Menendez bros. lawyer says DA has vendetta against Lyle and Erik, wants him kicked off case as resentencing hearing delayed
The lawyer for celebrity killers Erik and Lyle Menendez said the Los Angeles district attorney has a personal vendetta against the pair and wants him kicked off their case in an explosive courtroom hearing that left freedom for the brothers undecided.On Thursday an LA County judge postponed the brothers’ already much-delayed resentencing hearing, which will determine whether they walk free more than 30 years after shotgunning their wealthy parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in 1989.The judge agreed to weigh two new motions before making the final call on Lyle and Erik’s fate.One motion asks the court to consider a new report by the state parole board about how dangerous the brothers are, and another asks the court to recuse the District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who the brothers’ lawyer said is biased against the pair, allowing the state attorney general to take over the case.The hearing on those two motions is scheduled for May 9th.The Menendez’s lawyer Mark Garagos and a deputy for District Attorney Nathan Hochman duked it out in the courtroom, trading interruptions and insults before the judge finally called a recess.“He keeps degrading us and degrading us!” Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said after Garagos trashed the prosecution for “retraumatizing” family members by showing grizzly crime scene photos in court.“You should be degraded!” Garagos shot back.The gory photos of José and Kitty’s corpses were sprung on their unsuspecting family members at a hearing last week, and the shock of seeing them put José’s 85-year-old sister in the hospital earlier this week, the family said.Garagos said the photos were one of many “media stunts” and “dog and pony show” tactics that call DA Hochman’s intentions into question.One of those alleged tactics involved an attempt to postpone the hearing to give the court the opportunity to review a new “risk assessment” from the state parole board.The assessment was conducted as part of ...