Opinion ID: 791857
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Pre-Killing Planning, the Killings, and the Post-Killing Cover-Up

Text: 5 Erik testified that a few days before the murders, Jose told Erik that Erik would be required to spend several nights a week at home while attending college at UCLA. This, Erik testified, shattered his dream of going away to college and getting away from [his] father. Erik testified also that five days before the murders, as a result of this news from his father, Erik told Lyle, who was home from the East Coast for the summer, that their father had been sexually abusing Erik for years. 6 On August 15, 1989, Lyle allegedly confronted Jose about the abuse while Erik was out of the house. Lyle recounted the confrontation to Erik, who testified Lyle told him that Jose said go to Princeton, forget the conversation ever happened, and just not ruin his [Lyle's] life over this, don't get involved over this. When Lyle responded to Jose, No, it's going to stop, Jose said something along the lines of: `You've made your decision and Erik's made his and now he [Jose] had to make his.' After the confrontation, Jose left for a business trip, and when he returned, he allegedly went to Erik's bedroom and screamed I warned you never to tell Lyle. I told you never to tell Lyle. Its [sic] all your fault. Now, Lyle's going to tell everyone and I'm not going to let that happen. I can't believe you did this. As a result of this confrontation and years of threats by Jose, Erik testified he thought his parents would kill him. 7 Erik and Lyle armed themselves on August 18, 1989, two days before they would kill their parents. On that day, Lyle and Erik, then ages 21 and 18, respectively, tried to purchase guns at several different stores, the first in Los Angeles. After learning that handguns could not be purchased immediately, they drove from Los Angeles to San Diego, where the second store asked for identification. After quietly discussing the identification issue, the brothers decided that the store clerk would probably be suspicious that they did not promptly provide identification when asked. So, they left that store, and went to the third and final store. There, they bought two shotguns using false identification and providing non-existent addresses. When the store clerk asked why the address on his identification did not match the address he provided, Erik lied, telling the clerk that he had recently moved. 8 After making their secret purchase, Erik and Lyle drove back to Los Angeles, where they decided to practice firing their newly-purchased shotguns. They went to a firing range, but were turned away because the range did not allow shotguns. Additionally, having been told that the birdshot ammunition they had loaded into their new guns was useless for stopping a person, Erik and Lyle purchased buckshot ammunition, ammunition that presumably would stop a person. 9 The day before the murders, Jose, Kitty, Erik, and Lyle went on a planned fishing trip together. Despite their alleged fear of their parents, Erik and Lyle left their new shotguns at home because they were too large to conceal. The brothers and parents had very little interaction on this trip. The trip was uneventful, however, and the family returned home late that evening. Erik testified that Jose came to Erik's room that night and pounded on the door, but Erik refused to open it because he was afraid. Jose left. 10 The next morning was August 20, the day of the murders. Lyle called a friend, Perry Berman, and talked about getting together that evening. Berman made plans with Lyle to meet the brothers at the Taste of L.A. food festival after Erik and Lyle went to see Batman, a movie Lyle said would end around 9:00 or 9:30 that evening. Erik and Lyle never went to see the movie, and they never turned up at the festival to meet Berman. 11 Erik testified that Lyle had an argument with Jose and Kitty about the brothers' plan to go out for the evening, following which Jose told Erik to go to his room. Allegedly fearing that his father wanted to have sex with him, Erik nevertheless complied and went up the stairs, but he lingered to listen and heard Lyle tell Jose, You're not going to touch Erik. You're not going to touch my little brother. You're never going to touch him again. According to Erik, Jose and Kitty then went into the den and closed the doors. 12 Lyle went up the stairs, where Erik testified that he told Lyle, I'm not going to my room tonight. I can't let him come to my room. I can't let this happen. He further testified that [Lyle] told me not to worry about that. Lyle, according to Erik's testimony, was pale and shaking, when Lyle said, It's happening now. They were waiting for me to get home and it's happening now. 13 Jose and Kitty remained in the den with the television set on. The record is unclear as to how much time elapsed between this final confrontation and the murders, but it was enough time for Erik and Lyle to separate. Erik went to his bedroom where he retrieved his new shotgun from the closet. He then went back downstairs and out to the car. There, he removed the birdshot ammunition from his gun and replaced it with buckshot. Lyle rejoined him at the car where Lyle, too, began loading his shotgun. 14 Around 10:00 p.m., Erik and Lyle's parents were unarmed and in the den, watching television and eating. Lyle and Erik burst through the doors of the den and fired thirteen to fifteen shotgun blasts at their parents. Erik testified that he thought his father was standing, but said also, As soon as I burst through the doors, as soon as I saw them, I just immediately started firing. I didn't stop and look around. I just started firing. Before the massacre was over, Erik and Lyle left the house and went to the car where Lyle reloaded. They returned to the house, where Lyle fired one more shot. The final shot, which was apparently fired while Kitty was still alive, was administered while the muzzle of the shotgun was in contact with her left cheek. Jose also had a contact wound to his head. 15 Jose and Kitty died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds — four shots to Jose and nine shots to Kitty. Jose was found with gunshot wounds to his legs that were inflicted after death. 