Judge denies Menendez Brothers' New-Trial Bid, Habeas Petition Denied

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday rejected a bid by Erik and Lyle Menendez for a new trial, removing another avenue the brothers had pursued to win freedom after serving more than three decades for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents at the family’s Beverly Hills home. Judge William C. Ryan ruled that recently surfaced material alleging longterm sexual abuse by the brothers’ father would not likely have changed the jury’s verdicts and denied the 2023 habeas petition.

The petition advanced two pieces of purportedly new evidence: an alleged late-1988 or early-1989 letter from Erik Menendez to a cousin in which he described ongoing abuse, and a declaration by former Menudo singer Roy Rosselló asserting that he too was molested by José Menendez as a teenager. Attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner told the court the evidence corroborated the brothers’ long-standing claims that the killings followed years of sexual and physical abuse and that the new material would have supported their defense.

In a 16-page ruling, Judge Ryan found the evidence only slightly corroborated abuse allegations and did not undercut the prosecution’s contention that the slayings were...