The Brief

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that he would recommend resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez, who fatally shot their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

The move could lead to the release of the brothers, who were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a case that attracted international attention.

They have been incarcerated for nearly 35 years.

Gascón said he would file the petition for resentencing with the Superior Court on Friday, and a judge would decide whether to approve it. The district attorney said he would recommend sentencing the brothers to 50 years to life in prison, making them eligible for parole.

"I believe that they have paid their debt to society," Gascón said at an afternoon news conference. "And the system provides a vehicle for their case to be reviewed by a parole board, and if parole concurs with my assessment — it will be their decision — they will be released accordingly."

Erik Menendez (left) is shown in 2016 and Lyle Menendez in 2018 in photos provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

(

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

/

AP

)

He said people within his own office had widely differing opinions on the matter, some of whom supported the idea of resentencing and releasing the brothers immediately, and others who believe they should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Background

After they were arrested, the brothers never denied committing the killings, in which they repeatedly fired shotguns at their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez as they watched television the night of Aug. 20, 1989. The brothers said they did so after years of sexual abuse by their father and because they feared for their lives.

They also said their mother knew about the molestation and that hers was a “mercy” killing.

Their claims were met with widespread skepticism.

Prosecutors at the time said the brothers were motivated by greed because they stood to inherit their father’s multi-million dollar estate.

Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the murders. Lyle Menendez was 21. They are now 53 and 56, respectively.

At the Thursday news conference, Gascón, who is seeking reelection in November, stressed that his decision was not intended to excuse the brothers' actions decades ago.

"I want to underline, they were horrible acts," he said. "There is no excuse for murder, and I will never imply that what we are doing here is to excuse that behavior. Because even if you get abused, the right path is to call the police, seek help.

"But I also understand how sometimes people get desperate. We often see women, for instance, that have been battered for years and sometimes they will murder their abuser out of desperation. And I do believe that the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home and molestation."

New evidence

Gascón’s decision follows the release of new evidence in a Netflix documentary on the case this year. The new evidence is a letter written by Erik Menendez to a cousin months before the killings in which he writes about the abuse by his father.

There have been many TV shows and documentaries about the Menendez case over the years, including a dramatized version of the story released last month that drew criticism from family members, but he noted the most recent one had brought "a tremendous amount of public attention."

"Frankly, our office got flooded with requests for information and even though this case was already scheduled to be heard in late November, I decided to move this forward," Gascón said, adding that he did so because the office didn't have the resources to handle the calls.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos, who represents the brothers, said previously that he has obtained a declaration from Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, stating Jose Menendez also molested him in the 1980s. Jose Menendez was an RCA executive who signed the band to the label.

In announcing that he was reviewing the case, Gascón said “it's important to recognize that both men and women can be victims of sexual abuse.”

In the brothers’ first trial, which was nationally televised, Judge Stanley Weisberg allowed extensive testimony about sexual abuse. The brothers had separate juries and both deadlocked.

The judge declared a mistrial.

In the brothers’ second trial, which was not televised, Weisberg severely limited testimony about sexual abuse, and a jury found them guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances.

Gascón said teams within his office "have spent hundreds of hours by now" reviewing the Menendez case, including the prison files. Among other factors, the review focused on whether the brothers had been rehabilitated and whether they could be released safely into the community.

Under that rubric, he said, the office has resentenced more than 300 people since Gascón has been in office, including 28 people who had been convicted of murder. He said four of those 300 have reoffended.

"If that was the regular recidivism rate around the country, we would be the safest nation in the world," he said.

Support from family members

Several members of the Menendez family were present at Gascón’s news conference. Last week, many of those same family members held a news conference of their own to urge Gascón to seek the re-sentencing of the brothers and their release.

Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers, introduced a coalition called "Justice for Erik and Lyle" and described the brothers as victims of a system that would not hear them and a culture that was not ready to listen.

"If Lyle and Erik's case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different," Baralt said.