16 While their parents lay dead on the floor of the den, Lyle and Erik began extensive cover-up efforts. First, they collected the expended shotgun shells, concerned that their fingerprints might be on them, and they left the house. Then, to support the story Lyle previously told Perry Berman, the brothers drove to the movie theater and purchased alibi tickets for Batman. The brothers had to discard the tickets after noticing that the tickets were time-stamped and would not provide an adequate alibi. Next, Erik and Lyle stopped at a gas station, where they dumped the shotgun shells, their bloody clothes, and their bloody shoes in a trash can. 17 Around 11:00 p.m., an excited-sounding Lyle called Berman and falsely told him that he and Erik had gotten lost on the way to the festival, and that by the time they arrived there, the festival was closed. In an apparent effort to fabricate a second alibi, Lyle suggested to Berman that they meet at a restaurant in Beverly Hills instead. A few minutes later, however, Lyle called back and asked Berman to meet at the Menendez home instead. Rather than meet at the home, Berman agreed to wait so that Lyle and Erik could go home to get Erik's fake I.D. Of course, after returning home, Erik and Lyle discovered their parents' dead bodies and did not show up at the restaurant to meet Berman. 18 At that point, Lyle called 911 and emotionally told the operator, someone killed my parents. He said that he had just come home and discovered their bodies. Erik could be heard screaming and crying in the background. Continuing the charade when the police arrived, Lyle and Erik ran from the home toward the officers, screaming. 19 During the ensuing investigation, Lyle and Erik both falsely told officers that they were elsewhere at the time of the killings. Lyle went so far as to tell the officers he thought the killings might be business-related, meaning a Mafia hit. 20 We note here that the gory scene of the slaughter of Jose and Kitty Menendez is consistent with the notion that the killings were carried out with the false Mafia story already in mind. It appears from the record that the shotgun overkill administered by Erik and Lyle was designed to simulate a gangland hit in order to enable the brothers to deceive the police and to point them in the wrong direction. 21 After the initial police interview, Erik and Lyle asked if they could return to the den to recover their tennis rackets. 22 Picking up on Lyle's suggestion that the slaughter might be Mafia-related, the police began to investigate that lead. To make the lie more believable, Lyle immediately hired bodyguards to protect him 24 hours a day, telling his bodyguard that either the Columbian Cartel or the Mafia was responsible for his parents' murders. He told his girlfriend the same story. But Lyle terminated the round the clock arrangement after a week, falsely asserting that a deal had been reached with the Mafia and he was no longer in danger. Nonetheless, Lyle hired a bodyguard for his protection during his Fall, 1989 semester at Princeton. 23 Erik, too, continued the Mafia-killing pretense: In September or October of 1989, he told Berman that his parents' murders were business-related. Erik went so far as to name names, telling Berman that the murders involved a man named Noel Bloom, a man who previously had business problems with Jose. 24 While the police were attempting to solve the crime, Erik and Lyle were concerning themselves with the considerable wealth their parents had left behind. Jose's life insurance left Lyle and Erik with more than $300,000 each, but other valuable assets remained undistributed. At the time of his death, Jose was earning over a million dollars a year, and his combined property and stock assets amounted to more than seven million dollars. The brothers knew that Jose had a will, but questions remained at the time as to the location of the will and whether Jose had written more than one. 25 Jose's 1981 will, which left everything to Erik and Lyle, was not immediately recovered. The brothers, however, had reason to fear that Jose might have written a new will, one that would leave them nothing. Erik testified that his mother told him that Jose had disinherited Erik. The day after the murders, Erik and Lyle spoke with Randolph Wright, an attorney and family friend, about probating Jose's will. (During this meeting, Erik again mentioned he thought the killings were Mafia-related.) 26 Lyle told Wright that he thought Jose might have changed his will and that the new will might be on the family computer. The other possible location of a new will was a family safe. Lyle retrieved the safe, and it was brought to Wright's home, where it was kept in a spare bedroom. Erik spent two nights in that bedroom with the safe, and when it was opened, Lyle allowed no one but Erik to be present. After opening the safe in private, Lyle told family and friends that he and Erik had found nothing in the safe. 27 Some time later, three files on the computer, entitled Will, Erik, and Lyle, were discovered. These files, however, were mysteriously unrecoverable. A computer expert named Howard Witkin testified at trial that Lyle had called him in on an emergency computer problem. Witkin found the location of the files, but no information. Lyle asked Witkin to be sure to completely erase the disk, claiming that he was selling the computer and wanted to make sure that no financial information could be discovered. Soon thereafter, the family found the 1981 will — now the only will — which left everything to Lyle and Erik. 28 With the knowledge that they were to inherit millions, Lyle and Erik began shopping days after the murders. Lyle started by purchasing three Rolex watches and two money clips, as well as a new Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet. Erik bought a Jeep Wrangler, and both brothers bought houses, clothes, and businesses. 29 Their final pre-trial attempt to escape punishment came after they were arrested. Two witnesses testified that they had been asked to fabricate evidence. Lyle asked one witness, Brian Amir Eslaminia, to lie and testify that the day before the murders, Lyle and Erik said they needed a handgun for protection. The other witness, Lyle's girlfriend, Jamie Pisarcik, testified that Lyle asked her to allege that Jose had raped her.