Menendez Brothers' Trials: 1993-94 & 1995-96

Detectives weighing the ferocity of the homicides thought the killings had the look of an organized crime hit. Jose Menendez, a 45-year-old Cuban immigrant and self-made millionaire, had dealings throughout the film and music distribution industry, including a production interest in Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" movies. It seemed unlikely that anyone would pump 15 shotgun rounds into the Menendez couple unless that person were trying to make a statement.

As time passed, however, the police took a closer look at the Menendez sons, who were heirs to their parents' $14-million fortune. Lyle, 22, and Erik, 19, spent over a half million dollars on new cars, watches, and a restaurant business soon after their parents' funerals. Suspicious evidence began to accumulate.

In March 1990, police, using search warrants, confiscated the records of Dr. L. Jerome Oziel, the psychotherapist who had been treating the brothers. Lyle Menendez was arrested a few days later. Erik, who had spent part of his inheritance on a personal tennis coach, surrendered to Los Angeles police upon his return from a tournament in Israel. Prosecutors charged that the pampered sons had murdered their parents because of an impatient desire to collect their inheritance.

The most incriminating evidence was said to exist in a tape of one of Dr. Oziel's therapy sessions. A legal battle quickly erupted over whether or not the tape could be admitted as evidence. Under California law, such recordings are confidential under the protection of the patient-therapist relationship. Judge James Albracht, however, ruled that the Menendez brothers had threatened Dr. Oziel's life, thus voiding any claim to confidentiality. After two years of grappling over the issue, the state Supreme Court ruled that only a tape of Dr. Oziel dictating his notes from the session would be admissible as evidence.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Erik and Lyle would face death in California's gas chamber. In an unusual arrangement, the brothers were to be tried simultaneously by the same judge but before two separate juries.