Supporters of the brothers argue they would have been found guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder, based on a legal theory of imperfect self-defense. Manslaughter in California carries a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen, an aunt of the Menendez brothers, said last week that she had struggled for years to come to terms with what happened to her sister's family. She called it a nightmare none of the family members could imagine.

"But as details of Lyle and Eric's abuse came to light, it became clear," she continued, "that their actions while tragic were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable [cruelty] of their father."

Some oppose release

Not all members of the Menendez family want to see the brothers released.

The brother of Kitty Menendez, Milton Anderson, opposes their release, according to his attorney Kathy Cady.

“The ‘new evidence’ Gascón relies on cannot legally justify overturning the murder convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who meticulously planned and executed the cold-blooded murders of both their parents,” Cady said in a statement.

Cady said Anderson has not been contacted by Gascón’s office about a possible resentencing as required by law.

The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to the allegation.

LAist reporter Makenna Sievertson contributed to this report.

Lawmakers on Thursday killed a controversial plan that could have allowed grizzly bears to one day return to California.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee spiked Inglewood Democratic Sen. Laura Richardson’s Senate Bill 1305. The measure would have tasked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with creating a “roadmap that evaluates whether, and under what conditions, reintroduction of the grizzly bear is feasible and advisable.”

As is typical with the Legislature’s appropriations committees, lawmakers didn’t discuss the bill; nor did they take public testimony before the committee’s chairperson, Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland, announced the decision.

Wicks later told reporters that before intentionally reintroducing grizzly bears, the state must figure out how humans can best coexist with predatory wildlife. She pointed to the controversial return of gray wolves to California and the subsequent loss of cattle.

“The state needs to really invest in how we are actually addressing and dealing with those conflicts,” she said.

Grizzlies once lived across most of California. As many as 10,000 may have roamed before the Gold Rush. They were so prevalent that when California settlers tried to form their own nation, they called it the Bear Flag Republic. A grizzly bear is memorialized on California’s flag.

Settlers systematically exterminated the animals. They were gone by the 1920s, leaving the smaller black bear as California’s only surviving native bear species.

Two Native American tribes consponsored the bill, and several animal welfare and environmental groups supported it. They argued that bringing the second largest land predator back to America’s most populated state would right an ecological wrong and help restore California’s degraded ecosystem.

Opponents included ranchers, hunting associations and rural communities. They argued California is far too populated with people to sustain another apex predator. Rural communities are already overwhelmed with conflicts with mountain lions, black bears and wolves that attack livestock and wander into their towns, opponents said.

The measure set aside no funding for the study, but it allowed for a future Legislature or an outside group to do so.

Yue Stella Yu contributed reporting.

Irvine opened a new pedestrian bridge this week that lets you pedal, scoot, or walk over the 5 Freeway.

I threw my bike in the car and went to check it out.

I parked at Cypress Community Park in Irvine and was soon biking over the 5. The bridge is only for pedestrians, bikes, and scooters — so no cars to worry about.

A new bridge in Irvine opened this week. It stretches across the 5 Freeway and connects to other trails in the city.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

The bridge, which opened on Aug. 11, is a key link in Orange County’s network of trails that can take cyclists and pedestrians all the way from the hills to the Pacific Ocean.

“It looks like they nailed it. This is great," said James Connolly, who was on a scouting trip from his home in Costa Mesa.

“ I wanna take my e-board, which can go about 30 miles, and go all the way to here and then turn around and go back, you know? It looks like that's feasible now," he continued.

The new bridge in Irvine opened this week.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

Sadia Kahn was trying to keep up with her two young boys, who were on scooters.

“ It's our first time here. We've been watching the construction for a while, so yeah, we're excited," she said.

Khan said she has come to really appreciate Irvine's network of parks and trails.

“Prior to having kids, it would just give me like the heebie-jeebies by how like manicured it is and then you have kids and you're like, "Oh, I get the hype," she said. "We've drank the Kool-Aid is what I'm trying to say.” 

