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Both Lyle and Erik Menendez fired at their parents, Jose and Kitty, during the initial attack on August 20, 1989. The record attributes an additional shot after a reload to Lyle. It does not establish who fired each shot in the initial volley.
What the record says about who fired
The Ninth Circuit’s 2005 account says the brothers returned to the den armed with shotguns and fired 13 to 15 blasts. It describes them leaving during the shooting, Lyle reloading, and the brothers returning. The opinion attributes one additional shot to Lyle, apparently while Kitty was still alive, and describes a contact wound to her left cheek. Read the Ninth Circuit opinion in Menendez v. Terhune.
The opinion does not assign every shot in the initial volley to one brother or the other. So the clearest answer is that both fired, and Lyle fired the later shot after reloading—not that the available record identifies who fired each individual wound.
What Lyle and Erik testified to
Lyle’s account of returning after reloading
At the first trial, Lyle testified that he fired at his father, then noticed Kitty was alive. He said he went outside to reload, came back, and pulled the trigger again. When asked on cross-examination whether he fired after returning, he answered, “Yes.” The Los Angeles Times reported his testimony on September 24, 1993. Lyle also said he did not remember the muzzle being on Kitty’s face; that statement is testimony, not a forensic finding about the precise circumstances of the wound.
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Erik’s memory of the shooting
Erik testified that he remembered little of the scene beyond firing. The Times reported him saying, “I just remember firing,” and that he heard Lyle fire after returning from reloading. Erik’s account supports Lyle’s role in the later shot, while Erik also described gaps in his memory of the sequence. The September 29, 1993 report covers Erik’s testimony.
Why the reported wound totals differ
The Ninth Circuit opinion records four gunshot wounds to Jose and nine to Kitty. A contemporary Times report says autopsy reports indicated Kitty was shot 10 times. Those accounts differ on Kitty’s total, so it is not sound to present a single uncontested count. Neither figure identifies who fired each shot, and the discrepancy does not change what the accounts say about both brothers firing or Lyle’s later shot.
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Keep shot attribution separate from motive
The brothers admitted killing their parents but contested the character and motive of the killings. Prosecutors argued that greed and inheritance were the motive; the defense argued that years of alleged abuse and fear explained their actions. Those were opposing positions, not findings that determine who fired a particular shot.
The first trial ended with hung juries. At the second trial, a jury found both brothers guilty of first-degree, premeditated murder and found the lying-in-wait special circumstance. The Ninth Circuit later reviewed their federal habeas petitions in Menendez v. Terhune. The legal outcome and the competing motive accounts provide context, but neither changes the limits of the shot-by-shot evidence described above.
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