Aunt Recalls Menendez Brothers’ Treatment by Father : Trial: Jose Menendez wanted to mold one son in his image, she says. Prosecution objects to the remarks and judge orders them stricken from record.

Jose Menendez saw his eldest son, Lyle, as a child to be molded in his own image and his younger son, Erik, as “too soft and too tender,” a member of the Menendez family testified Monday in the sons’ murder trial.

The remarks of Marta Menendez Cano, sister of the murdered Jose and the first witness for the defense, drew sharp, repeated objections from a prosecutor, who claimed that her opinions were irrelevant because she was not an expert witness.

Outside the the presence of the two juries, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg rebuked Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Bozanich for failing to litigate the issue in pretrial and instead peppering the defense with objections from the moment their case opened.

“This is a substantial issue in this case,” the judge said, indicating that prosecution objections were too late.

Bozanich said she was merely objecting to testimony she called too remote because it deals with the early childhood of the brothers, who were 18 and 21 when they shotgunned their parents to death.

Jill Lansing, who represents Lyle, said a statute usually applied to battered women is relevant to child abuse, adding: “It’s our position these men for 18 and 21 years were subjected to repeated abuse of a physical, psychological and sexual nature.”

She said the behavior of Jose and his wife, Kitty, throughout the boys’ lifetime is relevant.

“They were subjected to . . . routine, intense programming sessions, brainwashing,” Lansing said. “They were intimidated and humiliated, and that abuse continued until the night in question.”

Erik and Lyle have admitted that they killed their parents in the den of their $4-million mansion on Aug. 20, 1989.

“Everything that happened in these children’s lives had an impact on how they perceived their parents,” Lansing said. “The issue is whether these were parents they could reasonably perceive would kill them.”

The Menendez brothers claim that they killed in self-defense. The prosecution contends that they killed out of hatred and greed for their father’s fortune.

“Jose was very possessive,” Cano told jurors. “There was no conversation. It was always a monologue. Lyle was not allowed to express his opinion. He was told what to do. . . . He appeared to be very tense, very frightened, very obstructed.”

That testimony was ordered stricken because of Bozanich’s objection.

With jurors absent, Cano told the judge: “Jose on several occasions told me Erik was not like Lyle. Erik was too soft and too tender. Lyle was going to be his own image, that he could work with Lyle, that Lyle could be as successful as he was.”

Lansing argued that this theme ran through the brothers’ childhood: “Erik was the throwaway child.”

Prosecutors, who had rested their case against Lyle last week, rested against Erik earlier Monday after losing a last-minute bid to play for jurors a movie they say inspired the killings.

The judge declined to play an NBC miniseries on the Billionaire Boys Club, a group of privileged young men who murdered one of their fathers and another man.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lester Kuryama noted that the movie aired July 30 and 31, 1989. The Menendez killings occurred Aug. 20.

Beverly Hills Police Detective Leslie Zoeller acknowledged on the stand that police did not make the connection until just a few weeks ago. He said the brothers’ psychologist had mentioned that Erik and Lyle referred to “a movie on BBC that reminded them of their relationship with their parents.”

For months, Zoeller said, he tried to identify the movie, contacting Britain’s Scotland Yard because he thought the initials referred to the British Broadcasting Corp. Only recently did he connect the remarks to the Billionaire Boys Club.

The last piece of prosecution evidence came from Zoeller, who read to jurors a transcript of a conversation secretly recorded Nov. 29, 1989, between Erik Menendez and a friend. It showed Erik feigning ignorance of the killers and blaming unidentified hit men for the murders.

“Man, we’re talking about special hit men, special shotguns,” Erik was quoted as saying. “They knew what they were doing in and out of the house. No one saw anything. No one heard anything. . . . We’re talking serious hit men.”