There’re plenty of skate parks in the region — skateboarding, after all, got its start in Southern California. But a skate park of another kind has risen on the banks of the L.A. River.

It’s for fingerboarding.

The L.A. River Fingerboard Skatepark is four feet tall and sits atop a bank of dirt barriers installed by the Army Corps of Engineers about a decade ago to control floods.

The view from the back end of the L.A. River Fingerboard Skatepark.

(

Dañiel Martinez

/

LAist

)

If you know, you know

There’s no exact address, finding it for yourself is part of the experience.

A group photo of fingerboarders at the the L.A. River Fingerboard Skatepark.

(

Ryan Diaz

/

Ryan Diaz

)

“ The whole purpose of it is for you to get out and to use your brain and to discover the world, it just makes things fun,” said Ryan Diaz, who manages social media accounts dedicated to the fingerboard skatepark.

No one knows who built it or when it was built, but videos of people doing tricks on miniature ramps and rails started showing up on social media in March.

Diaz instantly recognized the location and decided to check it out. At that time, it was six by six feet — that’s before he started to add to it.

Others joined in and Diaz began documenting the expansion.

The park is about 90 feet long.

“Everyone does say if it wasn't for me, none of this would be happening,” Diaz said. “I was just happy to motivate people, bring out their creativity.”

Skate therapy

Levi Hernandez and his fingerboard.

Levi Hernandez performs a trick with his fingerboard.

(

Dañiel Martinez

/

LAist

)

Levi Hernandez shows off his fingerboard.

(

Dañiel Martinez

/

LAist

)

Levi Hernandez is from El Monte. It was his fourth time visiting on a recent Wednesday in July, but he’s been fingerboarding for nearly a decade, including at local events like ShredderMania.

He said he’s learning something new at the park.

“ It actually almost feels like real skateboarding in a way," Hernandez said. "Where your fingers end up sliding and where you're popping, it's just a lot of practice.”

Jimmy Tran of Chinatown is a regular that stops by the park on his way home from work every day. He used to skateboard – the real kind – regularly but had to stop after a bad injury.

Jimmy Tran performs a trick with his fingerboard.

(

Dañiel Martinez

/

LAist

)

“ I could do the same tricks as skateboarding, but I don't have to get hurt at all, honestly. And I still have the satisfaction of landing a really clean trick,” Tran said.

Tran says it’s a place he can relax, be himself, and feel like a kid again.

Saturdays are for building

Gilbert Medrano (left) and Ryan Diaz (right) co-manages the park.

(

Ryan Diaz

/

Ryan Diaz

)

Build days to expand the park are on Saturdays.

“We have kids that come from the neighborhood, and we teach them how to pour concrete and stuff like that, kind of like a big brother role,” Diaz said.

Besides the usual skatepark obstacles like ramps and rails, the crew also add art, including a large “LA” sign in Dodger Blue and requisite graffiti like the shark Diaz painted as a tribute to Jaws on a quarter pipe ramp.

Darren Mojica performs a trick on the quarter pipe ramp.

(

Dañiel Martinez

/

LAist

)

Diaz’s dream is for the park to be recognized by the city as a local landmark.

“I want the spot to last, and for years to come for people to come and visit,” Diaz said.

Saturday build days include decorating the park with graffiti and art.

(

Dañiel Martinez

/

LAist

)

A hardware store isn't where you’d expect to find a drawing class, a matcha pop-up or plant sales. Unless you're at Anzen Hardware, an 80-year-old staple that nearly disappeared from Little Tokyo in 2023.

The business reopened in November, and it’s been trying to find its groove in a neighborhood where legacy businesses are moving out — such as Suehiro Cafe and Rafu Shimpo — while navigating a different world from when it first opened.

“We're noticing the need for hardware tools is declining,” said Philip Hirose.

