L.A. DA Nathan Hochman Reacts to Menendez Brothers Resentencing (Exclusive)

Los Angeles DA Nathan Hochman spoke to "Extra" right after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced Lyle and Erik Menendez’s sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life.

The Menendez brothers are now eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law. Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, committed the crime when they were both under the age of 26.

It is the California Board of Parole Hearings that must now decide whether to release them from prison.

Hochman previously voiced his opposition to the brothers' release, saying he felt they still hadn't fully "come clean."

After Tuesday's ruling, he told us, “You know what? Our job was to get all the facts in front of the judge. We did that. Our job is to make sure the judge had the accurate law. We did that as well. We said the Menendezes were not right for resentencing. They still aren't.”

Hochman added, “The judge ruled as the judge will, and now sends it to the parole board and, ultimately, to the governor [Gavin Newsom]. So, again, the process will play out if the governor follows the precedent that he set in the Sirhan Sirhan case, where he looked at all the pro parole factors.”

Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, has been denied parole twice in recent years.

Hochman said, “In fact, Sirhan Sirhan arguably had more pro parole factors… While the Menendez brothers moved a little bit closer today, trying to get there, they're still not there, and Sirhan Sirhan’s hand was at the lowest rating for risk.”

The Menendez brothers are considered to be at a moderate risk level.

Hochman also weighed in on Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, saying, “You know, Mr. Geragos wanted voluntary manslaughter. He wanted the mechanisms to get out today. He lost that argument. The facts… in order to get to that argument, he had to torture the facts, and the judge wouldn't go there. So, the judge gave them 50 years to life, sending them... to the parole board and the governor, but wouldn't bend to where Mr. Geragos was trying to take it. You know, Mr. Geragos can be a capable lawyer. It's a shame, but he wants to engage in personal attacks against other lawyers because he somehow thinks that helps his clients' interests. It actually doesn't. It demeans him. It demeans his arguments, and it sort of takes away from the focus, which should be on the facts and the law of any case.”

As for Judge Jesic’s decision, the DA said, “I think he decided to resentence probably a long time ago. And the reason I say that is he managed to hear an entire day's worth of testimony, and rather than, you know, stew on it, think about it, asked to see the transcript to make sure his notes were correct, and even write on it and sort of put his thoughts down in a defensible opinion. He ruled from the bench, and after an entire day's worth of testimony, after hundreds of pages of briefing, he ruled in four minutes. So, again, I think the judge was going to resentence them either way, no matter what we said.”

He went on, “It's hard to get into the psychology of this particular judge. I think that if this was an ordinary resentencing case, he very well probably would have let us withdraw our motion, because we established a very legitimate basis, which is the standard for withdrawing of motion. But because this got the publicity it did, that might have influenced his decision not to allow us to control that resentencing motion. And if you add on top of that the fact that this judge has indicated all along that he's bent… to the facts that were in favor of resentencing, as opposed to the facts that weren't. So, that's his right. He can focus on whichever facts he wanted, but clearly the facts that fit his narrative were ones that justified resentencing, not the facts that got in the way of resentencing.”

Asking him if the family support was helpful, Hochman said, “I think any time that, you know, you're confronted by a whole variety and over 20 different family members that are willing to effectively forgive the murders of their brother and their sister or their cousins or their aunt and their uncle, I mean, that will have an impact with the judge as a legal matter... It weighs very little, but does it have a human aspect to it as they sit in this court and he sees them? You know, in these various hearings, I'm sure it did.”

What happens next?

“Well, the governor technically has 90 days to make a decision after he gets a gift. Actually, I take it back. He has 180 days to make a decision under the law once he gets word from the parole board, but he can make a decision in the first day, or wait the entire 180 days to decide. I think he's monitoring the case office to really familiarize ourselves with all the facts in the law, and I'm sure the governor then has the final decision on whether or not he wants to set the Menendezes free and effectively overturn the jury's verdict from 35 years ago on a first-degree murder with special circumstances — shotgunning your parents to death — or he wants to let them serve the rest of their sentence that the jury and the judge gave out over 30 years ago.”

Hochman sounded ready to walk away from the case. “Effectively, I'm done with it," he said. "Obviously, if the parole board needs additional input from the DA office, if the governor decides he wants to reach out and have a conversation, I'm not going to say no to that, but I'm not going to affirmatively put myself into the mix.”