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

Throughout the three years before the Menendez brothers were brought to trial, they repeatedly denied shooting their parents. A week before the trial began on July 20, 1993, however, the brothers admitted to the killings. Nevertheless, they pleaded not guilty, claiming that they had acted in self-defense after years of suffering sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of their parents.

"We are not disputing where it happened, how it happened, who did it," Jill Lansing, Lyle's lawyer, said in her opening statement. "What we will prove to you is that it was done out of fear."

Lansing and Leslie Abramson, Erik's attorney, called over 30 relatives, neighbors, teachers and sports coaches to the stand. They all described Jose Menendez as a success-obsessed tyrant who completely dominated his sons' lives, publicly humiliating them whenever he felt their conduct was unsatisfactory. Kitty Menendez was described as depressed, prone to hysterical fits and suicidal over her husband's extramarital affairs. While the Menendez brothers were legally adults when they killed their parents, the defense attorneys consistently referred to them as "children."

After a month of hearing testimony of witnesses who remembered Jose and Kitty as less than model parents, Judge Stanley M. Weisberg had heard enough. "We're not talking about a child custody case," he snapped. Lansing and Abramson were ordered to put their clients on the stand.

Jose Menendez had been accused of browbeating his sons to attain excellent grades and high tennis scores. However, when Lyle took the witness stand, he painted a profoundly darker picture of his father's demanding nature. He testified that his father had begun showing the boys pornographic videos and telling them about homosexual bonding rituals between soldiers in ancient Greece when he was six and Eric was three years old. The defense produced nude childhood snapshots of Lyle taken by his father. Lyle recalled his father massaging him after sports practices when he was a child. The rubdowns turned into forced oral sex. When he was seven, Lyle said, his father sodomized him.

"I told my mom to tell Dad to leave me alone, that he keeps touching me," Lyle said. "She told me to stop it, that I was exaggerating, and my dad had to punish me when I did things wrong."

With tears in his eyes, Lyle said the abuse stopped when he was eight, but that his father threatened to kill him if he ever revealed the truth.

Lyle and Erik Menendez, found guilty for the murder of their parents. (AP/Wide World Photos)

In August 1989 Erik confided to his older brother that Jose had been sexually molesting him for years. Five days before the killings, Lyle confronted his father.

"What I do with my son is none of your business," Lyle recalled his father retorting. "I warn you, don't throw your life away."

Lyle persisted, telling his father that he would expose the abuse if it continued.

According to Lyle, Jose replied, "We all make choices in life, son. Erik made his. You've made yours." From that moment on, Lyle felt his and his brother's lives were in danger. "I felt he had no choice but that he would kill us, that he would get rid of us in some way because he thought I was going to ruin him."

Kitty became hysterical after the confrontation. She told Erik that if Lyle "had just kept his mouth shut, things might have worked out in this family." The brothers took this as proof that their parents were planning to kill them soon. According to the brothers, things remained tense in the Menendez household for the next few days. When their parents disappeared into the den, the brothers suspected an attack, got their guns, and burst through the door, firing.