pizzainshower

Great Trials.

Jose Menendez won an athletic scholarship in swimming to Southern Illinois University, and he used the money from that to support himself. While attending, Jose met a girl named Kitty, and they grew fond of each other and eventually became well attached, and eventually leading to marriage. Jose gave up his athletic scholarship at Southern Illinois and transferred to Queens College, City University of New York, while Kitty found a job teaching grade school. He wanted to become a huge success in the business world, and gain money that they could live off of for a long time. In 1981, Jose was assigned to RCA’s record division, which was saddled with overpaid, aging recording stars. Jose tried to turn the division around by signing the Eurhythmics and Jefferson Starship By 1985, at the age of 41, Jose had risen to become the executive vice president and chief operating officer for RCA Records' worldwide operations. However, as hard as he tried, Jose was unable to turn RCA Records around. Through contacts that Jose had made while at RCA, he was able to find a position as the President of LIVE Entertainment in California. LIVE posted a loss of $20 million, and Jose used the opportunity to turn the company around, in which he did and made millions of dollars. He was the key man of the company.

Jose had an affair with a woman named Louise and Kitty found out and left the house for several days. Jose persuaded her to come back so she could be there for the kids.

Jose and Kitty eventually had two children, Lyle and Erik. Lyle was the older brother and Erik was the younger one. Jose was dedicated to make his sons become just as successful as he was. He wanted them to go to an Ivy League College, and to get a great education. When the boys were young, Jose had rules for everything, from what they ate to what they read and thought about. Jose was very demanding. The boys struggled to meet those demands as well. They developed stutters, stomach pains and both had a bad habit of grinding their teeth. They were also extremely high tempered.

As the boys grew up, they were drawn to each other for companionship, considering their fathers demand for control. Erik being the younger one worshipped Lyle as they grew older. He always told his friends how much he admired his older brother. Most of his friends didn’t understand why, because they were always so intimidated by Lyle and that he was major trouble.

In 1979 the family lived in New Jersey, and the boys attended a private day school. The teacher had noticed that the boys were troubled academically and that they had learning problems. She approached Jose about it, but he wouldn’t accept the fact that his sons had flaws. The teachers also noticed that the brothers were more immature than the rest of the children.

There was more to the brothers, as they headed towards more trouble. Their cousin Diane had come to visit them for the summer, when they were twelve and fifteen. One night they were play fighting which escalated greatly. The brothers tied up their cousin and began to undress her as she screamed. Then the brothers stopped. Another incident, Diane and Lyle were watching television and without warning, he jumped on top of her and began to fondle her. So the brothers did not behave like most children would have.

In the summer of 1989, Lyle was facing several major problems. His girlfriend Christy told him that she was pregnant. Jose found out and went to see her. According to Lyle, Jose intimidated her into having an abortion. Kitty later told one of her friends that Jose paid Christy $100,000. After paying Christy off, Jose and Kitty demanded that Lyle give her up for good.

Lyle’s spring semester report card from Princeton was terrible. His grades included one F. Lyle was on academic probation despite assistance with his papers and assignments. Jose and Kitty were notified by mail that Princeton was placing Lyle on disciplinary probation after some pool tables in his residence hall were damaged during a party he had thrown. His New Jersey driver’s license was suspended. Lyle had also caused the family’s privileges at their country club in Princeton to be suspended. He and Donovan, his best friend, took a nighttime golf cart ride across the club’s greens that caused a large amount of damage.

Kitty began to lock the door to her bedroom at night and she kept two twenty-two rifles in her closet. She would not allow Lyle and Erik to have keys to the house. When the brothers came home at night, Kitty would let them into the house, even if she had to be woken up. It was apparent that something was frightening Kitty. Her fears were because of what the brothers’ psychiatrist had told Kitty that they were sociopaths.

