Among ambitious "tennis parents," Jose Menendez was "one of the worst," cruelly pushing his sons to physical suffering in order to win, the coach who taught Erik and Lyle Menendez testified Friday.
Charles Wadlington Sr., 39, once ranked among the world's 100 top tennis players, took the stand at the brothers' murder trial on the fourth anniversary of their parents' slayings as defense lawyers added to their portrait of an obsessive father and mother.They are seeking to prove that Erik, 22, and Lyle, 25, were driven by years of abuse to kill their entertainment executive father and his wife, Kitty, because they feared the parents would kill them.
Prosecutors say the brothers used shotguns to kill the couple on Aug. 20, 1989, out of greed for their parents' fortune.
Wadlington said he met the Menendez family in Princeton, N.J., in 1981, when the boys, then 11 and 13, were brought to him for lessons. He recalled Jose Menendez's instructions: "They should practice as much as possible and I should work them very hard and I should teach what he wanted me to teach.