Hey there, Legal Tea Listeners – This is your host, Jenny Rozelle. Welcome back for another episode, which is a “current trends” topic where we talk about things going on currently that are relevant and pertinent to my estate and elder law world, and/or maybe things I’ve seen on the news or stumbled across on social media. Today is about the famous brothers, the Menendez Brothers – Joseph (who goes by his middle name, “Lyle”) and Erik Menendez. They have recently gained immense attention due to a Netflix film that was done on them and released in October 2024, but before it, their story was featured on a ton of television and platforms like … a Barbara Walters story in 2015, documentary in 2017 on ABC, a docu-series done on A&E also in 2017, a Lifetime movie in 2017, a 20/20 special on ABC in 2021, a documentary on Discovery+ in 2022, a documentary on Peacock in 2023, a 48 Hours episode in March 2024, etc. There were others that I didn’t even mention. So, needless to say, their story has been getting a lot of attention, especially the last 5-10 years.
I’ll go over their story in a second, but the reason I’m talking about it on here is because there’s a bit of a quiet part of their story about their parents’ estate, the inheritances they received, etc. Since there’s such a big spotlight on their story right now, I figured it’d be a good time to chat about what happened estate-wise and inheritance-wise following the deaths of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise (“Kitty”) Menendez. Let’s first start with “what happened” and then we’ll shift into the estate “stuff.” Okay … so … without going too deep into the rabbit hole, I, of course, already introduced the brothers, Lyle and Erik. Lyle was the older one – by about 3ish years. Them and their parents, Jose and Kitty, had quite the rollercoaster of things they had to navigate through – like, according to Wikipedia, the boys couldn’t stay out of trouble while they were growing up in New Jersey, which led them to move to Beverly Hills. They got through high school, but something interesting to note … according to ABC News, while in high school, the younger brother, Erik, wrote a screenplay called “Friends” and the plot of it was about a wealthy person who killed his parents to get an inheritance.
Fast forward time to August 20, 1989 – a couple days after Lyle and Erik purchased shotguns – according to Wikipedia, they entered their parents’ house, who were watching a movie in their Beverly Hills very nice house, and shot both of their parents. Their father, Jose, was shot six times and Kitty, their mother, was shot ten times. With a shotgun. Ugh. Lyle and Erik ended up leaving the house to get out of their bloody clothes and dispose of the shotguns. They returned to their parents’ house and ended up calling 911 claiming that “someone killed their parents.” They told the police that they were not home at the time and said they may have been “business-related” killings – insinuating some type of hit.
Some time after a few instances where there were some mumblings that Lyle and Erik killed them, but those didn’t pan out any type of confession. Eventually, Erik ended up confessing to his psychologist. Well, that psychologist told a girl he was seeing about the confession. The psychologist and the girl ended up parting ways, and that girl ended up telling the police what she knew. Shortly after, Lyle was arrested for the murders of his parents on March 8, 1990 – nearly eight months after the murders. Erik turned himself in a few days after Lyle’s arrest. They both ended up being held without bond at the Los Angeles County jail. I am not going to bore you with ALL of the legal back-and-forth, the court cases and outcomes, etc. but I will give you the cliffnote version of the BIG parts.
According to Wikipedia, during the trial, Lyle and Erik’s primary and big defense for their actions was that they were long-time victims of abuse – especially sexual abuse from their father. That was argued about – as to whether it happened, whether it didn’t. For example, the prosecution claimed that there had not been a peep about abuse until seven months after the murders. Simultaneously, they had a cousin take the stand during the trial and testify that in the 1970s, she stayed over and Lyle shared with her that his father was sexually abusing him. A lot of the trial was like this – kind of a he-said, she-said sort of thing. That was all part of the first trial that ended in 1994 with a mistrial because of the jury being deadlocked. So, a second trial commenced…
During the second trial, a few of the noteworthy things … according to TruTV, it was shared that Erik was told by his father, Jose, that he was written out of the Will. Another estate-related thing that came out in the second trial was that a lady by the name of Klara Wright, who was the spouse of one of the attorneys for the brothers, testified that Lyle and Erik brought over their parents’ safe hoping to locate their parents’ estate plan. When the safe was opened, it was found to be empty, but it was emphasized that this was proof that Lyle and Erik were trying to get their hands on their parents’ money fast. So, speaking of that…that’s what I wanted to chat about on here for a little bit about what happened when Lyle and Erik received their inheritances from their parents’ estate. It’s worth noting, too, that their estates were not little – their estate was estimated to be around $14-15 Million, which is a lot of money now – and was even more then in 1989.
