Menendez brothers resentencing court hearing postponed to 2025

It appears Erik and Lyle Menendez won't be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

This comes after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday postponed the Menendez brothers' originally scheduled Dec. 11 hearing date to Jan. 30-31, 2025.

During the proceedings, both older sisters of Kitty and Jose Menendez testified.

Attorneys for the Menendez brothers requested the judge to reconsider the convictions of the brothers, who are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 murders of their parents in Beverly Hills.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos also implored the judge 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.

FILE - Erik Menendez (L) and his brother Lyle (R) listen during a pre-trial hearing, on December 29, 1992 in Los Angeles after the two pleaded innocent in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their wealthy parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez of Bever

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The Menendez brothers attended the proceedings virtually from San Diego where they are incarcerated.

Just 16 seats in the courtroom were made available to the public via a lottery which was held before the hearing to determine who would be granted access.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not make a decision on whether to grant the brothers clemency until newly-elected district attorney Nathan Hochman can review the case. Hochman will be sworn in on Dec. 2.

The resentencing hearing is the latest in the saga of the Menendez brothers' case, which was thrust back into the spotlight after the release of Netflix's "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story."

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Lyle, then 21, and Erik, then 18, were originally sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

They were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent the disclosure of the father’s longtime sexual molestation of Erik Menendez. Prosecutors argued that they killed their parents for financial gain and contended that no such abuse occurred.

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.

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Relatives of the brothers have publicly advocated for their release and voiced their support for the two to be freed.

Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez, called the pair's actions "tragic," but the "desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father."

"I had no idea the extent of the abuse they suffered at the hands of my brother-in-law. None of us did," she added. "We know that abuse has long effects, and victims of trauma sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand."

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Their attorney first filed a petition for their case to be reexamined in May 2023.