ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607030057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: Associated Press
Seven years after they shotgunned their parents to death in the family mansion, Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole.
Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg gave each brother two consecutive life terms.
Their decision to commit the murders, Weisberg said, was ``made over several days. These were separate acts of violence, separate considerations by the defendants.''
The only other punishment for murder is execution, which the judge could not impose because the jury recommended against it.
Eric, 26, and Lyle, 28, showed no reaction, and in the hushed courtroom their relatives and friends remained silent. In the hall later, family members burst into tears.
Prosecutor David Conn said he was pleased with the sentences. He said the consecutive terms - the judge had the option of imposing concurrent sentences - served as a symbolic statement against the horrors of the killings.
The brothers have asked to be sent to the same prison. J.P. Tremblay, assistant secretary of the state Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, said no decision has been made.
Leslie Abramson, Erik Menendez's attorney, said the verdict and the sentence will be appealed.
Weisberg took no action on Lyle Menendez's request to be married to fiancee Anna Eriksson, who attended the sentencing.
On Monday, one judge said she would marry the pair, but the presiding judge of the court vetoed the plan, saying he objected to having a defendant married at taxpayer expense.
Further complicating the wedding plans, the Sheriff's Department said jail rules require Weisberg, as the sentencing judge, to perform such a marriage. Menendez did not want Weisberg to officiate.
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