it's just my story explain what it's felt like my whole life to be ly manness there's just no way that anybody would say that I deserve to go to prison that's a really good idea welcome to watch Mojo and today we're breaking down the wildest most compelling most unbelievable moments of Lyle and Eric menendez's Infamous Court proceedings how old were you when you started noticing that you were losing some hair like 14 the abuse excuse well I would just like to know if we're if we're permitted therefore to tell whatever stories we know about other
abused people because I have a stack of maale 300 letters Hi that I'd be more than happy to read to the jury and tell them abuse stories before any of the Menendez trials were underway the matter of whether or not Lyall and Eric had taken their parents' lives was hardly Up For Debate rather the pressure was on litigator Leslie Abramson to successfully Dodge the death penalty do you recall Eric's testimony that all he wanted from Andy was some understanding of whether what was going on was normal yes was he seeking Andy to turn his father
in no upon meeting with and speaking to the brothers across various interviews it became clear that Abramson had the opportunity to draw attention to the wider pattern of abuse that both young men had described a bold strategy even at the time it was up to the defense to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only had the abuse taken place but that it had become so unbearable as to do what the brothers had done they're the ones who understand this field and they have no doubt that this aspect of her endangering her children
was a serious component in why they were capable of believing that she would kill them Dr oil's confession tapes in the early fall of 1988 did you begin seeing Eric and Lyall Menendez relating to incidents which occurred in Calabasas in which the defendants were involved yes I did after an attempt by local authorities to coax a confession out of Eric failed the younger Menendez brother's admission finally came from an unexpected Source his therapist Dr L Jerome oil the mental health professional recorded his sessions with Eric after he confessed to the murders this move was predictably
met with considerable levels of controversy Eric came in and he was uh he was extremely agitated and extremely depressed and he began um talking with me although the tapes were perceived as possibly violating doctor patient confidentiality an August 1992 ruling by the California Supreme Court eventually ruled them mostly admissible due to the heavy implication that Lyall and Eric had threatened oil one major exception the actual tape on which Eric had made his confession we did it um I don't know if he said we killed our parents but I asked him you you mean you killed
your parents he said yes the brother's family testifies do you recall a Time time when your cousin Eric was playing at your house where in the course of your time together he told you something you had not heard before yes I do the aformentioned abuse excuse was of course controversial how could the brother's defense team justify or even attempt to rationalize their heinous crime while it's true that the truth in the menendez's case is likely completely unknowable Lyall and Eric benefited greatly from the testimony of two cousins Andy cono and Diane vandermolen he asked me
if uh my dad ever gave me massages and did you understand at that point what he meant no I didn't cono testified that Eric Menendez had confided in him about Jose menendez's abuse when the two of them were children complete with Vivid and descriptive details perhaps even more damningly Vander mullen's testimony revealed that Lyle Menendez had once revealed Jose's abuse to her but when she had brought it up with ly's Mother Kitty she was brushed off and shut down he proceeded to indicate to me by touching himself uh down and and saying that his dad
and him had been touching each other down there Eric menendez's testimony he was over my shoulder yelling at me in my ear and I just said all right all right and he just it's not something you're supposed to do and and uh he just grabbed me and slammed me into the glass here's when things really started to get real in his shocking testimony Eric asserted that in the weeks leading up to the double murder he had finally mustered up the courage to admit his father's abuse to his brother Lyle after this Lyle claims to have
confronted Jose who made what appeared to be a cryptic coded threat against his son's lives how did you interpret the things that your mother said to you in the den that Thursday night when you were on your way to the guest house that she knew about Dad and I and that she had known that she had she said she had always known Eric's testimony revealed that per his account of the situation this began a period of tension within the family in which the brothers seemed to sincerely believe that their lives were in danger after a
series of increasingly intense encounters the brothers made the choice to kill their parents they viewed it as self-defense were you happy about what you had done no it was beginning to hit me what I had done uh when I went back to the house that night and I I I couldn't I couldn't accept that my question was were you happy about no I was not happy judalon Smith takes the stand Miss Smith um would it be fair to say that when you went to the police on March the 5th of 1990 your primary motivation is
that you wanted Dr oil prosecuted correct he was the one who committed crimes against me not Lyle or Eric Menendez it's only fitting that the person who first went to the authorities about oil's confession tapes provided some of the trial's most memorable moments Smith was the therapist's mistress who when told by o Zeal that he wouldn't leave his wife for her promptly informed the police about the tape's existence I was interested in proving that I was telling the truth that Dr oil was a liar and that I had been terribly victimized and had real criminal
