Transcript of Frenzy outside Menendez court hearing as judge delays resentencing

An international media frenzy outside the Los Angeles courthouse today.

I need you guys to move for.

A hearing in the Eric and Lyle Menendez case. With a new judge and a new district attorney in charge, the Menendez brothers.

Fate hangs in the balance by January 30th or 31st. We're hoping that by the end of that or sometime sooner that we will in fact get the brothers released.

Decades after murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills mansion and being sentenced to life in prison without parole. Today's hearing focused on the brothers claim that there is new evidence and that their case should be re examined. A series of documentaries and a Netflix drama shedding new light on some of that evidence that Eric and Lyle say supports their claim that they were sexually abused for years before the murders.

I, Joseph Lyle Menendez, am destined for greatness.

The judge gave no indication of how he is leaning on this. Going into this, we were thinking maybe we can read some tea leaves of does he support the release? Does he not last?

4 numbers outside the courthouse, a lottery for crowds of people vying to get inside to watch.

Preparing myself hopefully for the best. And that's all we can all hope for with just the change in our da. I'm not looking. I'm not as positive as I was.

Family members of the brothers also in attendance, including the 93 year old sister of Kitty Menendez, Joan Andersen Vandermoelen, who spoke both inside and outside court.

I do want them home. They should never have been in such situations.

When their aunts got up and testified and took the oath, they raised their right hand, they cried, looking directly at the judge saying let them out, that it is time that they be free.

Just days before the brothers attorney Mark Garagos previously speculated that they might be released.

I believe before Thanksgiving they will be home.

There were some indications weeks ago that it was going to be quick. It doesn't look like it's going to be quick.

Last month in a bombshell move, the Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon calling for a judge to free the Menendez brothers, announcing his recommendation for a resentencing. You are recommending that they be released essentially immediately.

I am recommending that they be released because I believe that the people that they were at age 19 and 21 is not the same people that we're seeing 35 years later.

But after a landslide defeat, the newly elected district attorney Nathan Hockman, who will be sworn in on December 2, now has the power. California's Governor Gavin Newsom, who the brothers recently Petitioned for clemency, revealing on his podcast last week that he'll leave it to Hockman to decide on the brothers case.

The Menendez file, which is now a little thicker because we did deeper research.

In the last 10 days, that's all on my desk. I think it's the right thing to.

Do, to hear from the new DA.

Before I make any decisions. Hockman says he's concerned about how social media could shape perception.

If you decide this case based on just reviewing a Netflix documentary, you're doing a disservice to the Menendez brothers, to the victim, family members, to the public.

From a political standpoint, leans further right than that of the more left leaning Georges Gascon. And so there's not as much of a motivation for him to resentence these men.

The outgoing DA George Gascon was very favorable to resentencing the incoming da. Hoffman seems to be a little bit more hesitant. He says he wants to review the case. Are you concerned that this may change the resentencing going forward?

No, not really. The law is pretty clear. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Hockman wants to evaluate it, which is fine, but that shouldn't delay anything because it's up to the judge. It's in the judges.

Today's hearing comes after shifting public opinion about the case and a hit Netflix scripted series, Monsters, that thrust their story back into the spotlight this September.

This is done. This is done, you understand?

No more between you two.

And you are never, never to touch him. Not ever. What's the problem?

What's the problem?

That's how I kill my parents, pard.

It was from the jump, one of the biggest cases in Los Angeles and in the country. No one could believe that these two young men had killed their parents this way.

It was the shocking Beverly Hills double murder. A prominent husband and wife gunned down by their own children in cold blood. Entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife were slain in the family room of their Beverly Hills mansion.

Their sons burst in on them and opened fire repeatedly, over and over. Shotgun blasts to all parts of their body.

The sharp jawed, brooding brothers convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the heinous murders.

There was something deeply evil about it that scared people. I'm just a normal kid.

Oh, Eric, you're a normal kid who killed your parents. Yeah, I know.

The brothers saying they feared for their lives when they shot their parents. After Lyle threatened to expose their secret. Their cousins backing up the allegations of abuse. He told me never to Reveal it to anybody to promise him that I.

Would keep it a secret between us.

But prosecutors in 1993 said the abuse defense was fabricated, at one point even saying men can't be raped.

It's the people's position, first of all, that men cannot be raped since they lack the necessary equipment to actually be raped. Did your father have sexual contact with you? Yes.

The Menendez brothers saga, now being looked at through a 21st century lens at a trauma, barely understood at the time that men could also be sexually abused. A reality explored by the former psychiatrist who treated the brothers back in the 90s. In the 80s and 90s, the public.

Had very little knowledge about this type.

Of sexual abuse, especially fathers abusing their own sons.

I have always thought that if the Menendez brothers were the Menendez sisters, they'd be free today, would have been convicted. But an abuse victim often gets some kind of clemency.

This is not a child abuse trial. This is a murder trial.

But some, like Allen Abramson, who covered the trial for the LA Times, still believe the brothers killed for murder and that the jury got it right, given their lavish spending spree.

The parents were sitting in the den watching tv. Did they have any weapons? No. I thought that when Lyle described the killing of his mother, that a normal jury would find it reprehensible and convict him. You know, we loved our mother. Oh, yeah. Really? You loved your mother? You blew her up.

Kitty's brother, Milton Anderson, agrees the brothers should not be released, saying in a statement last month, when Eric and Lyle Menendez executed their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, they not only cut short two lives, they also shattered an entire family. And the statement adding that their motive was pure greed. Recently, questions about Lyle's personal life causing a sensation on Tik Tok.

Lyle Menendez has been having an affair, allegedly with this 21 year old, his.

Wife, Rebecca Sneed, who runs his Facebook page, posting this statement. Lyle and I have been separated for a while now, but remain best friends and family. I am forever committed to the enduring fight for Lyle and Eric's freedom, as has been so evident over the years. As for the brothers fate, right now they wait.

It doesn't look like there's going to be any court activity between now and the end of January unless the governor were to jump in and decide he is going to grant clemency. But he has said he's not going.

To do that today. In a statement, the incoming DA Hockman said having more time to review the case will be helpful. Re emphasizing what he told us earlier this month.

I'm not going to ask for delay, just for delay's sake. We'll ask for the minimal amount of time necessary to do this work, because we owe it to the Menendez brothers, we owe it to the victim family members, we owe it to the public to get this decision right.