An elderly aunt of Lyle and Erik Menendez collapsed just hours after seeing a grim crime scene photograph from the 1989 murder of the brothers’ parents and family members fear she may not survive.
The photograph was displayed—without any warning to family members—at a resentencing hearing in Los Angeles on Friday which Terry Baralt, sister of the slain José Menendez, was following remotely from New Jersey.
According to reports, Baralt was urgently hospitalized after being found unresponsive in a hotel room shortly after the hearing.
The 85-year-old is already battling colon cancer and the family fear she may not survive the shock of seeing the crime scene photo.
“There was no warning. No humanity. Just pain,” the family said in a statement reported by LawyerMonthly. “Terry may not recover from what was done to her in that courtroom.”
Los Angeles prosecutors apologized to the family “for not giving prior warning” regarding the use of the grisly crime scene photo, but did not comment on Baralt’s hospitalization.
The family’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said showing the photograph was a “despicable action [that] was a clear violation of Marsy’s law which requires absolute empathy toward victims.”
Victims, defined as anyone who suffers harm as a result of a crime, have the right “to be treated with fairness and respect for his or her privacy and dignity, and to be free from intimidation, harassment, and abuse, throughout the criminal or juvenile justice process,” under the 2008 California law.
In a statement to TMZ, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office tried to shift some of the blame, suggesting that Lyle and Erik Menendez’ fresh bid for clemency meant that the case—and its grisly details—would need to be re-examined, thus “trigger[ing] emotions for all those concerned in a case that had lied dormant legally for over 18 years.”
Even still, the office apologized generally to members of the family who witnessed the picture in court. “To the extent that the photographic depiction of this conduct upset any of the Menendez family members present in court, we apologize for not giving prior warning that the conduct would be described in detail not only in words but also through a crime scene photo,” the office conceded.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty, in 1989.
Despite opposition from L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, a judge ruled Friday that a re-sentencing hearing can move forward. It is scheduled to begin on Thursday.
Ahead of last Friday’s court date, family members advocated for their release, including their aunt Terry, who broke her silence on the murder case. She told ABC News in her first interview since the incident that “they are like the boys that I didn’t have.”
The statement from the D.A.’s office warned that family members should “be prepared for some of the difficult details and images surrounding these tragic circumstances” to come to the fore during the ongoing case.
The District Attorney’s office, Freedman and the brothers’ attorney Mark Geragos have been contacted by the Daily Beast for comment.
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