On August 19th, 1989 the family went shark fishing. According to the crew of the boat, they did not seem to be much of a family. Jose stayed in the back of the boat and fished, while Kitty went below and stayed in the boat’s cabin because she was seasick. The brothers stayed to themselves at the bow of the boat

On the evening of Sunday August 20th 1989, it was reported that Jose and Kitty Menendez were murdered in their family room of their mansion in Beverly Hills while watching the television. Jose was shot twice with a 12 gauge shotgun and Kitty was shot 10 times. Lyle had called the police reporting the murders. He was on the phone, crying, and sometime during the conversation you can hear him telling Erik to “shut up”

After their parents’ death, the brothers inherited about $14 million. They went on a spending spree, buying expensive cars and even another home and even lived in hotels because they said they tried to stay away from the “mobsters” that killed their parents. Lyle tried to gain control of LIVE in his fathers place because Lyle was the son that Jose always talked about. Erik didn’t continue on his education or consider a job anywhere. So he traveled with a tennis coach, staying at expensive hotels, and trying to gain the skill he needed to become a famous tennis player. He paid the coach $60,000 a year. Erik spent as much as he could in order for him to sharpen his game.
Besides the spending sprees, the police were suspicious of the brothers because they had called a computer expert on August 31, 1989 to erase the files in Kitty’s computer. The police learned about Kitty’s computer from Glen Stevens, a friend of Lyle’s. Glen told the police that Lyle had told him that he erased the new will and called a computer expert to ensure that no one would be able to retrieve the computer file.
Erik called Lyle in Princeton. He couldn’t reach him. He needed someone to talk to and confide in, so he called his psychotherapist, Jerome Oziel. During the session they walked around Beverly Hills eventually leading back to the office. Erik stopped walking and leaned against a parking meter. Oziel stopped walking as well and Erik said, "We did it. We killed our parents."

The both believed that their dad was going to take them out of the will due to their actions and behavioural patterns. The boys were to murder there father, but never wanted to murder there mother. But because she presented a problem with knowing that they had done it, she had to be killed as well. The boys took a trip to San Diego to purchase shotguns. They had been careful and cleaned up the shotgun casings. They didn’t worry about fingerprints because since they live in that home, their fingerprints were everywhere anyways. After they finished cleaning up, Lyle drove Erik to Mulholland Drive. Erik was too shaken to drive. They stopped and waited for cars to go by, and once no one was around, they threw the shotguns into the canyon. Then they headed to a nearby gas station where they dumped their bloody clothes, shoes, and shell casings into a dumpster. They then headed home, where they called the police.

Lyle found out that Erik had told Oziel about the murders, and he was furious. Lyle threatened him and said that he may have to kill him in order to keep the secret. Oziel could have reported Lyle and Erik to the police because they had threatened him and this threat erased the patient-therapist confidentiality barrier, but he did not. Instead, he made notes and tape recordings of his sessions with the brothers.

Erik did not only tell Oziel about the murders, but his friend Craig too. He had asked Craig if he wanted to know how “it” happened and he immediately knew what Erik was talking about. Craig told the detectives, but he didn’t know whether to believe Erik or not. Apparently the two played mind games with each other by saying “It could’ve happened”. Erik and Craig had a dinner meeting together, and that’s when Erik told Craig that he had been lying and had nothing to do with his parents’ murder.

After Oziel was told about the murders, he had sessions with both brothers to discuss it all. He had someone plant a tape recorder in the office, where every session was recorded by someone else’s hand. He had made copies of it. His wife, Judalon Smyth, works an audiotape duplicating business and she copied them. She then came forward to police with a copy of the tapes. Smyth told the detectives she overheard a shouting match between Lyle and Erik in which Lyle shouted, "I can’t believe you told him!" "We’ve got to kill him and anyone associated with him." According to Smyth, Erik screamed back, "I can’t stop you from what you have to do, but I can’t kill any more." The session ended when Erik ran out of the office sobbing.

Around 1:00 p.m. on March 8, Lyle and his friends decided to go out for lunch. Lyle’s friends jumped into Erik’s Jeep while Lyle got behind the wheel. The destination was the Cheesecake Factory, just as on the night of the murders. Down the road from the mansion, the police were waiting. They didn’t want to storm into the house because Jose’s mother was living there and didn’t want to disturb her with anything. They wanted to arrest Lyle first because they had information he was going to be leaving Beverly Hills. At this time, Erik was in Israel playing in a tennis tournament. Erik’s Aunt talked to him and said it would be best if he turned himself in. Erik flew back to Los Angeles Airport where the detectives met up with him and took him into custody.

