Menendez brothers appear at court hearing on Monday: What you need to know

LOS ANGELES - The Menendez brothers' case reached an important milestone on Monday.

The attorneys for Erik and Lyle Menendez asked a judge to reconsider the convictions of the brothers, who are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in Beverly Hills.

But after hearing the testimonies of two of the brothers' relatives during the status hearing, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge delayed the December resentencing hearing to January 2025. According to the judge, this will give newly-elected district attorney Nathan Hochman to review the case.

The Menendez brothers attended the hearing virtually from San Diego where they are incarcerated. Due to technical issues, they joined via audio only and did not speak.

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The highly-anticipated court hearing allowed limited public attendance, with just 16 courtroom seats available through a lottery which was held outside the Van Nuys courthouse just hours beforehand.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to grant the brothers clemency, which was being considered as one route to the pair's freedom. Newsom deferred the review of the case to Hochman, who is being sworn in on Dec. 2.

RELATED: Menendez brothers clemency on hold till new DA reviews case, Newsom says

Defense attorney Mark Geragos had asked the judge during the hearing to re-sentence the Menendez brothers on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, a crime for which they have already served three times the maximum sentence.

The final decision would come down to the parole board for approval.

The Menendez brothers were found guilty in 1996 of the murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty, and were ordered to serve life behind bars without the possibility of parole. 

Erik and Lyle — who were 18 years old and 21 years old at the time of the murders — claimed they acted in self-defense after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse by their father. However, that defense was not allowed to be used in their second trial.

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Gascón announced in October his recommendation that the brothers be resentenced after an investigation into new evidence presented to the DA's office - allegations that their father also molested Roy Rossello, a former member of the boy band Menudo, in the 1980s, and a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, which surfaced in 2015, years after Cano's death - was presented.

Their names re-entered the limelight last year thanks to the release of Netflix's "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story."

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