In essence, they spend A LOT of money. Reading straight from Wikipedia, they “spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury items, businesses, and travel. Lyle bought Chuck's Spring Street Café, a Buffalo wing restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey, as well as three Rolex watches and a Porsche sports car. Erik hired a full-time tennis coach and competed in a series of tournaments overseas. The brothers eventually left the Beverly Hills mansion unoccupied, choosing to live in adjoining condominiums in nearby Marina del Rey. They also dined at high-end restaurants and took overseas trips to the Caribbean and London. Their courtside attendance at a New York Knicks basketball game was captured in the background of a Mark Jackson trading card. During this time, they spent approximately $700,000 … This spending caused police to begin to consider the brothers as suspects, with a possible financial motive.”
We’ll get back to all of that in a second, but, according to Wikipedia, this second trial (where a lot of this came out) ended up in 1996 with Lyle and Eric being found guilty of first degree murder with a punishment of life in prison without parole. Well, that decision got appealed … the California Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court. They appealed to the Supreme Court and asked for them to review the case – the Supreme Court declined to review it. They even attempted to appeal the case to federal-level courts, where they were also unsuccessful. All of that happened starting in 1998 and going through 2005. So we are getting closer to current times! In May of 2023, things stirred up again (again, trying to keep things brief – so just know some new information came to light about the boys’ father) and what came from that was in October of 2024 (just last year), a LA district attorney stated that he was asking the Court for a resentencing.
It’s explained that if the Judge allows for a resentencing, Lyle and Erik could be eligible for parole (when CURRENTLY, they are not eligible for parole). This trial, the resentencing trial, was originally scheduled for mid-December 2024 … then it got pushed back to end of January 2025. As of the date of scripting our and recording this episode, that’s where things stand. Now, I know this episode will be released on January 28th … which RIGHT NOW, the trial is supposed to be on January 30th and 31st. But right now is December 31st … as in there’s a whole month between me recording this right now and the trial getting pushed back. So, if you listen to this, you’ll have to look up to see if it’s gotten continued again OR if it sounds like it is happening.
Nonetheless, the purpose of talking about this here on Legal Tea was not necessarily about the drama, the trials, the courts, etc. Rather, there has been this undertone in everything about whether or not the boys partially or fully did the act to get their inheritance. Regardless, while they did go on that spending spree that I talked about – that spending spree came as a result of ONE life insurance policy that they were the named beneficiaries on. This, according to The Wealth Advisor website. Though, all the other part of the estate, they did not get a penny from – for two reasons mainly:
1. Because there’s something called the slayer’s statute or the slayer’s rule that prevents someone from murdering someone and financially benefitting. I’ve done a podcast episode on the slayer’s statute before. It was episode 152, if you care to listen. Basically, when they were convicted of first degree murder, they forfeited their rights and financial benefits as beneficiaries of their parents’ estate.
Wow, this story and case was a wild one to dive into. It’s sad all around – whatever parts of the he-said, she-said stuff is true, it’s all sad. Abuse was alleged, murders happened, people are behind bars, a lot of bad stuff happened here. While the story of the Menendez brothers is not ALL about the estate side of things, there was definitely an estate undertone to things, which is why I wanted to do this episode. Talk about it; talk about the slayer’s statute; talk about beneficiaries going on spending sprees after inheriting just a portion of the estate; etc. I could go on and on about this case.
Alrighty, let’s wrap this pisode up, shall we? Next week, we’re back to the “celebrity estate planning” type of episode – and during that episode, we are going to dive into what happened estate-wise following the passing of Anthony Bourdain – the chef who famously went around the world trying different foods on his show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Alrighty, Legal Tea Listeners, talk to you then and stay well!
Sources:
Comments