10 Shocking Moments From the Menendez Brothers Trial

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The Menendez trial captivated the world with its shocking twists and raw courtroom drama. Welcome to WatchMojo.world, where we’re counting down 10 unbelievable moments from the Lyle and Erik Menendez trial, from explosive testimonies to jaw-dropping revelations that changed the course of the case.  Which moment do you think was the most shocking? Tell us in the comments!

Transcript

00:00It's just my story.

00:01Explain what it's felt like my whole life to be Lyle Menendez.

00:04There's just no way that anybody would say that I deserve to go to prison.

00:08Lyle, that's a really good idea.

00:10Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down the wildest,

00:13most compelling, most unbelievable moments of Lyle and Eric Menendez's infamous court proceedings.

00:19How old were you when you started noticing that you were losing some hair?

00:27I think 14.

00:30The abuse excuse.

00:32Well, I would just like to know if we're permitted, therefore,

00:35to tell whatever stories we know about other abused people,

00:38because I have a stack of mail, 300 letters high,

00:42that I'd be more than happy to read to the jury and tell them abuse stories.

00:45Before any of the Menendez trials were underway,

00:48the matter of whether or not Lyle and Eric had taken their parents' lives was hardly up for debate.

00:53Rather, the pressure was on litigator Leslie Abramson to successfully dodge the death penalty.

00:57Do you recall Eric's testimony that all he wanted from Andy was some understanding of whether what was going on was normal?

01:05Yes.

01:06Was he seeking Andy to turn his father in?

01:09No.

01:09Upon meeting with and speaking to the brothers across various interviews,

01:13it became clear that Abramson had the opportunity to draw attention to the wider pattern of abuse that both young men had described.

01:20A bold strategy even at the time.

01:22It was up to the defense to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

01:25that not only had the abuse taken place,

01:28but that it had become so unbearable as to do what the brothers had done.

01:31They're the ones who understand this field,

01:34and they have no doubt that this aspect of her endangering her children

01:39was a serious component in why they were capable of believing that she did kill them.

01:44Dr. Oziel's confession tapes.

01:47In the early fall of 1988,

01:49did you begin seeing Eric and Lyle Menendez relating to incidents which occurred in Calabasas

01:55in which the defendants were involved?

01:57Yes, I did.

01:58After an attempt by local authorities to coax a confession out of Eric failed,

02:02the younger Menendez brother's admission finally came from an unexpected source,

02:06his therapist, Dr. L. Jerome Oziel.

02:09The mental health professional recorded his sessions with Eric after he confessed to the murders.

02:13This move was predictably met with considerable levels of controversy.

02:18Eric came in, and he was extremely agitated and extremely depressed,

02:24and he began talking with me.

02:27Although the tapes were perceived as possibly violating doctor-patient confidentiality,

02:32an August 1992 ruling by the California Supreme Court eventually ruled them mostly admissible

02:38due to the heavy implication that Lyle and Eric had threatened Oziel.

02:41One major exception?

02:44The actual tape on which Eric had made his confession.

02:47We did it.

02:49He said we killed our parents, but I asked him,

02:52you mean you killed your parents?

02:55He said yes.

02:56The brother's family testifies.

02:58Do you recall a time when your cousin Eric was playing at your house where in the course of

03:06your time together he told you something you had not heard before?

03:11Yes, I do.

03:12The aforementioned abuse excuse was, of course, controversial.

03:16How could the brothers' defense team justify or even attempt to rationalize their heinous crime?

03:20While it's true that the truth in the Menendez's case is likely completely unknowable,

03:26Lyle and Eric benefited greatly from the testimony of two cousins, Andy Cano and Diane Vandermolen.

03:31He asked me if my dad ever gave me massages.

03:37And did you understand at that point what he meant?

03:40No, I didn't.

03:41Cano testified that Eric Menendez had confided in him about Jose Menendez's abuse when the two

03:47of them were children, complete with vivid and descriptive details.

03:50Perhaps even more damningly, Vandermolen's testimony revealed that Lyle Menendez had once

03:55revealed Jose's abuse to her.

