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Inside the story of the notorious Menendez brothers case
The Menendez brothers were given life sentences for gunning down their own parents. Now they’re hoping new evidence could reopen the case. “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales reports in “The Menendez Brothers’ Fight for Freedom,” airing Saturday, March 2 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
The question is not whether Lyle and Erik Menende killed their parents. They admit that they did. Instead, the focus of the case has long been on why they did it. They say they killed out of fear and in self-defense after a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of their parents. Here’s a look at the case.
Aug. 20, 1989: Jose and Kitty Menendez are murdered
Robert Rand
On the evening of Sunday, Aug. 20, 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot multiple times at close range with a shotgun while in the family room of their Beverly Hills mansion.
911 call: “Someone killed my parents”
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Officers responded to the scene after Lyle Menendez, then 21, called 911, screaming, “Someone killed my parents.”
The Menendez crime scene
KCAL
Lyle and his then-18-year-old brother Erik Menendez later told investigators that they had arrived home to find their parents shot to death.
Who killed Jose and Kitty Menendez?
Robert Rand
At the time of his death, Jose Menendez was working for a film studio, running its home video division. Investigators initially suspected that the killings may have been tied to his business dealings, but attention soon shifted to the couple’s sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez.
Lyle and Erik Menendez’ behavior draws scrutiny
Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
In the wake of the crime, the brothers appeared to be spending their parents’ money, and lots of it. They purchased Rolex watches and real estate, and invested in businesses.
A tip leads to arrests
KCAL
While the brothers’ behavior in the wake of the crime may have seemed unusual, it wasn’t hard evidence. But then, about six months after the crime, in March 1990, police got a tip from an unlikely source: Judalon Smyth, the girlfriend of a psychologist who Lyle and Erik Menendez had been talking to. She told police that the brothers had confessed to the killings in therapy and there was an audiotaped recording of it.
March 1990: Lyle and Erik Menendez charged in parents’ murders
Associated Press
Days later, on March 8, 1990, Lyle Menendez was arrested by Beverly Hills Police outside the mansion where his parents were killed. Two days after that, Erik Menendez surrendered at Los Angeles International Airport upon returning from Israel where he had been playing tennis.
July 1993: Opening statements begin in the Menendez brothers’ trial
KCAL
On July 20, 1993, the highly publicized trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez began. Although they were tried together, they had separate juries deciding their fate. The brothers faced the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
Lyle Menendez testifies at the first trial
Associated Press
The defense argued that the brothers killed their parents in self-defense and that they were deserving of a lesser charge and punishment.
Menendez brothers testify about sexual abuse
Milton Andersen
Both brothers took the stand and described how they say they were abused. Lyle Menendez testified that he was sexually abused by his mother and father. He said his father began sexually abusing him when he was only 6 years old.
Erik Menendez testifies at the first trial
Associated Press
While Lyle Menendez testified that his father stopped sexually abusing him when he was 8, Erik Menendez testified that it never ended for him and that he finally confided in his older brother Lyle days before the crime — at age 18.
The Menendez crime scene
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
The brothers testified that Lyle soon confronted their parents — and in the days leading up to the crime, things grew so contentious that they believed their parents were going to kill them to keep the family secret from coming out. They said they believed their parents were going to kill them the night of the crime and that’s why they went into the family room and started shooting their parents.
Menendez brothers’ cousin shows support
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To bolster their claims of abuse, numerous relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the Menendez family testified for the defense about incidents of physical and emotional abuse that they said they observed. Alan Andersen, Lyle and Erik’s cousin, was one of those witnesses.
While Andersen never saw Lyle and Erik Menendez being sexually abused, he did recall something he says was odd. He told “48 Hours” that growing up, Jose Menendez would take showers with Lyle and Erik and that Kitty Menendez wouldn’t let him go near the room.
Former DA reviews the case for “48 Hours”
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Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey didn’t work on the case, but reviewed it at “48 Hours'” request.
“After they killed their parents, they went around and picked up the expended shotgun shell casings so that their fingerprints wouldn’t be discovered on those shells. …There was a lot of thought and deliberation that went into it,” Lacey said.
Prosecutors pushed back against the brothers’ claim of self-defense. They pointed to money as the motive and argued the killings were premeditated since the brothers purchased shotguns days in advance. They said that even if the brothers were abused, it didn’t give them the right to kill.
The judge declares a mistrial
Associated Press
When deliberations began, they stretched on for weeks before both juries determined they were divided over whether the brothers should be convicted of murder or manslaughter. A mistrial was declared.
