Erik’s 85 -year aunt Ly Menéndez, Terry Baralt, has been hospitalized after prosecutors showed graphic images of the crime scene at the brothers’ audience, said the family.
The relatives are criticizing the Office of the District Prosecutor of Los Angeles County for their “cruel” presentation in the Court on Friday and said they are taking formal measures to demand that Da Nathan Hochman’s office be eliminated from the case.
Lyle, on the left, and Erik Menéndez sit in the municipal court of Beverly Hills, where his lawyers delayed declare in the name of the brothers who are suspected in the murders of their parents on March 12, 1990.
Nick UT/AP
Lyle and Erik Menéndez, who are fulfilling life imprisonment without the possibility of probation for the 1989 murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, are fighting to be released after 35 years after bars. More than 20 of their relatives are pressing for their release, arguing that they suffered horrible abuses, have admitted guilt and apologized, and have used their decades in custody to help others.
Baralt, who is José Menéndez’s sister, is fighting colon cancer. But he traveled from his home in New Jersey to Los Angeles to support his nephews at his audience, where the family said he was forced, without prior notice, witnesses of spooky images, including his brother’s body.
“No physical pain has prevented him from being there for his nephews,” the family said in a statement on Sunday. “But the screen on the prosecutor’s office pushed her beyond the edge.”
Erik’s 85 -year aunt Ly Menéndez, Terry Baralt, has been hospitalized after prosecutors showed graphic images of the crime scene at the brothers’ audience, said the family.
ABC news
Baralt was found without responding on Sunday morning and was hospitalized in critical condition, said the family.
“We are devastated,” said the family.
“Terry cannot recover from what was done, and all of us, in that courtroom,” said the family. “We deserve better. We firmly believe that if the district prosecutor’s office had even demonstrated an advertisement for us, as victims, we would not wait one more day with Terry at this time.”
The family said the graphic exhibition violated Marsy’s law, California’s Declaration of Rights for Victims, specifically pointing out that it establishes that a victim has the right to “be treated with equity and respect” and be “free of intimidation, harassment and abuse.”
“Being hard with crime is important, it is good,” said the Menéndez family lawyer Bryan Freedman. “But that is difficult for crime, not creating fear, pain and trauma in family members.”
The Prosecutor’s Office apologized “for not giving a previous warning,” saying in a statement on Sunday: “We never intend to cause anguish or pain to people who attend a judicial hearing.”
Nathan Hochman district prosecutor offers an update on the Lyle and Erik Menéndez case, March 10, 2025.
Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times through Getty Images
“However, by design, these hearings are destined to be a place where the truth, regardless of how painful, comes to light,” added the prosecutor’s office. “That truth begins with the abject brutality and the premeditation of the murders themselves … there has never been an objection to describing this highly brutal behavior and murders in words, nor did anyone oppose this office when such images of the crime scene were recently shown in a Netflix documentary.”
“Let’s warn anyone who attended an audience in person to be prepared for some of the difficult details and images surrounding these tragic circumstances,” the prosecutors added.
Initially, the family requested the elimination of Hochman from the case last month, qualifying their “hostile”, “condescending” and “reaumatizing” behavior.
“[The prosecutors] I have demonstrated again and again that they are unable to handle this process with equity, care or neutrality required by law, “the family said Sunday.
The Schedule Hearing on Friday was about Hochman’s motion to withdraw the request for resentment of the brothers, presented under the previous district prosecutor, George Gascón, who supported the liberation of the brothers. Hochman, who defeated Gascón in the November elections, argued that Lyle and Erik Menéndez have not assumed the responsibility of their actions and called their self -defense statements part of a litany of “lies.”
The judge denied Hochman’s motion on Friday and said that the official resentment hearing will continue as planned on April 17 and 18, bringing one more step to potential freedom.
Matt Gutman and Lisa Sivertsen of ABC News contributed to this report.
