ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a decisive rejection of the abuse defense that nearly succeeded the first time, Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday in the shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents and could be sentenced to death.
Lyle, 28, and Erik, 25, appeared extremely pale but showed no emotion upon hearing the jury's verdict, reached after four days of deliberations in the brothers' retrial. Erik's lawyer, Leslie Abramson, shook her head.
``I feel great,'' prosecutor David Conn declared as he left the courtroom with a broad smile.
Two years ago, the brothers' first trial ended in a mistrial when jurors couldn't decide whether the 1989 slayings of entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, at their Beverly Hills mansion were premeditated murder or self-defense.
This time, the jury rejected the defense claim that the brothers murdered their parents after years of sexual abuse. Instead, it embraced the prosecution theory that the killings were planned and that the brothers were greedy, spoiled brats who murdered to get their parents' $14 million fortune.
The jury further decided that the brothers had lain in wait and committed multiple murders - circumstances that can bring the death penalty. The penalty phase begins Monday. The jury will decide whether the brothers should receive lethal injection or life without parole.
The defense suffered a serious setback in the final days of testimony when Judge Stanley Weisberg announced he was ruling out use of the ``imperfect self-defense'' theory. That theory holds that a killing by someone who believes he is in imminent danger can be justifiable even if that belief was unreasonable.
Weisberg also barred the defense from calling nearly 40 witnesses who would have testified about the purported abuse the brothers suffered as children.
The verdict was a badly needed victory for District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who is running for re-election and who has gotten a reputation for an inability to win the big cases, including the Menendez brothers at their first trial, O.J. Simpson and rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg. Garcetti had insisted on retrying the Menendez brothers, refusing to plea bargain.
Weisberg, who had permitted television cameras in the first trial but barred them from the second, imposed a gag order on the jurors and all other participants out of fear their comments might affect the penalty phase.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB