Menendez Brothers’ Murder Trial Opens : Court: A separate jury will be chosen for each of the pair, accused of killing their parents nearly four years ago.

Nearly four years after shooting their parents to death in their Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik Menendez went on trial Monday for murder, prepared to say it was an act of self-defense.

The trial began with jury selection for Lyle Menendez alone, and loud gasps erupted in the courtroom when Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg announced that the trial is likely to last until Thanksgiving. Two juries, one for each brother, will hear the case at the same time.

Only 114 of 299 prospective jurors Monday said they could devote five months to the potentially sensational trial. The judge ordered 100 more jurors to court for the Lyle Menendez jury and called for 300 to appear on Wednesday for Erik Menendez, promising that those who serve will see a “fascinating” case.

Lyle and Erik Menendez are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, and Kitty Menendez, 47. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Jose Menendez was the wealthy chief executive of a video and music distribution firm. He and his wife were slain while watching television in their family room.

The case has produced mountains of publicity, and 12 reporters, two book authors and a sketch artist were on hand Monday when Lyle Menendez, hands in pockets and a slight smile on his face, was introduced to potential jurors.

Wearing a pink shirt and maroon tie, he turned to face the crowd and nodded but said nothing.

“He’s nervous, he’s anxious, he’s frightened,” his lead lawyer, Jill Lansing, told reporters at the end of the day. “It’s very difficult to be facing a trial where your life is at stake.”

Erik Menendez was not in court Monday. His first appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.

The prosecution maintains that the brothers killed their parents out of greed. In court last week, lawyers for the brothers disclosed that Lyle, 25, and Erik, 22, will claim that they killed their parents in self-defense after years of mental, physical and sexual abuse.

Lansing declined Monday to comment on the self-defense claim. Pamela Bozanich, the deputy district attorney in charge of the prosecution, also declined comment.

The routine and formal proceedings Monday included only one surprise: The afternoon pool of prospective jurors, chosen at random, included Jose Menendez’s first cousin, Henry Llanio, 44, a Northridge real estate agent. He was promptly dismissed.

“Can you believe this?” Llanio said. “There are 10 million people in the San Fernando Valley and I get called for this jury?”

Later, Llanio marched outside to tell half a dozen television crews broiling in the afternoon heat, “I think I probably would have made the most impartial juror up there.”

Weisberg has barred television cameras from the courtroom and the hallway outside. He ruled last week that cameras and crews would be too distracting with two juries in the courtroom.

The case has taken years to come to trial because of a lengthy legal wrangle over a key piece of prosecution evidence in the case, a therapist’s audiotape detailing Lyle and Erik Menendez’s alleged confession to the crime.

After three years of litigation, Weisberg ruled last month that prosecutors may use the tape, prepared by Dr. L. Jerome Oziel, the brothers’ therapist. Without Oziel, who will testify at the trial, the case against the brothers is believed to rest largely on circumstantial evidence.

“I will say this: I’m happy we’re starting trial after all these years,” Bozanich said late Monday.

Jury selection will take weeks, with potential jurors to be questioned about the publicity the case has received and about their views, if any, about it. Weisberg has tentatively set opening statements for July 12.