LOS ANGELES : Woman Says Attorney Will Turn Over Menendez Tape

The Virginia woman who claims to have recorded phone calls with Lyle Menendez turned four audiotapes over to her lawyer Tuesday and said it was with the intent of delivering the tapes to Los Angeles authorities.

After being called into court Tuesday morning in Spotsylvania, Va., and told that she owes hundred of dollars in unrelated fines, Martha (Marti) Shelton, 30, of Falls Church, Va., said she turned the tapes over to attorney Anthony J. Corizzi.

Shelton said she handed over the tapes after she was told she would owe no fines if she cooperates with authorities searching for new evidence in the Menendez murder case.

At their first trial, separate juries deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter charges for Lyle Menendez, 26, and Erik Menendez, 23, the Beverly Hills brothers who shot their parents to death Aug. 20, 1989. A new trial date is to be set June 27 in Van Nuys Superior Court.

The older brother’s trial deadlocked Jan. 28. That night, according to a court affidavit, Lyle Menendez allegedly told Shelton, with whom he had been talking for months: “I snowed half the people this time. . . . All I have to do is snow the other half the next time.”

A few days later, according to the affidavit, Lyle Menendez referred to photos of his dead parents in telling her: “The pictures of my parents will seem like a birthday party in comparison to what I will do to someone who crosses me.”

A search two weeks ago of Shelton’s house turned up three audiotapes, but none with those comments.

Shelton said Tuesday that those remarks can be found in the four tapes she gave her lawyer, and said: “I’m sick of the whole thing. I’m really sick of it. I’m sick of everybody. I’m sick of the entire thing.”

Corizzi, who has offices in Washington, D.C., and Manassas, Va., could not be reached for comment.