They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 18 and 21 after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

Former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón asked a judge last year to change the brothers’ sentence from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. That would made them immediately eligible for parole because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.

But Gascón’s successor reversed course. Nathan Hochman submitted a motion last month to withdraw the resentencing request.

Hochman’s office said they could not support the brothers’ resentencing because they had not admitted to lies told during their trial about why they killed their parents and did not “fully recognize, acknowledge, and accept complete responsibility” for their crime.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said prosecutors can make that argument during the resentencing hearing.

“Everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing next Thursday,” he said.

The brothers appeared in court over Zoom but didn’t make any public statements.

While the defense argued they acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

Deputy district attorney Habib Balian said Friday that the key issue with Gascón’s resentencing petition was that it did not fully address rehabilitation and missed key elements of the original crime committed.

“What does it mean? To learn from your mistakes and truly understand that you were wrong,” Balian said.

Balian presented evidence and video clips of the brothers’ testimony from the first trial to demonstrate instances where they “hunkered down in their bunker of deceit, lies, and deception.”

He said the brothers killed their parents out of greed when they learned they would be taken out of the will, citing psychiatrist’s notes that he said showed “this was not self-defense.”

The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, called the presentation a “dog and pony show” and said it was “nothing more than political cover” as a result of Hochman defeating Gascón in the district attorney’s race.

“They have authorized the denial of sexual abuse,” Geragos said of the prosecution’s presentation.

Geragos argued the judge had full authority to proceed with resentencing under a California law passed in 2023 that allows a court to recall a sentence and initiate resentencing at any point in time.

Geragos also objected to Balian including a photo of the deceased and bloody Menendez parents in his presentation, which he said “retraumatized” family members and victims. The brothers’ cousin Anamaria Baralt and aunt Terry Baralt were among the family members who were in the courtroom.

The family’s relationship with Hochman has soured. Most of the brothers’ extended family supports their resentencing.

Tamara Goodall, a cousin of the brothers, submitted a complaint with the state asking that Hochman be removed from the case, citing his bias against the brothers and alleging he violated a law meant to protect victims’ rights.

Hochman had a “hostile, dismissive and patronizing tone” in meetings with the family and created an “intimidating and bullying atmosphere,” Goodall wrote.

In their response to the district attorney’s motion to withdraw the resentencing request, attorneys for the Menendez brothers questioned whether Hochman had legitimate reasons for doing so or was influenced by “a change of political winds.”

The attorneys pointed out that Hochman demoted Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, the two deputy district attorneys who filed the original resentencing motion. Theberge and Lunsford have since filed lawsuits against Hochman alleging harassment, discrimination and retaliation for their work on the Menendez brothers case.

“The law requires fairness, not personal vendettas,” Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers, said in a statement.

Without resentencing, the brothers would still have two other pathways to freedom. They have submitted a clemency plea to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has ordered the state parole board to investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk to the public if they are released. The parole board is scheduled to hold its final hearings June 13.

The brothers also submitted a petition for habeas corpus in May 2023 asking the court to grant them a new trial in light of new evidence presented. Hochman’s office also filed a motion opposing the petition.

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The brothers were found guilty in the 1989 murders of their entertainment executive father, Jose, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. They began their latest bid for freedom in recent years after their attorneys said new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged, and they have the support of most of their extended family.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Friday he has filed an informal response urging the Los Angeles County Superior Court to reject a habeas petition filed by the brothers’ attorneys in 2023 that seeks a reexamination of their case that centers in part the allegations that Jose Menendez sexually abused Erik Menendez.

In a lengthy press conference, Hochman cast doubt on the evidence of abuse and said it was not pertinent to the case.

“Sexual abuse in this situation may have been a motivation for Erik and Lyle to do what they did, but it does not constitute self-defense,” Hochman said.

He also characterized the brothers’ own testimony of sexual abuse as untrustworthy because they had told five different explanations for why they committed the murder.

The Menendez family called Hochman’s decision “abhorrent” and said he “discredited the trauma” experienced by the brothers.

“Abuse does not exist in a vacuum. It leaves lasting scars, rewires the brain, and traps victims in cycles of fear and trauma,” they said in a statement. “To say it played no role in Erik and Lyle’s action is to ignore decades of psychological research and basic human understanding.”

The family said new evidence should not be needed, as the justice system failed the brothers back then and “continues to fail them now.”

Lyle Menendez, who was then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they killed their parents with a shotgun, but they said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent disclosure of their father’s long-term molestation of Erik.

Prosecutors said at the time there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in the brothers’ story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the trial that led to their conviction in 1996. Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for money.

The proposed resentencing for the brothers is still set to be taken up at a March hearing and would make them immediately eligible for parole. Hochman said at a news conference he’ll share an update on his position in the coming weeks.

His predecessor, George Gascón, recommended last year the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life. Gascón lost his bid for reelection in November to Hochman, who at the time called the recommendation a “desperate political move.”

The possible resentencing will take into account the brothers’ rehabilitation during their time in prison. Hochman has met with the brothers’ relatives as he reviews their case, which includes thousands of pages of prison records.

In the habeas petition, the two new pieces of evidence the brothers’ lawyers presented include a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano in 1988 saying his father was sexually abusing him, and a signed declaration from Roy Rossello, former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, that he was abused by Jose Menendez as a teen in the 1980s.

Rossello came forward in 2022 saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, head of RCA Records at the time, when Menudo was signed under the label.

Hochman said it was “inconceivable” and “defies common sense” that the letter to Cano — undated and unverified — was not discovered during the original trials. He also said Rossello’s modern-day declaration was not admissible because it would have no bearing on the brothers when they killed their parents.

Ultimately, Hochman said the habeas petition raised some of the “same exact arguments” in previous attempts to ask for a new trial over the decades, and they were all “routinely and repeatedly rejected.”

Erik and Lyle Menendez still have two pathways to freedom. They have also submitted a clemency plea to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously said he would not make a decision until Hochman reviewed the case.

The case has gained new traction after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. ”

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