The 85-year-old aunt of Erik and Lyle Menendez is in critical condition after prosecutors displayed graphic crime scene photos during a court hearing last Friday, according to family representatives.
Terry Baralt, the sister of murder victim José Menendez, was found unresponsive Sunday morning and rushed to a Los Angeles hospital, where she remains in intensive care. Baralt, who is battling colon cancer, had traveled from her home in New Jersey to support her nephews at the hearing.
“In open court, and without any prior warning, prosecutors displayed an unredacted, graphic image of José Menendez’s lifeless body — an act that retraumatized family members in attendance and led to the hospitalization of José’s 85-year-old sister,” the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition said in a statement.
The family has filed a motion asking the court to publicly admonish Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman for the display, which they claim violated California’s Marsy’s Law, which guarantees victims the right to be treated with fairness and respect for their privacy and dignity throughout criminal proceedings.
“Without notice, prosecutors chose to show a graphic, unredacted image of José’s dead body directly in front of us, his surviving family,” the coalition’s statement continued. “No one prepared us. There was no warning, no humanity – just shock and pain inflicted on people who have already endured decades of grief.”
The District Attorney’s Office issued an apology for not providing prior warning but defended the use of the evidence.
“To the extent that the photographic depiction of this conduct upset any of the Menendez family members present in court, we apologize for not giving prior warning that the conduct would be described in detail not only in words but also through a crime scene photo,” Hochman’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors further noted that “gory visual aids have been a fixture of the proceedings,” implying that attendees should have expected to see such images. They said the graphic nature of the photo was necessary to illustrate the horrific nature of the murders.
“We have repeatedly described in public documents the vicious, premeditated conduct of the Menendez brothers, shotgunning their parents 13 times through the back of the father’s head, at point-blank range in their mother’s face, and then through the kneecaps to stage a Mafia hit,” the DA’s office added.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions as a Los Angeles judge prepares to hear arguments for and against reducing the sentences of the infamous killers. A two-day hearing scheduled for Thursday and Friday will determine whether the brothers can leave prison on parole nearly 35 years after killing their parents in their Beverly Hills home.
Last Friday, Judge Michael Jesic handed a victory to the Menendez brothers by ruling against District Attorney Hochman’s bid to withdraw a resentencing request filed by his predecessor, George Gascón. Hochman had characterized the resentencing petition as a “desperate attempt” by Gascón to “revive his failing campaign” before losing the November election.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, maintains they are fully rehabilitated and have paid their debt to society.
Hochman insists Erik and Lyle have shown no remorse for the murders and rejects their claim of killing their parents in self-defense in 1989.
Lyle, now 57, and Erik, 54, were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for the murders of José and Kitty Menendez. The brothers claim they killed their parents after suffering years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, while prosecutors maintain the murders were motivated by greed for their parents’ $15 million fortune.
The brothers were 18 and 21, respectively, at the time of the killings. Their case has received renewed attention following the release of last year’s Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
Resentencing by the court is one of two paths to freedom for the brothers. They are also scheduled to appear before the state parole board on June 13 as part of a comprehensive risk assessment ordered by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is considering their clemency request.
Hochman previously told ABC News that he would consider resentencing if the brothers “sincerely and unequivocally admit, for the first time in over 30 years, the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies that they have told about it.”
Following the photo incident, the Menendez family has called for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to be removed from the case, claiming prosecutors are “incapable of handling this process with the fairness, care, or neutrality required by law.”