EGN NEWS DESK
While brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez are pushing for his or her freedom, one man who investigated their double homicide case believes their life sentences must be upheld.
“If they had been dropped at trial once more at this time, they might be discovered responsible,” Clark Fogg, a retired senior forensic specialist with the Beverly Hills Police Department, instructed Fox News Digital.
Joseph Menendez, who goes by his center title Lyle, and Erik had been convicted of capturing their dad and mom, Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez, to demise of their Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, mansion in 1989.
They had been ordered to serve life in jail in 1996, however they’ve not too long ago been looking for decreased sentences.
LYLE MENENDEZ, WHO SHOTGUNNED PARENTS TO DEATH WITH BROTHER, PLANS FOR LIFE AFTER PRISON AMID NEW APPEAL
Erik and Lyle Menendez pay attention throughout their trial within the Nineties. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)
“The jury’s, , the judgment got here down that they’re to stay in jail for the remainder of their life. … We have the perfect judicial system, , anyplace on the planet,” Fogg mentioned. “And we have now to abide by that and abide by what a jury feels and what the judge feels is acceptable based mostly upon not solely this case, however different circumstances.”
A brand new Netflix true crime drama, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” has sparked a spread of opinions on its accuracy and portrayal of the true story from many years in the past.
Fogg believes the present is “completely inaccurate” and “based mostly on details that didn’t occur.”
MENENDEZ BROTHER, WHO GUNNED DOWN PARENTS, SLAMS NEW SHOW FOR ‘DISHONEST PORTRAYAL’
Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez on the steps of their Beverly Hills dwelling in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times)
Erik Menendez revealed his personal assertion by means of his spouse Tammi Menendez on X, saying the present creates “a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant within the present.”
“It is unhappy for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths a number of steps backward — again by means of time to an period when the prosecution constructed a story on a perception system that males weren’t sexually abused and that males skilled rape trauma otherwise than ladies,” Erik mentioned in his assertion shared by Tammi.
Fogg believes the brothers’ motive for the murders needed to do with “greed and cash.”
“Why did they even should kill their mother within the first place?” Fogg mentioned. “If you killed Mr. Menendez individually from her, she would find yourself getting the inheritance, proper? So they needed to remove each of them with a purpose to have the inheritance.”
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Fogg investigated the Menendez brothers’ case in 1989. He took photographs and preserved proof on the crime scene, attended the autopsies and took the stand throughout each trials. When talking with Fox News Digital, he painted a horrific image of the crime scene.
“One of the detectives needed to really maintain a golf umbrella over my head as I used to be taking photographs as a result of, once in a while, issues can be falling from the ceiling,” Fogg mentioned. “It comes down to at least one factor. The cause why they’re in jail is that they killed their mom and father brutally, not poison them, however shotgun them to demise to some extent that they had been everywhere in the ceiling. … That’s how brutally they had been murdered.”
Fogg, who has spent 40 years working in regulation enforcement and has performed over 30,000 crime scene investigations, mentioned he had 44 rolls of movie from the Menendez crime scene.
“It seemed like Mrs. Menendez was making an attempt to get away as a result of there was blood on the underside of the soles of her shoe. … Even at that time, they stored on killing her with, , gunshot blasts, one after one other.”
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This 1992 file picture exhibits double homicide defendants Erik, proper, and Lyle Menendez, left, throughout a court docket look in Los Angeles. (Mike Nelson/AFP through Getty Images)
In 2023, legal professionals for the Menendez brothers introduced the invention of a letter written by Erik Menendez to a cousin, Andy Cano, eight months earlier than the murders, wherein he goes into element concerning the ongoing abuse by their father.
“I’ve been making an attempt to keep away from dad,” Erik writes within the letter. The brothers declare this letter helps their authentic testimony throughout the first trial, alleging the abuse.
Fogg questioned the authenticity of the letter.
“We’re speaking about his cousin dying, , twenty years in the past after which this letter mysteriously popping up,” Fogg mentioned. “So, my questions are, is that this letter legitimate? Have they carried out a paper evaluation on it? Have they carried out an ink evaluation to find out whether or not or not the ink is definitely relationship from the Nineteen Eighties?”
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Lyle, left, and Erik, proper, are pictured in current mugshots from 2023. After years aside, they had been moved into the identical housing unit at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, in accordance with the New York Daily News. (California Department of Corrections)
Relatives of the brothers have not too long ago spoken out in assist of their freedom.
“We are nearly the whole prolonged household of Erik and Lyle Menendez. We are 24 robust and at this time we wish the world to know we assist Erik and Lyle,” members of the family wrote in a press release that Tammi Menendez posted to X in response to the brand new Netflix collection. “We individually and collectively pray for his or her launch after being imprisoned for 35 years. We know them, love them, and need them dwelling with us.”
Ryan Murphy, co-creator of the Netflix collection, instructed the Los Angeles Times, “I feel it’s fake outrage. I feel that this story, this Netflix collection, is the perfect factor that has occurred to the Menendez brothers in 30 years as a result of it’s getting individuals to speak about it, and it’s getting individuals to ask the questions which can be vital.”
A separate documentary concerning the brothers, “The Menendez Brothers,” is scheduled to premiere on Netflix Oct. 7. The movie will “supply one other perspective — that of the brothers themselves, offered in all-new audio interviews,” in accordance with a press launch.
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Fogg believes the brothers stay behind bars for good cause.
“They’re in jail, and so they’re in jail for all times with out risk of parole for one factor and one factor solely,” Fogg mentioned. “You do not homicide your dad and mom. You do not homicide anyone, interval.”
