Menendez Brothers Resentencing: District Attorney George Gascón’s Election Loss May Impact Case

Election Day may have affected Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez’s chance at freedom. 

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who recently shared his office’s decision to recommend the brothers be resentenced, lost his re-election Nov. 5 to former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman. And the change in District Attorney may shape whether the office moves forward with the case.

Although Hochman has not revealed his stance on the brothers—who are currently serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 murders of their parents José Menendez and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez—he previously slammed Gascón for his decision to announce the next steps weeks after the Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story brought eyes back to the case. As Hochman said during an October debate, “The timing is incredibly suspicious.”

As for what Hochman—who may instead withdraw the recommendation—would do if elected? “I would get deep, deep into the facts,” he said during the L.A. Times and KNX News debate. “You would certainly not have me hold a press conference to tell you I’m just thinking about it.”

Meanwhile, Gascón admitted the ways in which the Ryan Murphy series and subsequent Menendez Brothers doc that followed expedited their hearing, which had initially been set for Nov. 29.

“When a recent Netflix documentary came out, we immediately started getting bombarded with media requests and calls because the case came back again to the surface,” he explained of the hearing, which stemmed from a habeas petition filed by the brothers in 2023. “The decision was made that rather than answer one media request at a time, we would actually just come out and very clearly say where we are.”

Gascón formerly announced his office’s recommendation Oct. 24, one week after the brothers’ attorney Mark Geragos shared two new pieces of evidence regarding the case, specifically related to the brothers’ allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of their dad.  

"There are people in the office that strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should stay in prison the rest of their life, and they do not believe that they were molested," Gascón shared during the press conference. "And there are people in the office that strongly believe that they should be released immediately, and that they were, in fact, molested."

Although he emphasized that he did not want their alleged abuse to “excuse” the killings, he noted that “after a very careful review of all the arguments,” he would submit his recommendation.

His office ultimately recommended the brothers, who were convicted in 1996, be resentenced to 50 years in prison with the possibility for parole. And given they were under 26 at the time of the murders—Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18—if a judge signed off on the recommendation, they would be eligible for parole immediately. 

It was a bittersweet announcement for their loved ones, including Erik’s wife Tammi Menendez and Lyle’s wife Rebecca Sneed, who hoped for more leniency in the case.

“Yesterday was a difficult and emotional day,” Tammi wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Oct. 25. “I am Grateful to DA Gascon for his courage to seek re-sentencing for Erik. I am naturally disappointed he did not go further and act on his own belief that Erik and Lyle have served enough time in prison.”

As we await more updates on Erik and Lyle’s case, their wives have continued to support them during their three decades in prison. Read on to learn more about their relationships.

Lyle Menendez, then 28, married model and salon receptionist Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996, the day he and brother Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 double murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

Anna started writing to Lyle in 1993 during his first trial, which ended in a mistrial, and then moved to California to be near him the following year. She became a reliable presence at the months-long retrial that began in 1995 and resulted in convictions in March 1996, according to the Los Angeles Times.

They couldn't take their vows in person, however, Lyle instead taking the plunge over speaker phone, the groom in custody and the bride in the office of defense attorney Leslie Abramson.

He seemingly hoped to be able to wed Anna in person, once he knew where he'd end up.

"We do have a marriage proceeding," California Correctional Institution spokesman Lt. Jack Pitko told the LA Times in September 1996 once Lyle and Erik had been ordered to separate prisons. "There's a waiting list...But I don't see why he shouldn't be able to get married if he follows all the rules."

Anna filed for divorce in 2001 after, according to multiple reports from the time, she allegedly found out Lyle was exchanging letters with other women.

Lyle didn't rush into anything when he married journalist Rebecca Sneed, reportedly 33 at the time, in November 2003: He had known her for 10 years, first through letters and eventually from in-person visits, a prison spokesperson told the Associated Press in confirming the nuptials.

The ceremony took place at Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento, where Lyle resided until he was reunited with Erik in 2018 at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in southern San Diego County.

"Our interaction tends to be very free of distractions and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses do, who are distracted by life's events," Lyle told People in 2017. At the time, Rebecca was living in Sacramento and was said to visit weekly.

"We try and talk on the phone every day, sometimes several times a day," Lyle added. "I have a very steady, involved marriage and that helps sustain me and brings a lot of peace and joy. It's a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment here."

Rebecca "put up with a lot," he acknowledged. "But she has the courage to deal with the obstacles. It would be easier to leave, but I'm profoundly grateful that she doesn't."

Erik's wife Tammi Menendez, now 62, was married to Chuck Saccoman when she first spied the younger Menendez brother on TV in 1993 and felt a special place in her heart for the 22-year-old murder defendant.

As she later told People, she informed her husband she was going to write to Erik and Chuck gave her his blessing.

"I saw Tammi's letter and I felt something. I received thousands of letters, but I set this one aside. I got a feeling," Erik told the publication. "And I wrote her back. Tammi and I continued to correspond. I enjoyed writing to her. It was a slow friendship. It was special to me because it was not associated with the trial and the media. Tammi was someone not in the craziness."

However, as Tammi detailed in her 2005 book They Said We'd Never Make It: My Life With Erik Menendez, she doubted the brothers' abuse defense at first. (And she told MSNBC that Erik mentioned having a girlfriend of several years early on.)

But in 1996, as Tammi has detailed in her book and interviews, she found out that Chuck had abused her teenage daughter from a previous relationship. (They also shared a then-9-month-old daughter.)

Chuck turned himself into police and died by suicide two days later, according to People.

After Chuck died, "I reached out to Erik," she told the publication in 2005. "He comforted me. Our letters started taking on a more serious tone."

Tammi admitted she was "really nervous" when she finally met Erik in person at Folsom State Prison in August 1997.

"Erik had no idea what I looked like; I'd only sent him a tiny, 1-by-1 picture," she explained. "But when he walked into the room, he was so full of life, he hopped down the stairs. It was like I was meeting an old friend."

They married in 1999, a Twinkie serving as their wedding cake. 

And they've been together ever since, though Tammi has acknowledged that the lack of conjugal visits can be tough.

"A kiss when you come in, a kiss when you leave," she described the routine on MSNBC in December 2005. 'You can hold hands and that part of it is very difficult, and people don't understand."

Erik said he tried not to think about what was then the likelihood that he would never get out of prison.

“Tammi is what gets me through," he told People in 2005. "I can't think about the sentence. When I do, I do it with a great sadness and a primal fear. I break into a cold sweat. It's so frightening I just haven't come to terms with it."

But on a more optimistic note, Tammi had also taught him "how to be a good husband," Erik said. "There is no makeup sex, only a 15-minute phone call, so you really have to try to make things work."