Nicholas Alexander Chavez Says Menendez Brothers' Second Case 'Wasn't Really Justice': 'Glad' DA Is Revisiting (Exclusive)

Nicholas Alexander Chavez is in favor of renewing efforts to free the Menendez brothers.

Chavez, 25, played Lyle Menendez Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezand as the show brought the brothers’ 1990 case back into the media, Chavez tells PEOPLE he’s “very glad” that progress could be made sooner rather than later.

“What I’m 100% certain when I say is they didn’t have a fair chance at a second trial. The judge didn’t allow any evidence of sexual abuse to go into the second trial,” Chavez says of the 1996 trial against Erik, now 53, and Lyle , now 56, in connection with the 1989 murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.

The 1996 trial ended with the brothers convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock.

The Menendez brothers: Will they be free?

Chavez continues, “What does the case become at that point? The case becomes, okay, did they kill their parents or not? Which they never claimed in court. They never tried to say they didn’t [kill Jose and Kitty]. They were just trying to explain why.”

“And so really, you have the first case, which ended up in a deadlocked jury [in 1993]and then you have another case [in 1996]which wasn’t justice, was it? Because you didn’t allow all the evidence to be brought in.”

Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit in Beverly Hills Municipal Court where their attorneys delayed entering a plea on behalf of the brothers suspected of murdering their millionaire parents, Jose and Mary Louise (Kitty) Menendez, in Beverly Hills, California. , last August, March 12, 1990.

AP Photo/Nick Tue

Chavez refers to highly disputed claims made by Erik and Lyle after their parents’ deaths: that their father physically and sexually abused them. As more than 30 members of their family reiterated at a news conference on October 16, the boys “lived in constant fear” of their father, who was the head of RCA Records at the time of his death.

The press conference came after Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his office was reviewing new evidence submitted by Erik and Lyle’s defense attorneys last year and was keeping an “open mind” about the case.

“The fact that we’re going back to this case, to at least give it a proper review, is a really, really good thing,” Chavez says. “And I’m very glad about that.”

Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in ‘Monsters: The Menendez Brothers Story’.

Netflix

Monsters‘ Nicholas Alexander Chavez Can’t Believe Actors ‘I Admire’ Are ‘Watching The Show’ and Reaches Out: ‘I Feel From Another World’ (Exclusive)

The renewed interest in the case of the brothers is inextricably linked with Monsters‘ premiered on Netflix last month. However, the brothers expressed their opposition to the way their story was told. Erik called the series an “unfair portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime” in a Facebook post released days after the series premiered.

“I believed we had moved on from the lies and the damning portrayal of Lyle’s character,” he wrote, while saying “blatant falsehoods are rampant in” Monsters.

Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’.

Miles Crist/Netflix

Cooper Koch, who played Erik on the show, said Diversity statement, “I feel for him, I feel for him. I understand… I understand how he feels and I stand by him.”

At the premiere of the film in New York GrotesquenessChavez shared a similar sentiment as his costar. “I really feel for the brothers, the fact that this was the most traumatic moment of their lives, and then that they put it on television for the world to see,” he told PEOPLE. “I imagine that would be incredibly difficult.”

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Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez now streaming on Netflix.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education