Lawyers Ordered to Discuss Deal for Menendezes : Courts: Judge tells defense attorneys and prosecutors to meet for plea bargain talks to avoid a costly retrial of the brothers.

Saying that plea bargain talks would be prudent, the judge in the Menendez brothers murder trial ordered the prosecution and defense Friday to discuss the possibility of a deal that would end the high-profile case.

Apparently hoping to save the millions in taxpayer dollars and the many months that a retrial of Lyle and Erik Menendez would consume, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg directed both sides to sit down for settlement talks in the next few weeks.

The judge said he is not trying to pressure the prosecution and defense to strike a deal. Instead, he noted that most criminal cases end in a plea bargain and said: “This case should be no exception.”

Weisberg added: “If you approach this like you approach any case, you’ll be doing your clients, all your clients, a service.”

Lyle Menendez, 26, and Erik Menendez, 23, are charged with murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, a wealthy entertainment executive, and Kitty Menendez, 47. The sons shot the parents in the TV room of the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

At their first trial, which lasted six months, the brothers admitted the shootings, but said they fired in fear and self-defense after years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Prosecutors contend that the brothers killed out of hatred and greed.

The first trial ended in January, when separate juries, one for each brother, deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter charges. Both brothers remain in jail without bail.

When that trial ended, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said a plea bargain was out of the question. He insisted that the brothers were guilty of first-degree murder.

Defense attorneys responded that no jury would ever convict the brothers of that charge.

Weisberg said Friday that the end of the trial had produced “bombast (and) rhetoric on all sides.” But that was then, he said.

Now, he said, it is time for negotiation. “That is something that is appropriate in any case and certainly appropriate in this case,” he said.

After the hearing, the lawyers said they willing to talk to each other. But no one volunteered optimism.

If no deal can be struck, Weisberg said he will set a trial date at a June 27 hearing.

The start date for a retrial depends on whether one jury or two will hear the case, and on whether the brothers will be tried together or separately. Weisberg said he will take up those issues June 27.