CA v. MENENDEZ (1993): Lyle Menendez takes the stand for the brutal murder of his parents | COURT TV

he would just use the same camera my mother used and then he would come in and just take a picture or two and say nothing and then he would leave. Do you ever show yourself those photos? How many are there? and just For the record, what are the marks you put there? We have Can I do it from a procedure? Okay, check out uh, okay, Mr. Menendez. I'm showing you a Kodak Color Prince envelope with the number 219. Could you take a Look at that, do you recognize the handwriting on the front that is my mother's and what it says?

Eric's birthday, November 1976. In November 1976, how old would you have been? Hey, that's the Muncie house on Harlow Lane Muncie, New York, is there anything in that envelope? this time empty the next time you're in it, the next one would be if you want to mark that envelope, this is mark 219, okay, the next one would be 220, which is an envelope that contains negatives. The following is a series of small photographs from 221 a to g h and then we have enlargements of those photographs which we have marked 222 to 233 and we have a proof sheet of the negatives which we have marked as 220 which is marked 234.

Mr. Menéndez, have you already been shown this test sheet? Yes, now have the enlargements that go in order of the negative proof sheet, Mr. Menéndez, do you recognize this photograph, yes, and who are the people in that photograph, uh, mom and dad, me, uh, the extended family , the kids and Terry and Uncle Claus, could I just identify it for the record, so that would be 22 years, okay, showing you what we've marked as 223, do you recognize that photograph? yeah and who is that is me 224 that's eric 225 what was the answer i don't know it's nothing you're on the right no one can recognize it's just the next photo on the negative 226 eric and me and some other guys some other guys and eric and me and you recognize a mark on your brother the birthmark the birthmark on his right wrist is a big big brown birthmark 227 that's my dad and eric at a birthday party 228 that looks like the same party with eric and I 229 the same picture, I think, but darker 230 in the same picture basically 231 um it looks like my mother in the background, the bottom half of her and my brother with a donut 232 that's Eric, how do you recognize him? a birthmark on his right hand and 233 that's the little dog I was talking about sad take a moment put up the pictures yeah so now when you said your dad comes in periodically and just

takes

pictures of you.

The two photographs here with a mark that you have identified as yourself and the other as Eric. Children without clothes also appear to be children without children. Is it that correct? And when would I take pictures of you? Of this nature, it would appear that it is aimed at taking photographs of his faces. No, I would take pictures of his genital area on the lower half of his body or, uh, he's bent over or just in different parts of his positions, that's what I never thought of. I knew that because he never saw them afterwards, he would focus on those areas, but I never saw these photos.

Today, the first time he saw these photos, yes, your dad used to have conversations. with you about sex between men, yes, and what kind of situations I would talk to you about, I would talk about the bonds between men who go to battle or to competitions, mainly with respect to battle and history, and that sexual interaction, caresses and hugs , but also Sex was throughout history was something that men who had gone to battle had done together um it made me read passages about it What do you mean how did you read passages about it? What would I give you to read?

Excuse me, yes, what time are we talking about? In your life, I was talking when I was six, what would make you read? I had history books with passages describing various battles and strategies, but in terms of this topic, there would be particular passages about Greek soldiers having sexual relations with each other. before they go into battle as a way to bond with each other so they have a stronger connection and he talked about the same thing regarding sports and uh and he and I and he talked about fathers and their firstborn sons in this not in This is not that that's what I don't under

stand

the question, what did he talk about? he said that he talked about soldiers and having sexual relations with each other as a bonding mechanism did he talk about teachers and students no oh yeah he's not actually a teacher?

You talked to me about um, I don't know what traveling professors or professors were like and uh that they had agreements with very close special students, young boys, um and they had sexual relations and touched each other and did you talk about with respect to

parents

and children, did you talk regarding our relationship being very special and our family history first with the firstborn and the father and what was special about the relationship of the firstborn and the father that was special and that uh that was really the only thing that mattered was the firstborn and that the children did what the

parents

say and then they grow up and become like the father and the father teaches them and molds them and uh and someday my son and I will do the same and between the ages of six and eight your father had sexual contact with you yes and how it started it just started after sports practices he would massage me and uh we would have these talks and he would show me and caress me and he would ask me to do the same with him and I would touch him and we would get naked, where would this happen in my room and how often would this happen, like two or three times a week? and how long did this happen um not long it started to change when it started to change I'm not sure exactly when but almost close to when she was seven and how it changed she became more involved what do you mean more involved? um we would be in the bathroom and uh um   he would put me on my knees and he would guide me in all my movements and I would have oral sex with him did you want to do this at some point?

Did he do other things to you? yes what If no, did he use objects? What type of objects? A toothbrush and some kind of shaving brush and what would he do with the toothbrush? Well, this in the bedroom we would have what we called object sessions and I would just pull down my pants or take off my clothes. I would take off my pants, sometimes it was for a short period of time, sometimes longer, I would just lay on the bed, he would have a tube of Vaseline and he would just play with me and there was some point where he decided to use something besides the toothbrush. teeth yes, and he tried to penetrate you anally with something else he did and what was it, hey, break me, you cried, yes, you bled, yes, you were scared, Barry, you asked him not to do it, yes, how you asked him not to do it , I just told him no, I'm sorry, I just told him I didn't want to do this and that I let him hurt me and he said he didn't mean to hurt me, that he loved me, I was so important to you, yeah, so.

But he still didn't want to do it. Did you tell your mom? Yeah, what did you tell your mom? I said this to tell dad to leave me alone and he keeps touching me. What did your mom say? She told me to stop and that I was overreacting and that my dad has to punish me when I do things wrong and she told me that he loved me did you ever tell anyone else when when did you tell anyone else when you were a kid did you hear testify to Diane Vandermoen? Do you remember saying no, did you complain to your cousin Alan?

Wasn't that about punishment when you were a kid? Did you ever tell anyone else what had happened with your dad? um yes, I was a child, no, why not, I was afraid and my dad wasn't. Do you want me to tell you what he told you about telling people? He just said it was our secret that bad things would happen to me if I told anyone and I told him I never would. How old were you when this stopped? Great, so during the time between six. and eight, when this was happening, did you tell your brother?

Did you do something to your brother? Yeah, what did you do to your brother? He took him to the forest whenever he felt like I don't know. He would take it out sometimes and carry it. uh, also a toothbrush and i played with eric the same way. I'm sorry. He stopped for you with your dad when you were eight when you were 13. Did you think it might be happening to someone else? Yes, and who? I think it was happening to Eric and did you do anything about it? Yes, what did you do? I talked to my dad, what did you tell your dad?

I told him I knew what was going on with him and Eric and I heard the noises. and that he wanted me to leave eric alone and what did he tell you, he told me that eric was that eric made things up sometimes, but that would stop and, uh, we should keep it between us or he would kill. Yo, did you ever tell anyone what you thought was going on? No, I told him I would never tell anyone. He just wanted to stop. Did he tell you that he stopped? He did it and that's all I have for today.

Okay, okay, will you? take a break at this point very well ladies and gentlemen we will take a break until Monday at nine o'clock I want to remind everyone not to discuss this case among yourselves or with anyone else do not form any final opinion on this case Do not allow it to be expose yourself to anything related to this case outside of the

court

room, as I have said many times, you must make your decision based solely on the evidence presented to you in the

court

room and my instructions on the law. We will be on break until Monday at nine, everyone, have a good weekend, see you here later.