Jo Ann Maehara Hirose, along with her son Philip Hirose, are the new owners of Anzen Hardware. They are also the daughter and grandson of the founder.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

Philip Hirose is bringing new programming, from matcha pop-ups to drawing classes, to the reopened Anzen.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

Hirose and his mom, Jo Ann Maehara Hirose, are the new owners — the grandson and daughter of the founder. With the help of trusted family friend Rockett Ito Wong, Anzen is carrying on its legacy as it becomes something new.

"None of the three of us have that much experience with running retail stores," said Wong, a college student. "It's been quite a bit of trial and error."

Eight decades on First Street

Tsutomu Maehara opened Anzen Hotel Supply, a precursor to Anzen Hardware, after being incarcerated at Tule Lake during World War II.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

Tsutomu Maehara — Jo Ann Maehara Hirose’s father — settled in Los Angeles after being incarcerated at Tule Lake during World War II.

In 1946, he founded Anzen Hotel Supply on First Street to sell provisions to nearby single-room hotels.

Anzen Hardware from its early days in Little Tokyo.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

"As soon as I could hold a broom, we were sweeping the streets or the sidewalks outside," Maehara Hirose said.

Anzen eventually pivoted to selling American hardware and imported Japanese tools and goods — including bamboo garden rakes and handcrafted knives from a company that once made samurai swords.

Twenty-year-old Rockett Ito Wong is a longtime family friend and runs the floor.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

“It's always a discovery,” said Mike Okamura, president of the Little Tokyo Historical Society and a patron since Maehara was behind the cash register.

Maehara Hirose remembered Anzen imported one of the first rice cookers from Japan. “A National. That one-button one,” she said. “They were flying off the shelves.”

These days, tariffs are making it harder to keep and find suppliers. Still, Wong has just brought in a shipment of knives and chisels.

“I don't even think it's been a question that we would source any of this stuff not from Japan,” he said.

The shop still sharpens knives. In fact, Wong is the guy responsible for the job.

A reluctant homecoming

In 2023, then-owner Nori Takatani, a distant relative of Maehara who had worked at Anzen since he was a teen, put the store up for sale. He was in ill health and asked Maehara Hirose and her husband to take over.

She was hesitant, having opened the restaurant Azay several years earlier. She worried about taking on a second business. Besides, there were two prospective buyers, both invested in preserving Anzen's legacy.

But one day, Takatani told her the deals fell through because the landlord was jacking up rent.

Wong was able to find a new supplier from Japan for an order of new wood chisels.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

“You gotta buy it,” he told her.

Anzen Hardware returned two years later at one of its previous locations, 200 E. First Street.

“It was great news and great joy,” Okamura said when the community found out who the new owners were.

More than a hardware store 

On a July evening, about a dozen people, pencils and paper in hand, were at Anzen to learn how to draw.

Their subjects were Patty and Carrie — friends in their 70s — who ended up regaling the participants, some decades younger, with stories of their lives and community advocacy work.

The “Memory Capsule Drawing” class was taught by Kris Chau, an artist and loyal patron. She still brings in the knife she bought a decade ago for sharpening.

In July, Philip and artist Kris Chau organized a drawing class at Anzen Hardware. The models were two 70-something community activists.

(

Kris Chau

/

Courtesy Kris Chau

)

She said she was inspired to start the drawing class after Hirose said he was noticing that some elders were losing confidence and purpose.

"Even though you could see the light within Carrie and Patty, they were like, 'Why would anybody wanna draw us?'" Chau said. "The young students were just, like, in tears at the end of class."

That, along with the store’s matcha pop-ups, plant sales and artist collaborations, may just be what a legacy neighborhood business needs to survive.

“Philip [Hirose] is taking it forward, but keeping in mind the history and paying tribute to it,” said Okamura, who has been helping out at both Anzen and Azay since he retired as a banker.

“I see the old Anzen — the same counters and some of the hardware too,” he continued. “But then I see other things — the programming inside the store, which has never been done before.”