Therapist Says Menendezes Told of Close Call : Trial: Brothers shielded key evidence from police and felt lucky to escape arrest on the night their parents were slain, psychologist testifies.

Though they were convinced they could kill their parents in the “perfect crime,” Lyle and Erik Menendez also confessed that they were lucky to escape arrest the night of the slayings, the brothers’ therapist testified Friday.

Beverly Hills psychologist L. Jerome Oziel, the key prosecution witness in the brothers’ murder trial, said Erik Menendez told him that Beverly Hills police called to the family mansion missed an opportunity to uncover damning evidence--by letting the brothers go alone to their car, where they scooped up loose shotgun shells.

When Erik Menendez told about the incident two months after the killings, the younger brother was “kind of shaking his head about the Police Department,” Oziel recalled. Both brothers told him: “It was just lucky,” the therapist added.

Lyle Menendez, 25, and Erik Menendez, 22, are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, a wealthy entertainment executive, and Kitty Menendez, 47. The parents were shot in the TV room of the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Prosecutors claim that the brothers killed out of hatred and greed, and are seeking the death penalty. The defense concedes that the brothers killed the parents but alleges that it was an act of self-defense after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

For weeks after the killings, police treated the brothers as aggrieved victims. Detectives never dismissed them as possible suspects, but focused initially on the theories that the killings were related to Jose Menendez’s business dealings.

While free, the brothers confided their roles in the crime to Oziel on Oct. 31, 1989, then told him more at another therapy session two days later, the psychologist testified this week. He did not alert police, however, and the brothers were not arrested until March, 1990, after officers were tipped to the confessions by Oziel’s lover, Judalon Smyth.

Wrapping up a third day on the witness stand and a second day under defense questioning, Oziel said Friday that Erik Menendez told him he could not believe the brothers were not arrested the night of the killings.

They had put their faith in their “perfect” plan, Oziel said. In essence, the plot was to kill their father and mother, arrange an alibi and bury or destroy any evidence that could link them to the slayings, Oziel said.

“The plan was to walk into the family room and shoot their parents--that’s a plan?” defense lawyer Leslie Abramson asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Oziel said.

The alibi the brothers purportedly invented was that they had been at the Taste of L.A. food festival in Santa Monica. Was that “an effective alibi though they got there after it closed?” Abramson asked.

“They did believe (Taste of L.A.) was an effective alibi,” Oziel said, adding that Erik Menendez told him the plan was “extremely imperfectly committed.”

Returning to a topic she hammered at Thursday, Abramson asked Oziel numerous questions Friday challenging the accuracy of his tape-recorded notes relating to the Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 sessions.

The tape remains sealed but Oziel was permitted in court to refer to an edited transcript. The sessions together lasted more than eight hours, Oziel said, and it would have been impossible to deliver a verbatim report, especially because he did not make the tape until at least a week, and possibly two, after meeting with the brothers.

For instance, Oziel said, the brothers several times used the word “perfect” to describe their plan, but his notes do not list every mention. Nevertheless, Oziel insisted, the tape contains the “essential elements” of the sessions, recorded “as faithfully as possible.”

Abramson asked if he made the tape to protect himself from Smyth, whom Oziel called “not very” stable but in whom he confided just hours after the Oct. 31 session ended. “Ms. Abramson, no, that isn’t what happened,” Oziel said Friday without elaboration.

Two juries are hearing the case, one for each brother, and Oziel’s testimony under cross-examination before both panels at once ended late Friday. He is due to return to court Monday for more defense questions before separate juries.