This notorious criminal trial featured a slew of memorable moments. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down the wildest, most compelling, most unbelievable moments of Lyle and Erik Menendez’s infamous court proceedings.
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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
00:17infamous 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,
00:34to 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,
00:47the matter of whether or not Lyle and Eric had taken their parents' lives
00:51was hardly up for debate.
00:52Rather, the pressure was on litigator Leslie Abramson
00:55to successfully dodge the death penalty.
00:57Do you recall Eric's testimony that all he wanted from Andy
01:01was 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
01:16to 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,
01:27but 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 would 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
01:53which occurred in Calabasas in 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 brothers' admission finally came from an unexpected source,
02:06his therapist, Dr. L. Jerome Oziel.
02:09The mental health professional recorded his sessions with Eric
02:12after he confessed to the murders.
02:14This 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
02:36eventually ruled them mostly admissible
02:38due to the heavy implication that Lyle and Eric had threatened Oziel.
02:42One major exception?
02:44The actual tape on which Eric had made his confession.
02:47We did it.
02:49We said we killed our parents, but I asked him,
02:52you mean you killed your parents?
02:55He said yes.
02:56The brothers' family testifies.
02:58Do you recall a time when your cousin Eric was playing at your house
03:05where in the course of your time together,
03:07he 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
03:17or even attempt to rationalize their heinous crime?
03:20While it's true that the truth in the Menendez's case
03:23is likely completely unknowable,
03:26Lyle and Eric benefited greatly from the testimony of two cousins,
03:29Andy 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
03:44about Jose Menendez's abuse when the two of them were children,
03:48complete with vivid and descriptive details.
03:50Perhaps even more damningly,
03:52Vandermolen's testimony revealed that Lyle Menendez
03:55had once revealed Jose's abuse to her,
03:57but when she had brought it up with Lyle's mother Kitty,
03:59she was brushed off and shut down.
04:02He proceeded to indicate to me by touching himself down
04:09and saying that his dad and him had been touching each other down there.
04:13Eric Menendez's testimony.
04:16He was over my shoulder yelling at me in my ear
04:21and I just said, all right, all right,
04:23and he just, not something you're supposed to do,
04:26and he just grabbed me and slammed me into the glass.
04:29Here's when things really started to get real.
04:32In his shocking testimony,
04:34Eric asserted that in the weeks leading up to the double murder,
04:37he had finally mustered up the courage
04:38to admit his father's abuse to his brother Lyle.
04:41After this, Lyle claims to have confronted Jose,
04:44who made what appeared to be a cryptic coded threat against his son's lives.
04:48How did you interpret the things that your mother said to you
04:51in the den that Thursday night
04:52when you were on your way to the guest house?
04:54That she knew about dad and I.
04:56And that she had known?
04:57That she had, she said she had always known.
04:59Eric's testimony revealed that per his account of the situation,
05:03this began a period of tension within the family,
05:05in which the brothers seemed to sincerely believe
05:08that their lives were in danger.
05:09After a series of increasingly intense encounters,
05:12the brothers made the choice to kill their parents.
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
05:23when I went back to the house that night.
05:25And I couldn't accept that.
05:30My question was, were you happy about it?
05:32No, I was not happy.
05:33Judilon Smith takes the stand.
05:35Miss Smith, would it be fair to say
05:37that when you went to the police on March the 5th of 1990,
05:40your primary motivation is that you wanted Dr. Ozeel prosecuted?
05:44Correct.
05:45He was the one who committed crimes against me,
05:47not Lyle or Eric Menendez.
05:49It's only fitting that the person who first went to the authorities
05:52about Ozeel's confession tapes
05:53provided some of the trial's most memorable moments.
05:56Smith was the therapist's mistress,
05:58who, when told by Ozeel that he wouldn't leave his wife for her,
06:01promptly informed the police about the tape's existence.
06:04I was interested in proving that I was telling the truth,
06:08that Dr. Ozeel was a liar,
06:10and that I had been terribly victimized
06:14and had real criminal charges,
06:17criminal acts committed against me.
06:20In a turn of events that few would have predicted,
06:23Smith became a witness for the defense,
06:25revealing that Ozeel had attempted to extort the Menendez brothers
06:28for weekly payments in exchange for keeping their secret.
06:32While even the presiding judge eventually tired
06:34of the sordid details of Ozeel and Smith's affair,
06:37Smith's statement that she, quote,
06:39would not want children that looked like Dr. Ozeel
06:41was 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.
06:59But 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.
07:14Lyle's dramatic testimony lent significant credence
07:17to Abramson's abuse-excuse defense.
07:19While Eric's earlier testimony had certainly done its part to move the jury,
07:24Lyle's was interpreted as being, at least for a moment,
07:26a significant boon to the Menendez brothers.
07:29We would have these talks and he would show me and he would fondle me
07:35and he would ask me 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,
07:46was largely responsible for the case's first mistrial.
07:49As Robert Rand described in his book The Menendez Murders, quote,
07:53In the courtroom, the family members were crying, jurors were emotional,
07:57some reporters were becoming emotional.
07:59I just told him that I didn't want to do this and that it hurt me.
08:07How old were you when you started noticing that you were losing some hair?
08:15I think 14.
08:17While Lyle's testimony was obviously powerful in itself,
08:20it yielded one of the most shocking and notable moments of the entire trial.
08:24Not only did Lyle regularly wear a hairpiece,
08:27but it had been used as a prop by his mother as a means of humiliating him.
08:31Your whole head?
08:34Just the area where the hairpiece went on.
08:36And what area is that?
08:42Essentially just around the crown area and all the way back.
08:46As Lyle recounted in his testimony,
08:48an argument between himself and his mother had resulted in her
08:51ripping 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? What 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
09:19can be reached in this matter as to any count.
09:22Following the unexpected success of Leslie Abramson's abuse excuse
09:26and Lyle Menendez's obviously moving testimony,
09:29a case previously thought to be a cut-and-dry double homicide was flipped on its head.
09:33That is to say, each of the brothers' respective trials ended with deadlocked juries,
09:38who could not come to an agreement as to whether or not
09:40the extent of the brothers' alleged abuse was justification for their actions.
09:44And therefore, the court finds that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked
09:49and declares a mistrial in this matter.
09:53L.A. County District Attorney Gil Garcetti immediately declared
09:56that another trial would take place with an all-new jury.
10:00Unlike the highly publicized first trial,
10:02Judge Stanley Weisberg forbade media presence in the courtroom this time around.
10:07And 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 deserve to go to prison.
10:22Lyle, that's a really good idea.
10:24One of the first trials to be broadcast on television,
10:27the Menendez case famously deteriorated into 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.
10:49One such quote-unquote fan was Norma Novelli,
10:52who struck up a phone correspondence with Lyle under the guise of helping him write a book.
10:56Unfortunately for Lyle, the contents of the book made him look cold,
11:01callous, calculating, and 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. Lyle and Eric Menendez guilty.
11:42A live report from our Brian Jenkins.
11:44We'll also have reaction tonight from across the Southland. That story from our Sasha Fu.
11:49Despite the mountain-moving efforts of the brothers' legal defense,
11:52the jury at their second 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 be restricted.
12:02Twelve jurors convicted them of first-degree murder for the 1989
12:05shotgun slayings of their parents, Jose 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. After their 1996 sentencing, Lyle and Eric Menendez would not
12:38meet in person again until 2018. It was the strangest thing. It 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.
12:52Which Menendez brothers' trial moment shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
12:58Whenever I felt, I don't know, I took them out sometimes and I took
13:09a toothbrush also and I played with Eric in the same way.