• Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón plans to schedule a hearing where prosecutors and the defense will present arguments for and against releasing the Menendez brothers. But their families are ‘a little afraid to put the cart before the horse’ in view of the prospect of his imminent release
• “I think it would be great,” Annamaria Baralt, whose mother is Jose Menendez’s sister, tells PEOPLE. “I think my mom and Kitty’s sister, Joan VanderMolen, couldn’t be happier to see this happen.”
• “Even though the family is together, we never forget that Lyle and Erik are not with us,” adds Baralt. “So we’re really looking forward to that day when we’ll all be together again. It’ll be our dream come true.”
  

The call came minutes before Anamaria Baralt’s yoga class on Wednesday, October 23 at 6:15 p.m. A lawyer representing his cousins Lyle and Erik Menendez He told her that family members needed to be in the Los Angeles office at 11 a.m. the next morning.

After 34 years behind bars, the Menendez brothers, who fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills, Calif., home in 1989, may be returning home soon after all.

“Drop everything. We need you,” Baralt, 53, wrote in an email to other members of the family who, like him, called for his brothers to be released from prison.

The next day, he hopped on an early morning flight from Seattle to Los Angeles; where Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón was scheduled to speak about the case at an afternoon press conference.

“We didn’t know what he was going to say until we got there,” Baralt, who added that a dozen family members flew from across the country to get there, told PEOPLE. “We just wanted to let the world know how much support they received.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime news? Click here Get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Gascón, surrounded by several members of the brothers’ extended family at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice. to recommend 53-year-old Erik and 56-year-old Lyle, who claimed that they killed their parents because they feared for their lives after being subjected to years of sexual abuse by their father, were each sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

Based on their ages at the time of the murders (Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21) the brothers would qualify as “juvenile offenders” and thus be eligible for immediate parole. “We are very confident that not only have the brothers been rehabilitated and it will be safe for them to reintegrate into our society, but they have also paid their dues,” Gascón said, adding that they are working to “improve their living conditions” in prison. the lives of so many others.”

Attorneys in the District Attorney’s Office’s Sentencing Division reviewed testimony from the brothers, prison officials, and family members in making this decision. They also considered evidence of psychological trauma and physical abuse that contributed to the commission of the crimes.

As part of the motion seeking resentencing, Gascón stated that he would argue that it was “no longer in the interest of justice” to keep Erik and Lyle behind bars for life without parole, and that the cultural understanding of the sexual abuse they allege they suffered led to this situation. has changed.

For more information on Lyle and Erik Menendez, Subscribe to PEOPLE nowor you can pick up this week’s issue on newsstands on Friday.

For Erik and Lyle, Gascón’s resentencing request, which had to be approved by a judge, was a stunning victory. Efforts to release him began last year when lawyers filed a lawsuit. habeas corpus petition on their behalf, based on new evidence of a letter Erik allegedly sent to his cousin.
It referenced Jose’s ongoing sexual assaults in the months before the 1989 murders and an affidavit from a former member of the boy band Menudo. Roy RosselloShe claimed that she was raped by Jose in the 1980s. Efforts have accelerated with Netflix’s success in recent months Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and a separate Netflix documentary, Menendez Brotherswas watched by largely sympathetic audiences.

The brothers’ post-conviction attorney, Mark Geragos, spoke with them shortly after Gascón’s announcement and declined to comment on their reaction. “I’ll just say they’re pleased, and that’s a huge step,” he tells PEOPLE.

Gascón’s office, meanwhile, began planning a hearing where prosecutors and defense would present written and oral arguments for and against the brothers’ release, necessary to put the matter before the judge who would decide.

Geragos believes it could happen before Thanksgiving.

“I think it would be great,” says Baralt, whose mother is Jose’s sister. “I think my mom and Kitty’s sister, Joan VanderMolen, couldn’t be happier to see this happen.”

But Baralt says the family is avoiding plans to reunite on Thanksgiving.

“I think we’re all a little afraid of putting the cart before the horse,” he explains. “You have to understand that the courts haven’t had very good results for many years, so it doesn’t feel superstitious to plan anything right now, but it’s a little scary. It was very difficult. There’s a hole in your heart that is never fully filled, and every holiday is a bittersweet pain. Even though our family is together, we never forget that Lyle and Erik are not with us. So we’re really looking forward to the day when we can all be together again. “This will be our dream come true.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “POWER” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.