New evidence could imply a likelihood at flexibility for the Menendez brothers, who are serving lifestyle sentences right after staying convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents.
An forthcoming Peacock docuseries termed “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” revisits the infamous situation, revealing new allegations of sexual assault in opposition to the Menendez brothers’ father.
Lyle and Erik Menendez ended up convicted of murdering their moms and dads, José and Mary Louise, recognized by “Kitty,” within their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. The defense argued that the brothers killed out of dread right after threatening to expose their father for many years of sexual abuse.
Testimony of sexual abuse was deemed inadmissible in the determining trial, with the decide citing irrelevance. The brothers, following two hung juries and mistrials, were uncovered responsible of initial-diploma murder and sentenced to daily life in jail.
Roy Rosselló, a former member of the 1980s Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, alleged in a clip of the docuseries that aired Tuesday on “These days” that he was raped as a teenager by José Menendez, who was then the head of RCA Data.
Rosselló explained he was also sexually abused by the band’s founder and previous manager Edgardo Diaz. Rosselló reported Diaz at the time introduced him to the Menendez dwelling, exactly where he explained José Menendez drugged and raped him.
“That’s the person listed here that raped me,” he claims in the clip even though pointing to a photo of José Menendez. “This guy. That is the pedophile.”
Rosselló’s allegations ended up relayed by mobile phone to the Menendez brothers, who are the two incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
“I sense awful” Erik Menendez mentioned. “It really is unfortunate to know that there was a further sufferer of my father. I normally hoped and considered that 1 working day the fact about my father would arrive out. But, I hardly ever wished for it to occur out like this, the consequence of trauma that yet another child has suffered. And it will make me quite unfortunate.”
“It was very overwhelming to hear that,” Lyle Menendez reported. “We’ve read rumors that a thing could possibly have took place with Menudo via the years. It truly is a outstanding issue to occur so numerous decades later… Of training course you know that that would have built a variance at trial. Certainly, that would have manufactured an massive difference since the overall demo centered on the perception about these occasions.”
In August of 1989, José was shot six periods and Kitty 10 instances with a 12-gauge shotgun in the den of their household. At the time of the murders, Lyle, a university student at Princeton, and Erik, an aspiring skilled tennis player, denied any involvement. The brothers drew scrutiny when they commenced spending lavishly soon after their parents’ fatalities, with prosecutors later on arguing they had been trying to get entry to the family’s $14 million estate.
The demo turned a Court docket Television set sensation.
Alan Jackson, a felony protection legal professional, advised NBC News that the new allegations give a “glimmer of hope” for the Menendez brothers to be freed. Jackson stated they’d have to file a petition to be reviewed by a excellent court docket judge, who has to grant a new trial that the defense then has to get.
“Hopefully it will make a difference. You would consider in a fair globe that it would,” Lyle Menendez stated in the docuseries, which premieres Could 2. “Whether or not we stay in that honest world actually, I guess we’ll come across out.”
