The Menendez brothers’ resentencing hearing was delayed again Thursday.
Information surfaced suddenly this week from a new report related to separate clemency proceedings, and attorneys for the brothers called for Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman to be thrown off the case. That recusal motion will be considered alongside the question of whether to allow the clemency report on May 9.
No new resentencing hearing date was set.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) office isn’t asserting privilege over a risk assessment report prepared by a Board of Parole Hearings expert, attorneys told Judge Michael Jesic. The report was given to a prosecutor earlier this week, but at the start of the hearing neither Jesic of the California Superior Court, Los Angeles County nor the defense team had seen it.
Defense attorneys Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman argue that Hochman—who took over as DA earlier this year and switched the office’s recommendation about the resentencing—is biased against the brothers and violating the other Menendez family members’ rights as victims by not engaging with them in good faith. Several Menendez relatives flew to Los Angeles to attend the Thursday hearing, expecting to testify in support of the brothers’ resentencing.
“It’s become a mockery. An absolute mockery,” said Freedman, who represents the other Menendez family members, in a news conference after the hearing. Freedman added: “Does he have a personal grudge against Lyle and Erik?”
Hochman, 61, lived in Beverly Hills, Calif., less than a mile from where the brothers shot and killed their parents in 1989, and attended the same high school as one of the brothers, but he’s failed to disclose that information, Freedman said during the hearing.
“Everyone in that area was shocked, scared, appalled” after the killings, Freedman said.
Crime Scene Image
The judge did bat down a defense motion for sanctions in response to a graphic crime scene images that prosecutors showed in a hearing last week.
The image led the brothers’ aunt, Terry Baralt, to become “gravely upset.” She was hospitalized after being found unresponsive after the hearing, Freedman said.
She’s since been released from the hospital but isn’t likely to attend future proceedings out of “her health’s best interest,” said the brothers’ cousin Anamaria Baralt in a press conference.
Jesic said he “had no question” in his mind about prosecutor Habib Balian’s intentions in showing the image. Balian was in an “awkward situation” is “one of the most ethical, moral, effective attorneys I’ve ever had before me,” Jesic said. He asked attorneys to warn family members before showing graphic images in the future.
Information about the crime needs to considered to determine whether the brothers have been rehabilitated, Jesic said.
“We’re really not here to relitigate the murder, but we can’t get away from the facts,” Jesic said.
Hochman’s Position
Jesic denied on April 11 Hochman’s motion to withdraw the resentencing petition filed by his predecessor, George Gascón.
Gascón recommended shortly before losing his seat as DA that the brothers get their sentences reduced to life with the possibility of parole.
Hochman has reversed course, saying he won’t ask for resentencing unless the brothers “unequivocally, sincerely, and fully accept complete responsibility” for their parents’ deaths.
The brothers “are still lying,” and new evidence of a pattern of their father’s sexual abuse shouldn’t be trusted, he said.
A high-profile Netflix series and a documentary had prompted a wave of support for the brothers before Gascón’s recommendation.
The former DA said the brothers clearly murdered their parents, but they’ve been rehabilitated while in prison and should be eligible for parole as youthful offenders who committed their crimes before the age of 26.
The recommendation divided his office, Gascón said. Two Gascón-aligned prosecutors sued Hochman April 7, saying the new DA retaliated against them for arguing a new state law required the brothers’ resentencing.
The case is People v. Menendez, Cal. Super. Ct., No. BA068880-01 and BA068880-02, 4/17/25.
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