The brothers spent 3 years in the Los Angeles County Men’s jail awaiting their trials beginning. They were celled in sections where O.J Simpson and Ramirez, the Nightstalker, were kept. The first few months, Erik became suicidal and was visited by a priest. He started talking to Erik, and then Erik revealed to him some of the traumas he suffered during his childhood. This is the foundation for the brother’s defense. Lyle’s ankle chains were almost cut through, so both Lyle and Erik’s cells were inspected. They found a seventeen page letter from Lyle to Erik, as well as notes in Erik’s cell. It described plans to travel to South American and then to the Middle East. They also found a drawing plan of a building, but couldn’t match it. Lyle tells Erik he would never testify against him. He also gives Erik advice he thinks Jose would have given him.

Their trial was held at the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Lyle and Erik Menendez were to be tried together in the interests of time, cost and convenience. Each brother was to have a separate jury, but all in one trial. This meant that if evidence that was pertained to Lyle only, Erik’s jury would be excluded and vice versa.

The defense tried to prove that it was Jose and Kitty, who should be accountable for why the murders were committed, not Lyle and Erik. Their defense was based that the brothers had been living in fear over a long period of time, going back many years. But, the brothers had never complained to their psychologist of any history of abuse at all. They boys had stated that they didn’t speak of any incidents prior to the arrests because they felt shameful to talk about it. They also argued that the shark fishing trip was a setup for their parents to kill them.

Jose and Kitty had friends over on the night of August 20th to play bridge. If they had planned to kill the boys that night, as the boys stated, then they wouldn’t have had people over.

A lady witnessed the boys running around, arguing, and not crying about their parents’ deaths. The night before the murders, the brothers went fishing with their parents and were seen huddled together for the majority of the time spent fishing.

Although the case against the brothers appeared to be in the favor of the prosecution, it was derailed by carefully rehearsed testimonies, great defense attorneys, indecisive judge, and a group of jurors manipulated to accept and outlandish defense. This resulted in a mistrial.

On February 28, 1995, Judge Weissberg set a trial date of June 12, 1995 for the retrial of the Menendez brothers. This time the brothers were to be tried together, in front of one single jury.

The newly appointed prosecutor, Conn, spent two and a half years planning out his strategy he would use to bring down the Menendez defense. The judge had ruled that the trial was not to be televised because it would "increase the risk that jurors would be exposed to information and commentary about the case outside of the courtroom."

Conn started off the prosecutions case by presenting three tapes that were recordings of the brothers. One was of the brothers being interviewed by the police department. It took place a month after the murders and the brothers were heard saying they didn’t have any problems with their parents. The second tape was of the brothers admitting to their psychiatrist that they had murdered their parents. The last tape was of Lyle calling 911 on the night of his parent’s murders. He said that Lyle was spun a web of lies after killing his parents and turned to tears so they wouldn’t be suspected. The second week of the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that greed motivated the brothers to do it.

Someone testified that two months prior to the killings, Jose told him that he wanted to disinherit his sons from the will because Lyle was failing academically and Erik lacked talent, toughness and forcefulness.

Erik testified and said what he did was out of fear of his life from his father. He stuck to the same testimony as in the first trial. This time, Erik underwent examination from Dr. John Wilson, a psychology professor from Cleveland State University. Wilson said that Erik suffered from the classic symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that included nightmares and amnesia. This was new to the jury since he did not testify in the first trial.

Lyle didn’t testify, so his alleged “sexual abuse” wasn’t questioned by cross examination. They changes Lyles defense in the second trial, by stating he did what he did out of passion and a strong feeling of fear from his parents. He felt he had to kill them in order to save his own life. The judge ended up ruling that the parent’s alleged psychological mistreatment of the brothers was irrelevant.

February 16th, the Judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to support that the brothers were in any danger of their parents when they shot them on August 20th. The Judge also ruled that there was enough evidence to show that Jose provoked them into killing him, but none for Kitty.

On March 20th, the jury convicted the brothers each of two counts of first degree murder, as well as conspiracy to commit murder. There were only two sentencing options for the brothers, and that was life in prison without the possibility of parole, or death by execution. The same jury determined the brothers’ sentences.

On July 2, 1996 the Judge sentenced Lyle and Erik to life in prison without the possibility of parole, sentenced them to consecutive sentences for the murders and the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

Both brothers were moved to different prisons. Many people believed that having them imprisoned together would be a risk.

Piczo