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April 17, 2025: Court to Weigh Admissibility of Menendez Risk Assessment Report, Recusal Request

 

 
VAN NUYS, CA — Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced today that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic has scheduled a hearing on May 9 to determine the admissibility of recently completed Comprehensive Risk Assessments concerning Lyle and Erik Menendez, who are currently undergoing resentencing proceedings.

The hearing was scheduled following a motion by the People to continue the resentencing hearing to allow the Court adequate time to obtain and review the report in full. The Court will determine whether the risk assessments may be admitted wholly or in part during further proceedings.

“The completion of the Comprehensive Risk Assessments is a significant development in this case,” District Attorney Hochman said. “It’s critical that Judge Jesic has sufficient time to thoroughly examine its findings and make an informed decision on its admissibility — before any resentencing hearing moves forward. A decision of this magnitude demands the most current and comprehensive information available. These updated Comprehensive Risk Assessments provide crucial insight into whether the inmates pose an unreasonable risk to public safety today.”

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April 7, 2025: District Attorney Hochman Announces Soccer Coach Charged With Murdering 13-Year-Old Boy

 

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District Attorney Hochman Announces Soccer Coach Charged With Murdering 13-Year-Old Boy

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced that a youth soccer coach was charged today with murdering 13-year-old Oscar “Omar” Hernandez, whose body was found by the side of the road in Ventura County last week.

“No parent should ever have to endure the unimaginable pain and sorrow of learning their child has been murdered,” District Attorney Hochman said. “Oscar simply boarded a train and little did he or his family know that he would never return. Sexual predators who target victims for their own gratification will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

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March 11, 2025: District Attorney Hochman Announces Felony Charges Against Trio in Major Fentanyl Bust

 

Felony Charges Against Trio in Major Fentanyl Bust

LOS ANGELES — District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced today that felony charges were filed against three individuals — including two siblings — accused of possessing a total of more than 50 pounds of fentanyl with an intent to sell.

“Fentanyl remains the leading cause of death in accidental drug overdose cases in Los Angeles County,” District Attorney Hochman said. “Just 1 kilo of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. A 50-pound seizure of fentanyl is greater than all the fentanyl seized at the U.S.-Canadian border in 2024, which was 43 pounds. We will be unrelenting in our pursuit to end this tragedy and bring justice to the countless families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl.

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March 10, 2025: Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman Files Decision on Menendez Resentencing Motion

 

Menendez Resentencing Motion

 

LOS ANGELES — District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced today that his office has filed a response on the resentencing matter for Lyle and Erik Menendez.

The resentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers is scheduled for March 20 and 21 in Van Nuys, with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic presiding.

“After a thorough and exhaustive review of the over 10,000s of pages of trial transcripts from two months-long trials, of the 1,000s of pages of prison records, of the 100s of hours of videotaped trial testimony, of all relevant pleadings, exhibits and statements, as well as interviewing victim family members, defense counsel, prior prosecutors, and law enforcement and the applicable law, the District Attorney’s Office is prepared to proceed forward with the hearing on the Court’s initiation of resentencing proceedings for the Menendez brothers but we are requesting that the prior District Attorney’s motion for resentencing be withdrawn,” District Attorney Hochman said. “The basis for that request is that the prior motion did not examine or consider whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight and taken complete responsibility for their crimes by continuing for the past over 30 years to lie about their claims of self-defense, that is, their fear that their mother and father were going to kill them the night of Aug. 20, 1989, justifying the brutal murders of their parents with shotgun blasts through the back of their father’s head, a point-blank blast through their mother’s face, and shots to their kneecaps to stage it as a Mafia killing. As a full examination of the record reveals, the Menendez brothers have never come clean and admitted that they lied about their self-defense as well as suborned perjury and attempted to suborn perjury by their friends for the lies, among others, of their father violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, their mother poisoning the family, and their attempt to get a handgun the day before the murders.

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February 21, 2025: DA Announces Filing of LADA's Informal Response to Menendez Habeas Petition