Developments in the retrial of Lyle and Erik Menendez from Feb.12 -16.
FEBRUARY 12
The court was in recess.
FEBRUARY 13
The defense called several rebuttal witnesses to dispute numerous elements of the circumstances surrounding the fatal shootings of Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Marta Cano said she obtained a Florida drivers' license for Erik Menendez because his California license was suspended. The testimony was aimed at trying to prove that Erik used a friend's identification to purchase shotguns because he didn't have his own California identification.
The prosecution believes Erik's used a friend's identification because he purchased the guns to kill his parents and wanted to escape detection. But Erik testified that he purchased the weapons for protection from his parents and didn't care about being found out.
Another witness, Teresita Baralt, testified about furniture in the living room den of the Menendez home. She said that new furniture was put in the room several days after the August 20, 1989, shootings. The testimony was aimed at refuting testimony from Erik's friend Craig Cignarelli, who claimed Erik provided him with details of the shooting. Cignarelli said there was no furniture in the room when Erik gave him a tour of the room several weeks after the shooting.
FEBRUARY 14
The defense continued its attack on the credibility of Craig Cignarelli, who testified that Erik Menendez told him all about the killings.
Linda Ellman, the former executive producer of "Hard Copy," told jurors that the tabloid television show paid $25,000 to Cignarelli for his exclusive story about Erik. The defense contends that Cignarelli made up the gruesome details of Erik's alleged confession in order to get a better deal from the television program.
Cignarelli had offered an account of the August 20, 1989, killings that differed dramatically from that given by Erik on the witness stand at his retrial. Cignarelli testified that Erik told him the shootings occurred moments after he returned home to pick up a fake identification card, and saw Lyle standing outside with two shotguns.
According to Cignarelli's account, Lyle said to Erik, "Let's do it," and the brothers went into the den, where their parents were. Cignarelli said Erik told him that Lyle started shooting and then turned to his younger brother and said, "shoot mom," who was standing, screaming.
During her testimony, Ellman was questioned about how Cignarelli spent the money he received for his television appearance. She said he gave $3,000 to a charity for abused children. Cignarelli had testified that he gave $5,000.
The defense, trying to show that Cignarelli lied on the witness stand, then called another witness to confirm the $3,000 donation. But when they tried to call another witness to say the same thing, Judge Stanley Weisberg cut them off, saying, "this is not the trial of Mr. Cignarelli, no matter how much you want to make it so."
FEBRUARY 15
Judge Stanley Weisberg's decision to limit the testimony of a defense psychiatrist prompted an angry response from a defense attorney who said the brothers were not getting a fair trial.
The judge ruled that Dr. William Vicary could not offer his opinions about Erik Menendez's state of mind at the time of the shootings or any other time in his life. The testimony, the judge ruled, would be repetitive to earlier testimony offered by defense witness Dr. John Wilson.
During his testimony, Dr. Wilson said Erik suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of the parents.
The decision infuriated attorney Leslie Abramson, who accused the judge of being unfair and wrong.
Dr. Vicary also was not allowed to give the testimony that he gave in the first trial, when he said that he believed Erik's claims of molestation and that he killed his parents out of fear. Instead, he was allowed to testify only about anxiety disorders in general.The result was a far less powerful witness than the one who supported the defense's theory of the shootings during the first trial.
Dr. Vicary, who has been treating Erik since shortly after his arrest in 1990, has diagnosed Erik as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
FEBRUARY 16
The defense suffered a major setback when Judge Stanley Weisberg stripped it of its principal theory -- that Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents because they mistakenly believed their parents would kill them first.
The judge said there was not sufficient evidence that the brothers were in imminent danger when they fatally shot their parents on August 20, 1989. In ruling on legal instructions to be read to jurors after closing arguments, Judge Weisberg essentially threw out the theory of "imperfect self-defense."
The theory was the heart of the defense in the first trial and convinced at least half the jurors on each of the two panels to vote to convict the brothers of manslaughter instead of murder.
By refusing to instruct the jury on imperfect self-defense, the judge eliminated one theory on which the defense can argue for manslaughter instead of murder. Judge Weisberg said he would allow the defense to argue that the brothers shot their father in the heat of passion, but not their mother. While there was sufficient evidence to show that Jose Menendez might have provoked his sons into committing a homicide, there was insufficient evidence to show that Kitty did so, the judge said.
Defense attorney Leslie Abramson said she was shocked by the ruling because "there is no bigger provocation than a mother telling her son she knew he had been molested by his father for 12 years and she didn't care."
The brothers have pleaded not guilty in the shotgun slayings of Jose, 45, a wealthy entertainment executive, and Kitty, 47, in the den of the family's Beverly Hills mansion.
While manslaughter convictions carry a maximum penalty of 11 years, a conviction on the lesser murder count carries a 15-years-to-life prison term. If convicted of first-degree murder in both deaths, the brothers could face the death penalty.
Abramson said she will seek acquittal based on diminished mental state. She said Erik suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of a lifetime of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and was in a hyper-aroused state at the time of the killings.
The "imperfect self-defense theory" that Judge Weisberg rejected holds that a person who "kills another person in the honest but unreasonable belief in the necessity to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury...is not guilty of murder."
The defense contends that Jose Menendez threatened to kill his sons to stop Lyle from exposing him as a child molester. On the night of the killings, the father made overtures that he would sexually assault Erik, the defense claims.
Prosecutor David Conn contends that the parents did nothing more than go into the den and shut the door, and that if the brothers really thought their parents were going to kill them, they could have driven away.
The state believes the brothers killed their parents in order to get their hands on the family fortune.
