Court Records Show Menendez Estate Is Now A Pittance

LOS ANGELES - The Menendez brothers have said they are broke. It turns out they are right.

Initially valued at $14.5 million, the Menendez family estate has been almost entirely exhausted, according to probate records.

All that technically remains is one house in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas, Calif., a condominium in New Jersey, some jewelry, a few pieces of furniture and $651,948 in cash, the probate files show.

Nearly $10.8 million has been spent, about half of that in taxes and in lawyer fees for the defense of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who admit they killed their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

What's left, after figuring in millions in losses on the sale of real estate and stocks, is not enough to pay a mountain of debts.

Even if Lyle and Erik Menendez were acquitted in a second murder trial in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slaying of their parents, they would stand to inherit nothing - a remarkable turn of events in a case in which prosecutors contended that the brothers killed out of hatred and greed.

At their first trial, the brothers asserted they killed in fear and self-defense after years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse - not for money.

That first trial ended in January when separate juries, one for each brother, deadlocked. Prosecutors vowed to try the brothers again.

No date has been set for the retrial. But in anticipation of the second trial, and after reviewing the probate files, a judge assigned two public defenders to take over Lyle Menendez's case.

Defense lawyer Leslie Abramson, who represents younger brother Erik Menendez, wants to stay on for the retrial and is asking to be paid $100 per hour, up to $250,000, in taxpayer funds.

So far, the estate has paid $3,906,280 in taxes, most of it in estate taxes. To defend Lyle Menendez, it spent $740,000. To defend Erik Menendez, it spent $755,000.

The estate spent $2,743,219 on the Beverly Hills house and $1,404,007 on the Calabasas site, mostly for mortgages and upkeep.

The Beverly Hills house, appraised at $4.8 million, sold in 1991 for $3.6 million.

According to court records filed on behalf of lawyers for the executors, "it was widely believed by the home-buying public and the real-estate brokers and agents that this house had bad karma and was one to be avoided" because it was there that the sons killed the parents.

Meanwhile, interest on the Calabasas mortgage and the taxes is accruing at approximately $146,000 annually. The estate also owes $200,000 in court costs, and tax attorneys and accountants also are due to present more bills. If paid, it all would leave the estate with less than zero.