Intense Coverage Slows Selection of Menendez Jurors : Trial: Most prospective panelists knew of murder charges from news reports, questionnaires indicate. Eight of first 28 people questioned are dismissed.

Nearly all prospective jurors called to decide whether Erik and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents described the family in questionnaires Friday as rich or privileged and several said they assume the brothers are guilty.

In a process aimed at measuring the extent of pretrial publicity, the first 28 of several hundred prospective jurors to be questioned at Van Nuys Superior Court made it plain that nearly four years of extensive news coverage has left its mark. Of the 28, eight were dismissed after Friday’s questions.

One juror, when asked what she knew about the case, wrote, “Not much at all.” Then she added, “Only two brothers were alleged (to have) shot and killed their rich parents for money.”

The Menendez brothers are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, deaths of their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, and Kitty Menendez, 47. The parents were shot to death while watching TV in the family room of their $4-million mansion.

Jose Menendez was the chief executive of Live Entertainment, a Van Nuys video distribution firm.

Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, contend that the brothers killed their parents out of greed. Defense lawyers disclosed last week that Lyle Menendez, 25, and Erik Menendez, 22, will say they killed their parents in self-defense after years of abuse.

Judge Stanley Weisberg took the unusual step of ordering two juries in the case, one for each brother, because some evidence that may be admissible against one brother may not be admissible against the other. Friday’s proceedings were for Lyle Menendez’s jury. Erik Menendez was not in court.

The trial is expected to take about five months. But so many jurors have already begged off because of the length of the case, and others have been influenced by publicity, that jury selection has been slow. Opening statements, originally scheduled for July 12, are likely to be pushed back.

The case has been featured prominently in the local, national and even international press. It has been a staple of tabloid television shows, and jurors said repeatedly Friday that they learned about the case from such shows as “Hard Copy,” “Inside Edition” or “A Current Affair.”

Most jurors said they knew the parents were dead and that Jose Menendez had made a lot of money for himself and his family.

“Wealthy spoiled kids,” one juror said.

Another juror said in the four-page questionnaire that after the killings, Erik and Lyle Menendez “spent a lot of their money freely together. And now . . . the brothers are claiming self-defense.”

“It looked like they were guilty from the evidence through the news media,” still another said.

All three were dismissed from the case.

Even those jurors who said they did not regularly read the newspaper or watch television said they had picked up the basics of the case by word of mouth.

One juror confessed that her regular reading list included only Cosmopolitan and Water Ski magazines. But she said, “I did overhear that the brothers shot and killed their parents.”

Virtually every juror took the media to task. Asked to rate the accuracy of the press, only a few said newspaper or television news reports of any sort are very reliable.

One juror promised that it would be no problem to ignore the material he had already read and seen about the case. “I’m aware that I can’t take everything for the truth, especially when it comes from the news,” he said.