Ep 146: Analysing the Menendez Murders with Hazel Thornton, Part 1

Laura starts a new series unravelling the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez and speaks with Hazel Thornton, who was one of the jurors at the first seven-month trial in 1993.

Jose and Kitty were shot dead on August 20, 1989, at their home in Beverly Hills. 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik were later arrested for their parents’ murders. The dominant narrative in the media was that they were greedy, rich kids who killed their parents in cold blood for money.

In this episode Laura goes behind the scenes of the trial with Hazel, who shares why the narrative didn’t make sense at the trial and why she didn’t believe that Lyle and Erik killed their parents for money.

Both brothers went on trial at the same time for murdering their parents, albeit each brother had their own jury. Hazel sat on the jury for Erik Menendez. Each jury deliberated separately, and each jury resulted in a deadlock. Hazel explains what was going on between the 6 men and 6 women on her jury having heard the 51 witnesses who gave evidence about the insidious, cruel, and torturous abuse the boys were subjected to by Jose Menendez.

The same judge, Judge Stanley Weisberg presided over the second trial which began in October 1995. This time around Judge Weisberg changed the rules and decided there would be no cameras in court. David Conn, on behalf of the prosecution, asked the judge not to allow the sexual abuse history and so Judge Weisberg limited the witnesses that the defense could call and via a last-minute ruling refused to allow the imperfect self-defense theory.

In closing, Conn, told the jury that the ‘abuse is a total fabrication’, that they had heard no evidence of the abuse and it was the ‘silliest story ever told in a courtroom.’ He said it was the perfect example of the ‘abuse excuse.’

The jury found Lyle and Erik guilty of murder and they were sentenced to life without parole. Lyle and Erik have been in prison for 33 years.

Read Hazel’s Book Hung Jury

https://www.amazon.com/Hung-Jury-Diary-Menendez-Juror/dp/1631681621/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqoa2aQjYP0

Picture Laura discusses in the episode

https://abcnews.go.com/US/photos/menendez-brothers-killed-parents-childhood-murder-trial-44511381/image-44530189

Sources

https://www.courttv.com/trials/ca-v-menendez-1993/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-03-06-mn-30790-story.html

https://lamag.com/news/erik-menendez-letter-before-murder-bombshell-court-order

https://www.org4life.com/books/hung-jury-book/menendez-murders-flow-chart

The Menendez Murders - By Robert Rand

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-23/menendez-murder-los-angeles-menudo-sexual-abuse

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-17/menendez-brothers-vacate-convictions-new-hearing-evidence

https://www.hulu.com/series/the-menendez-murders-erik-tells-all-ec3de270-4b58-498a-9992-51bdb20b7f67

https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/666607/s01-e01-episode-1

https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/menendez--menudo-boys-betrayed/8222254554603265112?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6KunBhDxARIsAKFUGs-XmI0Ji5DtefXeWkNINTRh3KhPHccAYZxENg9OlCWrlGyRPtvZXbUaAu0dEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

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