State Justices Block Attempt to Obtain Menendez Tapes : Murder case: Court wants time to consider challenge to recordings’ release. Meanwhile, a woman says on TV that she overheard brothers’ confession.

The California Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the attempts of prosecutors to obtain tape recordings in which brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez allegedly confess to a psychotherapist that they murdered their wealthy parents in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion last year.

The justices issued the temporary stay on Thursday to give themselves additional time to consider a request by the brothers’ defense attorneys, who are challenging a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling that would have allowed the release of the controversial tapes.

The tapes are considered important evidence in the case against Lyle, 22, and Erik, 19, who are being held without bail on charges that they killed their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, and Mary (Kitty) Menendez, 47, for a $14-million inheritance.

The recordings were made by psychotherapist L. Jerome Oziel, who counseled the brothers after the shotgun slayings of their parents on Aug. 20, 1989.

The brothers maintain their innocence, and defense lawyers say the tapes of their conversations with Oziel were privileged doctor-patient communications and are therefore inadmissible as evidence.

But three weeks ago, Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht ruled that the prosecutors may use the tapes, saying that the normal privacy rights were abrogated because the brothers threatened to harm Oziel.

While the contents of the tapes have not been made public, another recent development may have shed some light on what they contain. In a televised interview on ABC’s “Primetime Live” aired Thursday, a key witness claimed to have overheard the brothers’ confessions to Oziel.

Judalon Rose Smyth, a former patient of Oziel who contacted police after learning of the alleged confessions, said in the interview that the psychotherapist instructed her to sit in a nearby room and eavesdrop on discussions he had with Lyle and Erik Menendez last Oct. 31.

“Erik said that Lyle made him take the first shot,” Smyth said. “I suppose that’s because Lyle thought that if he didn’t make Erik shoot the first shot then he might not be strong enough to do that. They didn’t talk about shooting the father a whole lot. They did talk that they had to keep shooting the mother and they kept shooting her because she didn’t move and they thought she might have lived.”

Smyth has declined to discuss her interview with other reporters, and prosecutors and defense lawyers would not confirm her account. Moreover, Smyth is suing Oziel, alleging physical and sexual assault and fraud. Neither Oziel nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

In the television interview, Smith said Oziel wanted her to listen in so that she could call police in case the conversation turned “violent or dangerous.” She said the brothers indicated that the crime was directed at their father.

“One of the things that I heard Lyle say that was really disturbing to me,” said Smyth, “was . . . ‘For once, my father would have to congratulate me and give me credit that I planned the perfect murder. I carried out the perfect murder.’ ”