charges criminal acts committed against me in a turn of events that few would have predicted Smith became a witness for the defense revealing that oil had attempted to extort the Menendez brothers for weekly payment in exchange for keeping their secret while even the presiding judge eventually tired of the sorted details of Ozil and Smith's Affair Smith's statement that she quote would not want children that looked like Dr oil was a notable highlight my being upset is not because they wouldn't file those charges my being upset is because all the behindth scene things around that Lyle's
testimony would he seem to be directed at taking photos of your faces no what would he he would take photographs of your genital area and the lower half of your body it almost feels wrong to call Lyall menendez's time on the witness stand a showstopper but it's hard to describe it any other way ly's dramatic testimony lent significant Credence to abramson's abuse excuse defense while Eric's earlier testimony had certainly done its part to move the jury lyes was interpreted as being at least for a moment a significant Boon to the Menendez brothers we would have
these talks and he would show me and he would uh fondle me and he would ask me to do the same with him and I would I would touch him and we would undress the Elder brother's graphic harrowing account of the abuse he alleged his father had committed particularly its first hour was largely responsible for the case's first mistrial as Robert Rand described in his book the Menendez murders quote in the courtroom the family members were crying jurors were emotional some reporters were becoming emotional I just told him that I didn't want to do this
and that it hurt me Lyall menendez's hairpiece how old were you when you started noticing that you were losing some hair like 14 while ly's testimony was obviously powerful in itself it yielded one of the most shocking and notable moments of the entire trial not only did Lyle regularly wear a hairpiece but it had been used as a prop by his mother as a means of humiliating him your whole head just the area where the hairpiece went on and what area is that um essentially just around the crown area and all the way back as
Lyall recounted in his testimony an argument between himself and his mother had resulted in her ripping the toue off with her bare hands given the powerful chemical solvent needed to attach the hair system to ly's head it goes without saying that this would have been extremely painful for him you are the hypocrite huh what about this oh a mistrial is declared the court finds based upon the statement of the foreman and all of the jurors that there is no reasonable probability that a verdict can be reached in this matter as to any count following the
unexpected success of Leslie abramson's abuse excuse and ly menendez's obviously moving testimony the case previously thought to be a cut and dry double homicide was flipped on its head that is to say each of the brothers respective trials ended with deadlocked juries who could not come to an agreement as to whether or not the extent of the brother's alleged abuse was justification for their actions yeah therefore uh the court finds that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked and uh declares a mistrial in this matter LA County district attorney Gil Garcetti immediately declared that another trial would
take place with an allnew jury unlike the highly publicized first trial judge Stanley Weissberg forbade media presence in the courtroom this time around and the jurors will be discharged from further service in this case ly's private diary becomes a problem it's just my story explain what it's felt like my whole life to be ly Menendez there's just no way that anybody would say that I deserve to go to prison L that's a really good idea one of the first trials to be broadcast on television the Menendez case famously deteriorated into a media circus however not
every aspect of this was harmful or embarrassing to the brothers they soon found that they had fans who write and call them and even give them money hi Lyall I'm just writing to say I believe you you couldn't have done the things they say you did or if you did you certainly had a good reason one such quote unquote fan was Norman nolli who struck up a phone correspondence with Lyle under the guise of helping him write a book unfortunately for Lyle the contents of the book made him look cold callous calculating and above all
disingenuous as a result Lyall was barred from testifying at the brother's second trial do you know what this means no it means that you can be cross-examined about everything that you said if you testify before we continue be sure to subscribe to our Channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications the Mendez brothers are convicted tonight the verdict Lyle and Eric Menendez guilty
a live report from our Brian Jenkins we'll also have reaction tonight from across the Southland that story from our Sasha Fu despite the Mountain Moving efforts of the brother's legal defense the jury at their second trial was unconvinced by their accounts of how their father had treated them this partially owed to judge Weber's ruling that Lyall and Eric's abuse claims would be restricted 12 jurors convicted them of first-degree murder for the 1989 shotgun slangs of their parents Jose and kitty Menendez that same jury will now decide whether the brothers should die for their crimes ultimately
they were convicted to life in prison without the possibility of parole explaining their decision this trial's jurors had spared the menendez's the death penalty on account of the fact that they had had no previous criminal record crucially they stated their belief that the murders had been committed for financial gain and not out of self-defense after their 1996 sentencing Lyle and Eric Menendez would not meet in person again until 2018 it was the strangest thing it was to Total silence in the courtroom well as soon as the jury walked in um there was no eye contact
made with either of the brothers so it was pretty obvious to me as a lawyer that it was going to be a guilty verdict which Menendez brother's trial moment shocked you the most let us know in the comments below whenever I felt I don't know I took him out sometimes and I took uh a toothbrush also and I played with Eric in the same way [Music] [Music]
