LYLE & ERIK MENENDEZ LAST CHANCE FOR FREEDOM

AFTER 35 YEARS IN PRISON FOR THE 1989 MURDERS OF THEIR PARENTS, THE BROTHERS WAIT TO LEARN THEIR FATE FROM A NEWLY ELECTED PROSECUTOR

- By JOHNNY DODD and CHRISTINE PELISEK

Days before Anamaria Baralt appeared at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23 to speak about her cousins Lyle and Erik Menendez pushing to be released from custody for the brutal 1989 murders of their parents, she spoke to Lyle in prison. They talked about the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles that had delayed their much-anticipated resentencing hearing. “Erik and Lyle are keenly aware of what is happening,” Baralt, 53, recalls of their conversation at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego—where a 6,600-acre blaze recently erupted. “They are hugely empathetic for what is happening in L.A. and to the thousands of people whose lives have been upended.”

Erik, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, are also keenly aware that their dreams of freedom—which seemed closer than ever last October when then L.A. District Attorney George Gascón filed a resentencing request that could have ultimately freed them—might not materialize now that the county’s new top prosecutor, Nathan Hochman, has taken office. “We are still figuring it out,” Hochman told People when asked if he would support or withdraw his predecessor’s motion.