The Menendez Brothers: Where Are They Now?

WatchMojo

The Menéndez brothers have remained busy behind bars. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at what happened to the Menéndez after their famous trial and where they are today.

Transcript

00:00It is one of the most shocking cases in Southern California history.

00:03And it's now being featured in a new Netflix show.

00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at what happened

00:08to the Menendez brothers after their famous trial, and where they are today.

00:12What am I hearing rumblings about that there actually might be other witnesses out there?

00:17What some call the trial of the century began in 1993,

00:20when brothers Lyle and Eric Menendez were charged with the murders of their parents,

00:24Jose and Mary Louise. The question was whether the killings were justified,

00:28and what punishment, if any, the brothers would receive.

00:31Most of the Menendez family members who knew about the sexual abuse

00:35believed the brothers should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder.

00:40The defense argued that Lyle and Eric killed their parents owing to a lifetime

00:43of abuse at the hands of their father. As for Mary Louise, better known as Kitty,

00:48it's claimed that she was mentally unstable and often encouraged,

00:51or at least enabled, Jose to abuse their children.

00:54The prosecution argued that they had financial motives,

00:57which was seemingly supported by the large amounts of money that the brothers splashed

01:00after the killings. The first trial ended in a deadlocked jury, and the controversial second

01:05trial was performed with a few new caveats. The jury could no longer vote on charges of

01:09manslaughter, and the brothers' sexual abuse defense was greatly diminished.

01:13The second jury found them guilty of first-degree murder,

01:16and they were both sentenced to life in prison.

01:18He changed it in a way that was significant,

01:22that basically directed an all or nothing, a murder or an acquittal.

01:27That's the story that most people know and remember. But of course, that occurred all

01:31the way back in the early 90s. So what has happened to the Menendez brothers and those

01:35involved closely with the trial since then?

01:37Tell me I'm not a bad person.

01:38You killed your mom and dad, Eric.

01:40I know. I know.

01:42The brothers were separated immediately following the convictions, with Eric spending time in

01:47Folsom and Pleasant Valley State, while Lyle was sent to Mule Creek.

01:51Family members stay together.

01:53Family members who conspired to get out of the murders they committed together?

01:57Please.

01:58God knows what they could cook up if they lived in the same prison for the rest of their lives.

02:02In 1996, the same year that both were found guilty of murder,

02:06Lyle married a woman named Anna Erickson. Just three years later, Eric also married.

02:10His wife was Tammy Sackaman, and the two were officially wed inside the waiting room of

02:14Folsom State Prison, with a Twinkie serving as their cake. Eric and Tammy remain married

02:19to this day. Lyle divorced Erickson in 2001 and met a woman named Rebecca Sneed,

02:24whom he would marry in 2003. They two are still together.

02:28I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss each other in your mind's eye.

02:33Just one year after their imprisonment in 1996, defense attorney Leslie Abramson published a

02:38book titled The Defense Is Real, Life in the Trenches of Criminal Law, and she was later

02:43hired by Phil Spector to defend him in his famous murder trial. However, she parted ways with Spector

02:48before he was found guilty of killing Lana Clarkson. As of October 2024, she is 81 years old

02:54and retired. Of course, a lengthy appeals process followed the brothers' convictions.

02:591998 was a big year for the process, as the California Court of Appeal upheld their convictions,

03:04and the Supreme Court of California declined to hear the case. A number of habeas corpus

03:08petitions followed, stretching a number of years between 1999 to 2005. However,

03:13every single petition was denied, effectively bringing an end to their legal battle.

03:18Judge Weisberg showed remarkable patience. This is a victory for justice.

03:23That might have been all we heard of the Menendez brothers, but 2005 was also a big

03:27year in their personal lives. That's when Eric's wife Tammy Sackaman published the book They Said

03:32We'd Never Make It, My Life with Eric Menendez, which detailed her controversial and often

03:36difficult relationship with the imprisoned man. This included driving herself and their daughter

03:41150 miles every weekend to visit Eric in prison, not to mention the fierce contention that she

03:46faced from other family members for marrying a convicted murderer.

