The Menendez brothers stood up in a murder sentencing hearing set for 2025

Erik Mendendez and his brother Lyle Menendez will not be released from prison this year.

A judge in Los Angeles has today pushed a plea hearing for the siblings to January 30. There will be a follow-up hearing on the calendar in January, as briefings have been requested from prosecutors and attorneys for the Menendez family.

Instead of the previously scheduled Dec. 11 hearing, the logic behind Judge Michael Jesic’s reasoning Monday is that incoming LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman needs time to assess the high-profile case when he officially takes office on Dec. 3.

In a somewhat delayed hearing at the Van Nuys courthouse this morning, the brothers had to appear practically from . But hampered by technological glitches that resulted in the siblings being heard but not seen, the first dueling performance by the now 50-ish Menendez brothers in nearly 30 years was a no-show in the less than an hour session in the packed courtroom.

After the hearing was over, Menendez’s lawyer Mark Geragos told the media: “We hope that by the end of it, or sometime before, we will actually have the brothers released.” of course, Geragos also hoped the press would be decent in talking to senior Menendez family members who testified today, and that civility collapsed fairly quickly as the cameras chased the family members onto the courthouse steps.

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