It was a case that stunned the nation.
Hollywood executive Jose Menendez, 45, and his former pageant queen wife Kitty were found dead in their living room inside their Beverly Hills mansion on Aug. 20, 1989.
Jose, the head of RCA Records at the time of his murder, was shot multiple times including point blank in the head, while Kitty, 47, suffered 15 gunshot wounds, including one to the face.
While the police initially looked at the possibility of a mob hit, they later arrested the couple’s two sons Lyle, 21, and his 18-year-old brother Erik, suggesting greed as a motive and citing the lavish spending spree — which involved expensive watches, cars and tennis lessons — the two brothers went on after the slayings.
The siblings later claimed in trial they shot their parents in self-defense, after years of sexual abuse at the hands of Jose. Despite their claims, in 1996, three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock, the brothers were convicted of the first-degree murdersof their parents and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Their story is now the subject of season 2 of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, starring Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny.)
However, their abuse allegations gained traction in recent years after Roy Rosselló, a former member of the iconic 1980s boy band Menudo, came forward with his own allegations he was molested by Jose.
In a 2023 Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, Rosselló alleged he was drugged and raped when he was a teen by Jose.
Jose and Kitty Menendez.
ABC
His allegations are now part of a petitionattorneys for the Menendez brothers have filed in with Los Angeles County Superior Court to have their convictions overturned.
In the Habeas Corpus petition, filed in May 2023, attorneys pointed to an alleged incident in 1983 when, the petition claims, the group’s manager asked Rosselló “to ‘do a favor,’ and instructed him to go downstairs at the hotel and join Jose Menendez in a limousine.”
According to the petition, Rosselló was allegedly driven to Menendez’s home in New Jersey, given wine by Jose, and then raped. “Roy lost consciousness and woke up back in his hotel,” according to the petition.
Rosselló was allegedly raped by Menendez a second time in a New York City hotel, per the petition.
Jose Menendez.
AP
The attorneys also cite a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse months before the murders.
“We’re saying the second trial did not comport with constitutional protections for a variety of reasons,” Mark Geragos, the Menendez brothers’ post-conviction attorney, previously told PEOPLE. “And a Habeas [Corpus petition] has new evidence. It requires new evidence because this case had basically been moribund for close to 17 years. And the new evidence was the Menudo accuser and the letter that Andy Cano wrote or received from Erik eight months before the killing.”
Geragos said the brothers’ defense team has conducted a conditional examination of Kitty’s oldest sister and provided statements from 24 family members who “have all asked that they be resentenced, presented a number of other documents and evidence for them to take a look at and consider while making a decision.”
The Menendez brothers, who have spent over three decades in prison and are now both in Donovan State Correctional Facility, are “cautiously optimistic” the petition will be successful, Geragos said.
However, legal experts believe the brothers chances of having their case relooked at are slim.
“I don’t know how much this new evidence moves the needle,” Los Angeles defense attorney and former Los Angeles County senior deputy district attorney Dmitry Gorin previously told PEOPLE. “It’s still very much a long shot because of the history of the case, because of the prior trial rulings and because materially, this doesn’t really change the evidence in the case. It’s more of the same. It’s horrible evidence. It’s tragic they were abused, but it’s more of the same.”
Los Angeles defense attorney Neama Rahmani also believes the chances of the brothers going free is “highly unlikely.”
“It’s a Hail Mary type argument,” he said. “This isn’t enough, in my opinion. A corroborating note or the fact that a victim abused someone else, this is not the type of evidence that typically results in a habeas petition being granted.”
