The first and perhaps most important task Bozanich had was to try to rehumanise the two victims, who, in the flurry of pseudo-psychiatry, had somehow been pushed to the side. As the lead prosecutor had told the press the previous day, she had to keep reminding herself there were two dead bodies in the case, the defence having twisted and warped the trial into all other sort of shapes, and misdirected and redirected the attention of both the jury and the judge, as well as the public. What should have been a simple enough murder trial had now* become a test of America’s reaction to child abuse, even if this was only alleged. The focus had been too much for the last few months on why the brothers had killed their parents, not how they were going to pay for such a crime. With an admission of guilt, however, it seems unlikely to me, at best, that they could be acquitted. Nevertheless, they might face some charge of diminished responsibility or mitigating factors which would shorten their sentence. I suppose they could have been found not guilty. I’m not really sure how the law works in that regard; if you’ve admitted you did it, can you still be let free?
Bozanich began calling witnesses who were tied to the Menendez family by blood. First though there was a pool cleaner, Grant Walker, who was able to testify that, contrary to their story that they had stayed away - ostensibly in fear - from their parents on the day of the killing, he had seen both boys there with their mother, and both seemed to be arguing with and cursing at her. Unlike many of the witnesses Abramson had already demolished, like the cop from New York who had been detailed to drive Erik around, Walker did not crack, and stuck calmly to his story. The maid, Flor Suria, testified she had heard no argument on the day in question, and also refuted the suggestion that there were pornographic magazines in the house, especially homosexual ones.
Jamie Pisarcik was persuaded to take the stand, and testified she had broken up with Lyle when he had admitted, from jail, that they had killed their parents. She also blew a hole in another contention of the defence, that it had been the sight of Lyle’s hairpiece that had shocked his brother into confessing to him about the so-called abuse, making it clear Erik had seen the wig long before that, so his story could not be true. She also revealed that Lyle had sent her to the law library in Santa Monica, looking for files on cases in which children had been found not guilty after killing parents believed to have been abusing them. Of course her testimony did not go unchallenged, and Abramson did all she could to discredit the girl, scoring some points. Brian Andersen, Kitty’s brother, however, held his nerve better, and dropped a bombshell for both defence and prosecution when he casually admitted his sister had been in therapy. Jose’s secretary spoke of Lyle rather callously wearing his father’s shoes the day after the memorial service and joking about being able to fill them.
The Hammer of Justice Falls, But...
Finally, the case was over. Both the prosecution and the defence had presented their cases, and rested on December 3. To the defence’s dismay, Judge Weisberg refused to allow the jury to consider a verdict of not guilty, but did instruct them that they could bring one in of manslaughter if they felt that was appropriate. However on January 13 (for Erik) and 27 (for Lyle)* the verdict returned was not one of manslaughter, nor was it murder. It wasn’t any verdict. The jury was hung and Weisberg had to declare a mistrial. This could be seen as a victory for the defence, but at least it didn’t mean the brothers avoided a verdict of guilty of murder, and the DA promised he would try the case again. Which he did.
With this time limited evidence allowed by Weisberg of the so-called sexual abuse, and no cameras allowed in the court, the jury found both brothers guilty of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. They only avoided the death penalty due to their previous lack of a criminal record, and no doubt due to their money and contacts. The jury this time rejected completely the idea that the two had killed their parents in fear of their lives, and the whole thing was reduced to what it most likely was: murder for greed and gain. Ironically, reflecting the great Charles Dickens in
Bleak House, as the original trial wound on their parents’ estate was all but swallowed up to pay the costs of their expensive defence team, so even had they been somehow acquitted (which was never an option) they would not have stood to inherit the fortune they had expected, and for which they had murdered both their parents.
Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez, inseparable as brothers to the point where they teamed up to kill together, were finally split up, sent to different prisons, and did not see each other again for another twenty-two years, when they were finally reunited in 2018, housed in the same cell block. Multiple appeals were constantly turned down by superior and state courts. Both brothers eventually married, Lyle’s first lasting a mere five years, from 1996 to 2001, whereupon he remarried two years later. Erik married in 1999.
It may have taken a very long time, but eventually the lies of the Menendez brothers fell on deaf ears, and, mostly hated by America - probably, it has ot be said, more for the fact that they were rich kids who seemed about to get away with murder than out of any real remorse for the deaths of their parents - the two arrogant rich scions of the business mogul who had callously but successfully driven everyone before him, crushing those in his path, determined to leave behind a legacy he could be proud of, will spend the rest of their miserable lives in a small jail cell, dreaming perhaps of what might have been.
Of course there were the movies, the TV documentaries and many books written about the crimes and the trials of the Menendez brothers, but that’s only to be expected. Unfortunately, few people want to read about saints, or philanthropists, or even heroes who save people; well, the last, maybe, but those who read about their exploits will soon forget them, whereas the stories of evil remain in our minds and, sadly, our hearts. As Shakespeare’s Marc Antony said in
Julius Caesar, "the evil men do lives after them", or to put it in more modern parlance, evil sells.