L.A. D.A. Says Menendez Bros Missed Chance to Come Clean

TMZ

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman says Erik and Lyle Menendez needed to 'fess up to all their lies when talking to TMZ from prison.

Transcript

00:00We have heard and expect that Mark Garagos will ask the judge to change the conviction.

00:08What would your reaction be to that?

00:10He wants them to change the conviction to manslaughter, in which case they would get

00:15out immediately, having served the maximum for manslaughter in California.

00:20Your reaction to that would be if he does ask for that.

00:23Well, I think that that would do a, it'd be almost an insult to the jury.

00:29It'd be insult to the facts of the case.

00:31It'd be the insult to the memory of Kitty and Jose Menendez, that the premeditation, the

00:36deliberation, Mark Garagos is saying, judge, that doesn't matter.

00:41Divorce yourself from the facts and go ahead and be result driven and just let the Menendez's

00:46out.

00:47That's what the family wants as well.

00:49And I totally get it.

00:50If I'm a family member and I think that, you know, someone has served enough time, I'd want

00:55them out as well.

00:56But the DA's office, and I believe the judge and even the governor, are governed by the

01:01facts and the law.

01:03And if Mark Garagos wants to argue the most counterfactual position you can under these

01:10circumstances, I believe he will undermine his entire argument on why resentencing should

01:15take place.

01:17So it'll be very interesting to see whether or not Mark Garagos will adopt this extreme

01:22counterfactual argument and take the chance the judge is going to discredit his entire

01:28credibility in advocating any position because he's taking a position that is not even remotely

01:35grounded in the facts and the law.

01:36Aren't the two operative issues here, are they rehabilitated and do they pose a danger?

01:43And isn't that ultimately what the parole board is going to decide and then send it

01:50on to Gavin Newsom for his evaluation?

01:53I mean, aren't those really, at this point, we know about the murders, aren't those the

01:58two operative issues here?

02:00Yes.

02:00And I'll tell you, though, where insight plays a role in that.

02:04While insight is not a separate factor in the resentencing statute, the California Supreme

02:09Court has said explicitly that if one has not fully accepted responsibility for all their

02:16criminal actions and has tried to minimize them, in this case, these two brothers have

02:22perpetrated for over 30 years the lie that the reason that they shot their parents was

02:28basically for self-defense.

02:29They then tried to concoct additional lies about their father being a violent rapist and

02:34their mother being a poisoner.

02:36And, Harvey, you gave them the opportunity in their most recent interviews to finally

02:41come clean and say, look, we've been lying about this the whole time, just by the way

02:47like we lied when we said we never did the murders themselves and blamed the mafia.

02:52They could have come clean in your prison interview, and then they could have done it sincerely,

02:57unequivocally, and said to the judge, and said to the public, and said to the parole board

03:01and the governor, look, we get it, we are now making a clean breast of all the criminal

03:08actions and the lies we have told, look at our good rehabilitation and prison judge, look

03:14at our good rehabilitation, parole board, Governor Newsom, and let us out.

03:20And you, Harvey, gave them the greatest opportunity to go ahead and finally come abreast and come

03:27clean.

03:28With all their crimes, with all their lies, they failed to do it.

03:32I don't know why they failed, but they failed to do it.

03:34And maybe they'll come clean in the future, and at that point, resentencing and rehabilitation

03:40might finally be realized.

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