03:57But when she had brought it up with Lyle's mother, Kitty, she was brushed off and shut down.

04:01He proceeded to indicate to me by touching himself down and saying that his dad and him

04:11had been touching each other down there.

04:13Eric Menendez's testimony.

04:14He was over my shoulder, yelling at me in my ear, and I just said,

04:22all right, all right, and he just, not something you're supposed to do, and he just grabbed

04:28me and slammed me into the glass.

04:29Here's when things really started to get real.

04:32In his shocking testimony, Eric asserted that in the weeks leading up to the double murder,

04:37he had finally mustered up the courage to admit his father's abuse to his brother Lyle.

04:41After this, Lyle claims to have confronted Jose, who made what appeared to be a cryptic-coded

04:47threat against his son's lives.

04:48How did you interpret the things that your mother said to you in the den that Thursday

04:52night when you were on your way to the guesthouse?

04:54That she knew about Dad and I.

04:56And that she had known?

04:57She said she had always known.

04:59Eric's testimony revealed that per his account of the situation, this began a period of tension

05:04within the family, in which the brothers seemed to sincerely believe that their lives were

05:09in danger.

05:10After a series of increasingly intense encounters, the brothers made the choice to kill their

05:14parents.

05:15They viewed it as self-defense.

05:17Were you happy about what you had done?

05:20No, it was beginning to hit me what I had done when I went back to the house that night.

05:25And I couldn't accept that.

05:30My question was, were you happy then?

05:32No, I was not happy.

05:33Judelon Smith takes the stand.

05:35Miss Smith, would it be fair to say that when you went to the police on March the 5th of

05:391990, your primary motivation is that you wanted Dr. Ozeal prosecuted?

05:44Correct.

05:45He was the one who committed crimes against me, not Lyle or Eric Menendez.

05:49It's only fitting that the person who first went to the authorities about Ozeal's confession

05:53tapes provided some of the trial's most memorable moments.

05:56Smith was the therapist's mistress, who, when told by Ozeal that he wouldn't leave his

06:00wife for her, promptly informed the police about the tape's existence.

06:04I was interested in proving that I was telling the truth, that Dr. Ozeal was a liar and that

06:11I had been terribly victimized and had real criminal charges, criminal acts committed against

06:20In a turn of events that few would have predicted, Smith became a witness for the defense, revealing

06:26that Ozeal had attempted to extort the Menendez brothers for weekly payments in exchange for

06:30keeping their secret.

06:32While even the presiding judge eventually tired of the sordid details of Ozeal and Smith's

06:36affair, Smith's statement that she, quote, would not want children that looked like Dr.

06:41Ozeal was a notable highlight.

06:43My being upset is not because they wouldn't file those charges.

06:46My being upset is because all the behind-the-scene things around that.

06:52Lyle's testimony.

06:54Would he seem to be directed at taking photos of your faces?

06:58No.

07:00What would he?

07:01He would take photographs of your genital area and the lower half of your body.

07:07It almost feels wrong to call Lyle Menendez's time on the witness stand a showstopper,

07:12but it's hard to describe it any other way.

07:15Lyle's dramatic testimony lent significant credence to Abramson's abuse-excuse defense.

07:20While Eric's earlier testimony had certainly done its part to move the jury, Lyle's was

07:24interpreted as being, at least for a moment, a significant boon to the Menendez brothers.

07:29We would have these talks, and he would show me, and he would fondle me, and he would ask

07:36me to do the same with him, and I would touch him, and we would undress.

07:40The elder brother's graphic, harrowing account of the abuse he alleged his father had committed,

07:45particularly its first hour, was largely responsible for the case's first mistrial.

07:49As Robert Rand described in his book The Menendez Murders,

07:53quote,

07:53In the courtroom, the family members were crying, jurors were emotional, some reporters

07:58were becoming emotional.

08:00I just told him that I didn't want to do this, and that it hurt me.

08:05Lyle Menendez's hairpiece.

08:07How old were you when you started noticing that you were losing some hair?

08:15I think 14.

08:16While Lyle's testimony was obviously powerful in itself, it yielded one of the most shocking

08:22and notable moments of the entire trial.

