Nicholas Alexander Chavez Says Menendez Brothers' Second Case 'Wasn't Really Justice': 'Glad' DA Is Revisiting (Exclusive)
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10/17/2024 07:50 PM
The actor, who plays Lyle Menendez in 'Monsters', tells PEOPLE he believes the brothers "didn't have a fair chance at a second trial" in 1996
Netflix; Nick Ut/AP
Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as the Menendez brothers in 'Monsters' (Left); Lyle and Erik Menendez (right)Nicholas Alexander Chavez is all for the renewed efforts to free the Menendez brothers.
Chavez, 25, played Lyle Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and as the series has propelled the brothers' 1990 case back into the media, Chavez tells PEOPLE he's "very glad" that progress could be made sooner rather than later.
"What I feel 100% confident saying is that they didn't have a fair chance at a second trial. The judge didn't allow any of the evidence about sexual abuse to enter into the second trial," Chavez says of the 1996 trial against Erik, now 53, and Lyle, now 56, related to the 1989 murders of their parents José and Kitty Menendez.
The 1996 trial ended with the brothers being convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock.
Related: The Menendez Brothers: Will They Go Free?
Chavez continues, "What does the case become at that point? The case becomes, okay, did they kill their parents or not? Which they never argued that in court. They were never trying to say that they didn't [kill Jose and Kitty]. They were only ever trying to explain why."
"And so really, you have the first case, which ended in a hung jury [in 1993], and then you have the second case [in 1996], which wasn't really justice, was it? Because you didn't allow all of the evidence to be entered."
AP Photo/Nick Ut
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit in Beverly Hills Municipal Court where their attorneys delayed making pleas on behalf of the brothers who are suspected in the murders of their millionaire parents, Jose and Mary Louise (Kitty) Menendez, in Beverly Hills, Calif., last Aug., March 12, 1990Chavez is referring to the highly contentious claims Erik and Lyle made in the aftermath of their parents' deaths: that they were physically and sexually abused by their father. As more than 30 of their family members reiterated in a Oct. 16 press conference, the boys "lived in constant fear" of their father, who was the head of RCA Records at the time of his death.
The press conference came after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said his office is considering new evidence filed by Erik and Lyle's defense lawyers last year and is "keeping an open" mind about the case.
"The fact that we're coming back to this case, to at the very least re-examine it properly, is a really, really good thing," Chavez says. "And I am very glad for that."
Netflix
Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in 'Monsters: The Menendez Brothers Story'The renewed interest in the brothers' case is inextricably linked to Monsters' premiere on Netflix last month. However, the brothers have expressed their opposition to how their story was told. Erik called the show a "dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime" in a Facebook post published days after the show's premiere.
"I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle," he wrote, as he said there are "blatant lies rampant in" Monsters.
Miles Crist/Netflix
Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in 'Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story'Cooper Koch, who played Erik in the show, told Variety of the statement, "I sympathize with him, I empathize with him. I get it... I understand how he feels and I stand by him."
At the New York City premiere of Grotesquerie, Chavez shared a similar sentiment to his costar. "I really sympathize with the brothers, the fact that this was the most traumatic moment of their life, and then having that put on television for the world to see," he told PEOPLE. "I would imagine that would be incredibly heavy."
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Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.
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