LA judge postpones Menendez brothers release hearing as aunties plead for their freedom

Family of Lyle and Erik Menendez told a judge they want the men freed from the life sentences they are serving for the shotgun murders of their parents, as their court case suffered a delay.

The pair have been in prison since a blockbuster trial in the 1990s that became almost compulsory viewing for millions of Americans.

Television audiences were riveted by the gruesome details of the slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the family’s luxury Beverly Hills mansion. The two men, who have spent more than three decades behind bars, had been due to appear by videolink at a hearing in Los Angeles, their first court appearance in 28 years as a campaign to set them free gathers pace.

But technical difficulties scuppered the appearance and the hearing was pushed back to the end of January.

Nevertheless, Judge Michael Jesic called the two men’s elderly aunts to the stand to hear them plead for the brothers to be freed.

“I would like to be able to hug them and see them,” Jose Menendez’s older sister Terry Baralt, 85, said.

“I would like them to come home.”

Kitty’s sister, Joan Vander Molen, echoed that.

“No child should go through what Erik and Lyle went through,” she said.

“They never knew if tonight will be the night when they would be raped.”

Prosecutors painted the crime as a cold-hearted bid by the then-young men — Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 — to get their hands on their parents’ $US14 million fortune.

But their attorneys described the 1989 killings as an act of desperate self-defence by young men subjected to years of sexual abuse and psychological violence at the hands of an abusive father and a complicit mother.

The case saw a huge surge of renewed interest this year with the release of the Netflix hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

The hearing comes after a campaign to secure their release, supported by Kim Kardashian and other celebrities.

“Set them free before the Holidays!” wrote Tammi Menendez, Erik’s wife, on social media last week.

Public interest was such that the court held a lottery for the 16 seats in the public gallery.

Nick Bonanno, a former high school classmate of Erik’s, was the first to arrive at the court, taking his place at the head of the line at 4:30am.

“I wanted to show support to... Eric and Lyle,” he said ahead of the hearing.

Judge Jesic postponed a hearing over the possible release until January 30, 2025, of Lyle and Erik Menendez after 35 years in prison for the shotgun murder of their parents, saying he wanted to hear from a new district attorney taking office next week.