UPDATE, 2:42 PM: The Menendez brothers will have to wait another month to discover whether they have a chance of getting their sentences of life without parole reduced or reassessed.
Unsurprisingly, the previously rescheduled resentencing hearing set to begin March 20 has been kicked down the road. Now, Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez will get their day(s) in court on April 17-18.
The latest postponement comes just days after Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office was withdrawing their support for a motion for resentencing that his predecessor and election rival George Gascón put forth last year.
Pushing the potentially pivotal hearing another month also follows California Gov. Gavin Newsom pulling political rank on the DA. On March 11, seven days after ordering a risk assessment of the brothers to inform the clemency request on his desk since late last year, the lame-duck Democrat revealed on his This Is Gavin Newsom podcast that the brothers would appear individually before the parole board June 13.
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“A report then will be submitted to me on the 13th of June for consideration,” Newsom added. “We will submit that report to the judge for the resentencing, and that will weigh into our independent analysis of whether or not to move forward with the clemency application to support a commutation of this case.”
Sentenced in 1996 in their early 20s to spend the rest of the lives behind bars for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, the brothers have stepped back into the headlines in no small part due to Ryan Murphy and Netflix’s hit series Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story and several documentaries reexamining their cases.
Before the April hearings in front of L.A. Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic, there will be an April 11 hearing over the DA’s desire to drop the resentencing motion. That first session will likely be pretty short, all things considered.
“As stated before, we are prepared to go forward if the Court determines it has jurisdiction to do so on the Court’s own motion for resentencing while requesting that the Court allow the People to withdraw its resentencing motion filed by the prior District Attorney for the ‘legitimate reasons’ set forth in the People’s withdrawal request filed on March 10,” Hochman told Deadline today.
Lawyers for the Menendez brothers did not respond to request for comment on the new resentencing hearing dates.
PREVIOUSLY, MARCH 11 PM: California’s governor tonight revealed that the fate of the Menendez brothers will take a pivotal turn in the next 90 days — possibly towards freedom.
“On June 13, both Lyle and Eric Menendez independently will have their final hearing,” Gavin Newsom said late Tuesday in a shortened version of his recently-launched podcast in response to the March 10 announcement by L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman in which he pulled his office’s support for a resentencing of the siblings.
Coming just over two weeks after Hochman rejected new trials for the brothers, who were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 for the brutal 1989 shotgun murder of their parents, Monday’s declaration by the DA that they “do not meet the standards for rehabilitation” heated up the political hot potato this case has become in the Golden State the last six months.
Tonight, two weeks after Newsom ordered a parole board risk assessment of the Menendez cases, the lame duck governor picked up what Hochman put down, literally and figuratively, and ran with it.
“A report then will be submitted to me on the 13th of June for consideration,” Newsom said on his podcast of the now 50-ish brothers, who have been behind bars for decades. “We will submit that report to the judge for the resentencing, and that will weigh into our independent analysis of whether or not to move forward with the clemency application to support a commutation of this case.”
As it stands, even with Hochman’s anti-resentencing decision, a much delayed hearing is still on the court calendar for March 20-21 in front of L.A. Superior Court Michael Jesic.
How much weight that hearing will carry even if it occurs at this point is debatable. If Judge Jesic was to rule in favor of resentencing, it would go to the parole board who would then issue a report to the governor. Most of that process is already in motion with Newsom’s risk assessment order of February 26 and now the June 13 date he laid down late Tuesday.
To that, while denying ever watching a full episode of Ryan Murphy and Netflix’s hit Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story series, Newsom deftly offered both a slight compliment and a swipe at Hochman Tuesday “So, this was a very significant announcement from the DA this week, but it doesn’t fundamentally change the facts as it relates to the independent investigation in my office, the Board of Parole hearings, or fundamentally change or alter the process that’s underway with the resentencing,” the two-term Democrat said of the former Republican who many believe is eyeing the Governor’s mansion in Sacramento.
Hochman, it should be stressed, told Deadline in a December sit-down that “I absolutely tell you I am not running for that job.”
In the blood feuds and celebrity connections that often make up L.A. politics, Hochman’s immediate predecessor George Gascón suddenly jumped on the Menendez bandwagon in the dying days of his unsuccessful reelection campaign last fall. The ex-two-term San Francisco DA said he was backing a resentencing of the brothers. The media savvy Gascón additionally put his support behind a clemency petition sent to Newsom in late 2024. Not long after Hochman’s big win over Gascón, Newsom asserted that he would put any clemency moves on hold until the new DA got a chance to get his head around the case.
While making no secret of his disdain for Gascón, Hochman has also made no secret both on February 21 and on March 10 of a desire for Newsom to take the high-profile Menendez burden off his shoulders. Over and over last month, the DA spoke of the “absolutely unilateral full power, Constitutional power” the Governor possesses to commute the brothers’ individual sentences.
With the Menendez ball almost solidly in Newsom’s court now, Hochman found himself accused by a member of the siblings’ family of treating them with “dismissive, aggressive, and shaming behavior” during face-to-face meetings.
“Instead of responding with compassion, acknowledgment, or support, DA Hochman proceeded to verbally and emotionally re-traumatize the family by shaming us for allegedly not listening to his public press briefings,” Menendez cousin Tamara Goodell said of Hochman and his alleged “outrageous and abusive behavior” at early January meetings with members of the family who want the brothers’ freed. “His hostile, dismissive, and patronizing tone created an intimidating and bullying atmosphere, leaving us, the victims, more distressed and feeling humiliated,” Goodell went on to say in the missive to the U.S. Attorney’s office claiming the DA violated her rights under Marsy’s Law, the state’s bill of rights for victims by his conduct.
Goodell says she thinks it might be better if Hochman is removed from the Menendez matter and the likes of California Attorney General Rob Bonta take over.
“The original submissions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the LADA’s office were submitted on March 8th, 2025 at 2:16 p.m.,” Goodell also said to Deadline today. “As of 5:20pm on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, there has been no response via phone or email,” she added. As the victims’ family, I hoped to see DA Hochman act with impartiality, instead my family and I have been met with hostility and unprofessional behavior at every turn. We don’t understand why, but we do hope that that the Inspector General and U.S. Attorney’s Office are paying attention and ensure the DA starts behaving in a manner that is befitting of his position.”
Deadline reached out to the L.A. County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday about Goodell’s concerns. There was been no response. If they do reply, this post will be updated.
Newsom had nothing more to say on tonight on Menendez brothers beyond his short comments on the abbreviated version of his podcast. Doubtful the topic with come up on Newsom’s pre-recorded talk with MAGA warlord Steve Bannon set to debut Wednesday. Sprinkling the landscape with Menendez news the past few weeks, the opening episodes of This Is Gavin Newsom has otherwise seen governor having chummy chats with hard right personalities like Bannon, Michael Savage and Charlie Kirk. How that will help or hinder Newsom’s assumed greater political ambitions is TBD.