The murder case against Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers accused of killing their parents at the family's Beverly Hills mansion, was in the hands of two juries Thursday.
One jury received the case against Erik on Wednesday afternoon after his lawyer, Leslie Ambramson, concluding an impassioned three-day closing argument, implored the panel to "fulfill my fantasy" and set him free.The other jury received the case against Lyle on Friday and was to begin its fifth day of deliberations Thursday. The brothers had a single trial with two juries.
Erik, 23, and Lyle, 25, have admitted killing entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, as the couple watched television in 1989.
But the brothers said that their parents had subjected them to years of sexual and psychological torture and were about to kill them rather than risk exposure.
Prosecutors say the brothers killed out of hatred and lust for the family's $14 million fortune. They could get the death penalty if convicted of murder.
Abramson argued that Erik should be convicted only of manslaughter or acquitted altogether. "I want to see him walk down the street, not in shackles, not in chains and not with a deputy standing next to him," she said.
In his rebuttal, Deputy District Attorney Lester Kuriyama said, "Having been abused as a child does not justify murder."