim family members.”

The brothers are currently incarcerated in San Diego. Their first trial ended with two deadlocked juries. In the second, both were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Not all family members believe that the Menendez brothers should be released, however. Milton Anderson, Kitty Menendez’s brother, said they should remain incarcerated.