Timeline of the Menendez Brothers Case

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors in Los Angeles said Friday they will ask the court to resentence Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989 and are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said there was no doubt the brothers killed their parents in Beverly Hills and that the duo confessed to the murders. But the brothers claimed they committed the crimes in self-defense after years of abuse by their father and now Gascón.

Gascón said it was appropriate to re-examine the case, given the new understanding and empathy for victims of sexual abuse.

The brothers were found guilty and sentenced in 1996.

The case hit headlines again following a docuseries and true crime drama released by Netflix.

Here’s a look at the timeline of the case:

August 1989

Jose Menendez, an executive at RCA Records in Los Angeles, and his wife, Kitty Menendez, were shot and killed at their mansion in Beverly Hills.

March 1990

Lyle Menendez, then 21, was arrested. Eighteen-year-old Erik Menendez surrendered a few days later. They are charged with first-degree murder.

July 1993

The Menendez brothers are being tried by separate juries. Prosecutors argued that they killed their parents for financial gain. The brothers’ lawyers do not dispute that the couple killed their parents, but argued that they acted in self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.

January 1994

Both juries deadlocked.

October 1995

The retrial of the brothers begins, this time with a single jury. At the second trial, much of the defense evidence regarding the sexual abuse allegations was excluded.

March 1996

Jurors found both brothers guilty of first-degree murder.

July 1996

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

May 2023

Lawyers for the Menendez sisters are asking the court to reconsider the conviction and sentence in light of new evidence from a former member of the boy band Menudo who says she was raped by Jose Menendez when she was 14 years old. Erik wrote about the abuse his father suffered before the murders.

September 2024

Netflix releases crime drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, A nine-episode series about murders.

October 4, 2024

Gascón said his office is reviewing new evidence in the case.

16 October 2024

Multi-generational family members of the Menendez brothers hold press conference They are begging to be released from prison. Relatives say the jurors who sentenced them to life in prison without parole in 1996 were part of a society that was not ready to hear that boys could be raped.

24 October 2024

Prosecutors say they will petition the court to remand the brothers, which could lead to their release.

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