08:24Not only did Lyle regularly wear a hairpiece, but it had been used as a prop by his mother

08:30as a means of humiliating him.

08:31Your whole head?

08:34Just the area where the hairpiece went on.

08:37And what area is that?

08:38Um, essentially just around the crown area and all the way back.

08:46As Lyle recounted in his testimony, an argument between himself and his mother had resulted

08:51in her ripping the toupee off with her bare hands.

08:54Given the powerful chemical solvent needed to attach the hair system to Lyle's head,

08:58it goes without saying that this would have been extremely painful for him.

09:02You are the hypocrite, huh?

09:04What about this?

09:05No.

09:08A mistrial is declared.

09:10The court finds, based upon the statement of the foreman and all of the jurors,

09:16that there is no reasonable probability that a verdict can be reached in this matter as

09:21to any count.

09:22Following the unexpected success of Leslie Abramson's abuse excuse and Lyle Menendez's obviously moving

09:28testimony, a case previously thought to be a cut-and-dry double homicide was flipped on

09:33its head.

09:33That is to say, each of the brothers' respective trials ended with deadlocked juries, who could

09:39not come to an agreement as to whether or not the extent of the brothers' alleged abuse

09:42was justification for their actions.

09:44And therefore, the court finds that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked and declares a mistrial

09:52in this matter.

09:53L.A. County District Attorney Gil Garcetti immediately declared that another trial would take place,

09:58with an all-new jury.

10:00Unlike the highly publicized first trial, Judge Stanley Weisberg forbade media presence in

10:05the courtroom this time around.

10:06And the jurors will be discharged from further service in this case.

10:11Lyle's private diary becomes a problem.

10:14It's just my story.

10:16Explain what it's felt like my whole life to be Lyle Menendez.

10:18There's just no way that anybody would say that I deserved to go to prison.

10:22Lyle, that's a really good idea.

10:24One of the first trials to be broadcast on television, the Menendez case famously deteriorated

10:30into a media circus.

10:31However, not every aspect of this was harmful or embarrassing to the brothers.

10:35They soon found that they had fans, who write and call them and even give them money.

10:40Hi Lyle, I'm just writing to say, I believe you.

10:43You couldn't have done the things they say you did.

10:46Or if you did, you certainly had a good reason.

10:48One such quote-unquote fan was Norma Novelli, who struck up a phone correspondence with Lyle

10:54under the guise of helping him write a book.

10:56Unfortunately for Lyle, the contents of the book made him look cold, callous, calculating

11:02and above all, disingenuous.

11:04As a result, Lyle was barred from testifying at the brothers' second trial.

11:08Do you know what this means?

11:11No.

11:14It means that you can be cross-examined about everything that you said if you testify.

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11:36The Menendez brothers are convicted.

11:38Tonight, the verdict.

11:40Lyle and Eric Menendez guilty.

11:42A live report from our Brian Jenkins.

11:44We'll also have reaction tonight from across the Southland.

11:47That story from our Sasha Foo.

11:49Despite the mountain-moving efforts of the brothers' legal defense, the jury at their

11:53second trial was unconvinced by their accounts of how their father had treated them.

11:57This partially owed to Judge Weisberg's ruling that Lyle and Eric's abuse claims would

12:01be restricted.

12:02Twelve jurors convicted them of first-degree murder for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents.

12:07Jose and Kitty Menendez.

12:09That same jury will now decide whether the brothers should die for their crimes.

12:14Ultimately, they were convicted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

12:19Explaining their decision, this trial's jurors had spared the Menendezes the death penalty

12:23on account of the fact that they had had no previous criminal record.

12:27Crucially, they stated their belief that the murders had been committed for financial gain

12:32and not out of self-defense.

12:34After their 1996 sentencing, Lyle and Eric Menendez would not meet in person again until 2018.

12:41It was the strangest thing.

12:42It was total silence in the courtroom.

12:45Well, as soon as the jury walked in, there was no eye contact made with either of the brothers,

12:49so it was pretty obvious to me as a lawyer that it was going to be a guilty verdict.

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