Erik Menendez

The Menendez family estate, once valued at up to $14 million, is virtually depleted, it was disclosed Tuesday at Lyle and Erik Menendez's murder trial. Shrunken by taxes, legal fees and other costs, Jose and Kitty Menendez's estate is worth no more than $800,000--and has debts at least that high, defense lawyer Leslie Abramson said in court. Probate records are sealed and the defense had kept financial figures secret throughout the trial.

A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld the convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers who were found guilty of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals left intact a 1998 state appellate court ruling that had upheld their convictions and life-without-parole sentences. The brothers admitted shooting Jose and Kitty Menendez in August 1989. They were convicted of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors on Tuesday displayed a series of graphic autopsy photos for jurors in the murder trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez that appeared to reduce the brothers to tears. The color pictures show that their father, Jose Menendez, was hit six times and their mother, Kitty Menendez, 10 times with shotgun blasts. Jose Menendez suffered a fatal shot to the back of his head, a coroner's deputy testified as prosecutors posted a picture of the wound.

The State Bar of California has cleared prominent criminal defense attorney Leslie Abramson of misconduct in connection with her representation of Erik Menendez, who was convicted with his brother, Lyle, three years ago of murdering their wealthy parents.

Erik and Lyle Menendez's Beverly Hills therapist, who heard them confess to killing their parents and then became a key witness in the first of the brothers' two murder trials, was stripped of his psychology license Friday. L. Jerome Oziel, who had been accused by a state panel of breaking confidentiality rules and having sex with female patients, surrendered his license to the state Department of Consumer Affairs' Board of Psychology. In a deal that was agreed to Sept.

The Menendez family dream house, a Calabasas mansion featuring a tennis court, swimming pool and mountain views, was auctioned off Thursday in Probate Court for $1.325 million. Raymond and Vera Stewart, a Woodland Hills couple, bought the house at the proceedings in Beverly Hills Superior Court, submitting the only bid and paying the entire amount by check. The auction marked the sale of the last asset in the Menendez family estate, once valued at $16 million and now down to about $500,000.

Lyle Menendez testified Monday that his mother was "very strange" and frequently violent and that she--like his father--sexually abused him. Until he was 13, his mother would wash his body "everywhere," he said. She also would invite him into bed with her and he would touch her "everywhere," he testified. "I took it to be love," Lyle Menendez said, adding, "She was enjoying it." But he was not enjoying it, he said, so he stopped the activities, which enraged her.

At age 13, Erik Menendez confided that his father was molesting him, a cousin testified Tuesday. With the defense in the Menendez brothers' murder trial seeking to corroborate controversial claims of abuse, cousin Andres (Andy) Cano testified that Erik Menendez told him that his father gave him genital "massages."

Kitty Menendez, who over the years was needy, pathetic, athletic, disorganized, suspicious and spacey, "all kinds of contradictory things," simply seemed strange three weeks before her sons killed her, a former neighbor testified Monday. Called by the defense as Lyle and Erik Menendez's murder trial resumed after a four-day recess, Alicia Hercz said Kitty Menendez "kept staring" into space when they met Aug. 1, 1989, at the Menendez home in Beverly Hills.

ON A MILD SUNDAY last summer, a string of "popping sounds" drifted through the lazy night air of Beverly Hills around 10 o'clock. "I didn't think anything of it," said Tom Zlotow, a neighbor who soon learned that the noises he'd heard from the house right behind his were echoes of the most sensational crime in the history of Beverly Hills. "I didn't even think it could be gunfire, especially around here."

All in all, it turned out to be an expensive swap. It cost Erik Menendez and two fellow inmates several weeks in "administrative segregation" at New Folsom Prison. And it cost a prison guard her job. "Another interesting day at Corrections," said Lynda Frost, spokeswoman for the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which oversees prisons. Convicted double-parricide Menendez had traded television sets with one inmate friend.

A state appeals court has upheld the murder convictions of Lyle and Erik Menendez, the tennis-playing Beverly Hills brothers who shot their parents to death in 1989.

Defense lawyer Leslie Abramson will not be subjected to a criminal investigation for requesting that a psychiatrist delete sections of his notes during the murder trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, a district attorney's spokeswoman said Monday. "After we reviewed the trial transcripts, we determined that ours is not the office to do an investigation," said Sandi Gibbons. The State Bar of California, however, is conducting its own investigation into the matter.

David Conn, who successfully prosecuted Lyle and Erik Menendez for murder but then had a public falling-out with Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, is being transferred to Norwalk. Conn, 46, an 18-year veteran of the prosecutor's office, said Friday he was notified recently that he will be moving from the elite major crimes division, located at headquarters in the Criminal Courts Building downtown, to suburban Norwalk, where he will be an ordinary trial deputy. The transfer is effective Feb. 3.

Erik and Lyle Menendez's Beverly Hills therapist, who heard them confess to killing their parents and then became a key witness in the first of the brothers' two murder trials, was stripped of his psychology license Friday. L. Jerome Oziel, who had been accused by a state panel of breaking confidentiality rules and having sex with female patients, surrendered his license to the state Department of Consumer Affairs' Board of Psychology. In a deal that was agreed to Sept.

Psychiatrist William Vicary, whose testimony about his altered notes threw the second Menendez brothers murder trial into turmoil, has been removed from the panel of mental health professionals who are appointed by county judges to analyze and testify about defendants in court cases. In an Aug.

A jury Wednesday spared the lives of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who shotgunned their millionaire parents to death in Beverly Hills in 1989 and now will spend the rest of their days in state prison with no hope of parole. As the verdicts were read in the tension-filled Van Nuys courtroom, a wave of relief seemed to sweep over the brothers and their defense attorneys when they realized that the jury had rejected the death penalty. The defense lawyers reacted with grins, tears and hugs.

Erik Menendez confessed to the shotgun slayings of his parents, saying his brother had told him, "Let's do it," with the instruction, "Shoot Mom," his onetime best friend testified Monday. Craig Cignarelli, 23, testifying as a prosecution witness, said Erik Menendez also told him he had shot his mother in the TV room of the family's $4-million Beverly Hills mansion "as she was standing up and yelling."

As their six-year legal drama drew to a subdued climax Tuesday, Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to consecutive life terms in state prison without the possibility of parole for the shotgun murders of their wealthy parents. Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg told a crowded courtroom that he believed the brothers carefully contemplated killing each parent, and that the crimes should be punished with separate sentences for the murders of their mother and their father.