State Rests Case Against Lyle Menendez

Prosecutors rested their case Friday against Lyle Menendez, the elder of two Beverly Hills brothers charged in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents.

Testimony from another prosecution witness is expected Monday in Erik Menendez’s case, which is being heard by a separate jury.

According to earlier testimony by a psychologist who treated the men, Lyle Menendez, 25, followed his younger brother into the family room of the Menendez’s $4-million mansion and blasted gunfire at their parents.

Jose Menendez was shot five times, the coroner testified earlier, and Kitty Menendez was shot 10 times on Aug. 20, 1989.

Defense attorneys claim the brothers killed their parents in self-defense after continued physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Prosecutors said the men murdered for a $14-million estate.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg allowed both juries to hear evidence of big spending by the brothers in the days after the killings.

The judge admitted evidence that Erik Menendez, 22, tried to buy a nearly $1-million condominium in the pricey Marina del Rey area. Although the purchase was never finalized, the brothers rented two apartments in the area for $2,400 a month.

The action showed the defendants’ “intent to spend large sums of money shortly after the killing of the parents,� he said.

Beverly Hills psychologist L. Jerome Oziel had testified that it was Erik Menendez who first confessed Oct. 31, 1989, that the brothers killed their parents. Oziel also testified that Erik told him he got the idea for the killings after watching a made-for-TV movie about the Billionaire Boys Club.

The movie was based on a group of privileged, young Beverly Hills men who helped the son of a wealthy Iranian kill his father.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lester Kuriyama said he had recently viewed a videotape of the film and saw shocking similarities between the two cases.