October 1995: The second trial begins
AP Photo/Gus Ruelas
Prosecutors decided to retry the Menendez brothers. At the retrial, which began in October 1995, and consisted of only one jury instead of two, prosecutors argued the brothers were lying about the abuse. They referred to the brothers’ defense as “the abuse excuse.” The prosecution also successfully objected to the admission of a large amount of defense evidence. And, this time, Lyle Menendez declined to take the stand.
Evidence: The crime scene
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
The state placed more of an emphasis on the brutality of the crime.
Lyle and Erik Menendez found guilty of first-degree murder
Associated Press
The jury deliberated for days before finding Lyle and Erik Menendez guilty of first-degree murder. At the jury’s recommendation, the brothers were later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
2023: New evidence in the Menendez case
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Almost three decades after their convictions, Cliff Gardner, one of the brothers’ appellate attorneys, tells “48 Hours” that new evidence has come to light proving that Lyle and Erik Menendez were telling the truth about being abused. In May 2023, Gardner filed a habeas petition asking that the brothers’ convictions be vacated.
“The boys were abused as children. They were abused their whole life. …And this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s just that simple,” Gardner says.
Had the brothers been convicted of manslaughter, they would have received a much shorter sentence and been out of prison a long time ago.
Evidence: The letter
Superior Court of the State of California, Los Angeles County
The first piece of new evidence is a letter that attorney Cliff Gardner says was written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988, about eight months prior to the killings. The letter reads, in part, “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now… Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.” Gardner says this is proof the abuse took place.
Evidence: A new witness
Sony Music/RCA Records
The other new evidence involves a witness named Roy Rossello, pictured bottom right, who has come forward in a sworn affidavit alleging that he was sexually abused by Jose Menendez too.
Rossello says the abuse took place in the early 80’s when he was a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. Jose Menendez, top row, second from left, worked as an executive at RCA Records at the time and RCA signed Menudo to a recording contract.
Lyle Menendez awaits judge’s ruling
K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Wire
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told “48 Hours” that it is investigating the claims made in the habeas petition. Ultimately, it will be up to a judge to decide whether the convictions should be vacated. If they are, then it would be up to the D.A’s office as to whether they would retry the case. As Lyle Menendez awaits a judge’s ruling, he spoke to “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales.
He told Morales that when he heard about the new evidence, he was happy. “‘Cause it’s a burden to be telling what happened to you and just have so much doubt in the public air,” he said.
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Bryan Kohberger’s lawyers ask judge to ban death penalty in Idaho murders case; victim’s mother says “he deserves to die”
Attorneys for a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students asked a judge to take the death penalty off the table Thursday, arguing that international, federal and state law all make it inappropriate for the case. But a victim’s mother who attended the hearing said the suspect “deserves to die.”
Bryan Kohberger is accused of the Nov. 13, 2022, killings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. Investigators said they were able to link Kohberger – then a graduate student at nearby Washington State University – to the crime from DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene, surveillance videos and cellphone data.
When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting a judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted. In September, Kohberger was booked into jail in Boise, where his trial was moved the week before.
During a pre-trial motion hearing, Kohberger’s defense team made a broad range of arguments against the death penalty, saying in part that it does not fit today’s standards of decency, that it is cruel to make condemned inmates sit for decades on death row awaiting execution and that it violates an international treaty prohibiting the torture of prisoners.
Kai Eiselein / Getty Images
But 4th District Judge Stephen Hippler questioned many of those claims, saying that the international treaty they referenced was focused on ensuring that prisoners are given due process so they are not convicted and executed without a fair trial.
Prosecutors noted that the Idaho Supreme Court has already considered many of those arguments in other capital cases and allowed the death penalty to stand.
Still, by bringing up the issues during the motion hearing, Kohberger’s defense team took the first step toward preserving their legal arguments in the court record, potentially allowing them to raise them again on appeal.
The judge said he would issue a written ruling on the motions later.
Victim’s parents attend hearing
Kristi and Steve Goncalves, the parents of Kaylee Goncalves, attended the hearing. Afterward they said the details of the case show the death penalty is merited.
“You’ve got four victims, all in one house – that’s more than enough,” Steve Goncalves said.
Kristi Goncalves said she talked to the coroner and knows what happened to her daughter.
“If he did anything like he did to our daughter to the others, then he deserves to die,” she said.
Steve Goncalves told “48 Hours” last year that “there’s evidence to show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation,” saying “she was trapped” based on the way the bed was set up.
Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram
Kohberger’s attorneys have said he was out for a drive the night of the killings, something he often did to look at the sky.