03:49Judge Brown agreed to meet us at my office, okay? We will get you married on that.

03:55Things remained quiet in the Menendez story until 2009, which is when Dominic

03:59Dunn passed away at the age of 83.

04:02You truly believe those Menendez boys are evil?

04:04Yes. When you've stared evil in the face as I have, it's something you never forget.

04:11A famous crime writer, Dunn was paramount in bringing the Menendez story to the masses,

04:15extensively covering their famous trial and penning an account titled Nightmare on Elm Drive,

04:20which was published in the October 1990 issue of Vanity Fair.

04:24He passed away on August 26, 2009, after a brief fight with bladder cancer.

04:29He hit at the age of 50. Then he found success.

04:34And he loved the trials.

04:36He sure did.

04:37And that was about it for a number of years. It wasn't until 2018 that the brothers found

04:41themselves in the news again, this time for a long-awaited family reunion. It was then that

04:46the Menendez brothers were reunited for the first time in over 20 years, having both been transferred

04:52to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility outside of San Diego. It was a deeply emotional

04:57moment for the brothers, as they both cried while they embraced.

05:00I wasn't sure how I would react, you know, in 20 years. I just felt a lot of adrenaline and

05:04just I ended up bursting into tears. It was just quite an emotional moment.

05:07Three years later, Les Soller, the prime detective in the Menendez case, passed away.

05:12The retired police officer suffered a major stroke on July 9 and remained in a coma for

05:17just under a month, but he never regained consciousness and tragically died on August 4,

05:212021. He was 69 years old.

05:25One of them said that the room was full of smoke when they walked in,

05:28two hours after the shots were fired. Was that window blown out?

05:33The Menendez brothers remain in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility to this day,

05:38being housed in a unit meant for rehabilitation and education.

05:41A major break in the story occurred in April of 2023, when a Puerto Rican pop singer named

05:46Roy Russello confessed on Today that he was sexually assaulted by the family patriarch

05:50Jose Menendez. The incident allegedly occurred back in the mid-1980s,

05:54when Russello was visiting the Menendez family in New Jersey.

06:02This seemingly gives huge credence to the brothers' claims,

06:05not to mention a serious boost to their legal defense. In May of 2023,

06:10their attorneys filed new court documents to have the convictions overturned.

06:13They point to two key pieces of evidence, the new allegations made by Russello and a letter

06:18that was discovered by the brothers' aunt Marta Cano back in 2018. It was written by Eric to his

06:24cousin and Cano's son Andy. In it, he details the horrific abuse he had been receiving at the hands

06:29of his father, writing damning things like, quote, it's worse for me now, quote, every night I stay

06:34up thinking he might come in, and quote, I don't know I'll make it through this.

06:38According to the attorneys, this letter was written before the murders took place,

06:42and conclusively disproves the prosecution's claim that Jose was not violent or abusive.

06:47We talk about this letter. Would the client not have told their own lawyer,

06:52I wrote this letter eight months ago. If you don't believe that it's going on, call my cousin.

06:58The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office confirms that the case is, quote,

07:02under review. It's hard to say just how effective the new pieces of evidence may be.

07:07But if they are effective, and if the district attorney's office is convinced by what they see,

07:11it's more than possible that the convictions will be overturned and the brothers set free.

07:16I think if people knew more about what really happened in the first trial,

07:20and what happened in the second trial, they would see that it was a miscarriage of justice.

07:25It was the trial of the century back in the 1990s, and the Menendez case has remained in

07:30the public spotlight ever since. Many people involved with the story have since passed away,

07:34and many more have faded from the public's view, but not the brothers themselves.

07:39With new shows and documentaries, not to mention some tantalizing fresh pieces of evidence,

07:44it's clear that interest in the story remains deeply rooted in the American consciousness.

07:48Judge issued an informal order asking the DA to reply,

07:52and the DA has been taking this very seriously.

07:54We can only wait and see how it will play out.

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