His trial is scheduled to begin next August and is expected to last up to three months. The Goncalves family said they have rented a home in Boise so they can attend.
Goncalves’ family said in the spring that they were frustrated by how long it has taken the case to progress through the judicial system.
“This case is turning into a hamster wheel of motions, hearings, and delayed decisions,” the family said in a statement.
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Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam, with five reportedly hospitalized and dozens of suspects arrested
Amsterdam — Antisemitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them” after a soccer match in Amsterdam, authorities in the Netherlands said Friday, with police reporting five people hospitalized and 62 detained after a night of violence between. The police did not mention the nationality of any of those injured or arrested after the scenes of chaos in the Dutch capital.
Israel’s government said it was helping coordinate flights home for Israeli fans caught up in the violence.
Israel was “doing everything to ensure the safety and security of our citizens who were brutally attacked in the horrific anti-Semitic incident in Amsterdam,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “It was decided that it was not necessary to send a professional rescue mission to the Netherlands. Instead, the effort will be focused on providing civil aviation solutions for the recovery of our citizens.”
Israel’s airports authority said the first of two planes being sent to bring citizens of the country home had departed from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv and was expected to arrive in Amsterdam within a few hours.
X/ iAnnet via REUTERS.
Dutch leaders also condemned the violence against the Israeli fans as antisemitic.
The attacks on fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv came after a Europa League soccer match between their team and the local Amsterdam team Ajax, but there had been clashes between the Israeli fans and locals before the game, too.
The violence erupted despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the soccer stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who’d feared clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli club.
The violent clashes reportedly occurred around midnight local time, with numerous fights and acts of vandalism in central Amsterdam.
There were clashes before the game, too, as Maccabi fans were among hundreds to march through central Amsterdam in a pro-Israel demonstration, during which flares were lit and Palestinian flags hung on some streets were reportedly torn down amid chants of “death to the Arabs.”
Mouneb Taim/Anadolu/Getty
In an earlier statement, Netanyahu’s office had said that the prime minister ordered two “rescue planes” to be sent to Amseterdam to evacuate Israeli citizens, but that decision was later reversed. Netanyahu’s office also barred any members of the country’s military from flying to the Netherlands for an indefinite period.
“The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that Israel’s government “views the premeditated antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost gravity.”
Netanyahu’s office demanded the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on social media that he followed reports of the violence “with horror.”
“Completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying he’d spoken with Netanyahu and “emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital.”
In a post on the social media platform X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog Israel denounced the attacks as a “pogrom,” referring to the historic racist attacks on Jews in Russia and eastern Europe, and said they were reminiscent of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked Israel’s ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington said on X that “hundreds” of Maccabi fans were “ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game,” according to AFP. The embassy blamed the violence on a “mob who targeted innocent Israelis.”
Geert Wilders, the far-right nationalist lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who’s a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan being surrounded by several men.
“Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” Wilders said.
A Qantas plane made an emergency landing Friday due to what the airline said was a “contained engine failure” soon after taking off from Sydney Airport, sparking a grassfire on a nearby runway and causing several flights to be diverted.
The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a “short period of time” before landing safely back at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.
There was no initial word on the number of people on board.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure,” the airline said. “While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.”
The Reuters news agency explains that in a contained engine failure, the engine’s parts stay inside the protective housing meant to keep them from flying out. If they do, they could cause severe damage to the main body of a plane.
Airservices Australia, the government’s aviation regulator, said the engine failure caused “a grass area adjacent to the runway to catch fire” that was swiftly extinguished by firefighters.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
The Airservices’ National Operations Management Centre enacted a 47-minute ground stop at Sydney Airport to ensure the plane could land as quickly as possible, the regulator said in a statement, adding that no one was hurt.
Reuters reports that the airport said all its runways had re-opened by Friday afternoon after the parallel runway had been closed for inspection because of the fire.
The aircraft is a 19-year-old Boeing 737-800, Reuters said, citing Flightradar24. That type of twin-engine passenger plane is designed to be able to fly using only one engine in an emergency, Reuters noted.
Passenger Georgina Lewis said she heard a “bang.”
“One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on takeoff,” she told local outlet Channel Nine.
Another passenger, Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australia’s national broadcaster ABC, said the plane struggled to get airborne following the “loud bang” noise.
“That big bang as the wheels were leaving the ground and the shudder, that was like nothing I have ever felt,” he told ABC. “When we landed, there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers.”
Tobiano said his staff members were “highly trained” to respond to such emergency situations.
“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he said in the statement. “We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue.”
Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.
Eleven domestic flights were cancelled and four diverted to other airports, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.
