Notes on Alleged Lyle Menendez Escape Plan Introduced

Prosecutors in the retrial of the Menendez brothers Thursday introduced notes allegedly related to an escape plan, which were found among papers seized five years ago from Lyle Menendez’s jail cell.

The papers were not introduced during the first trial, which ended last year with juries for each brother deadlocked between murder and manslaughter convictions for the 1989 shotguns slayings of parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. It was not clear why prosecutors did not use the papers during the first trial.

Although attorneys in the case have long referred to the documents as “escape plans,” Judge Stanley M. Weisberg would not allow deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Najera to call them that in front of the jury. And so, without fanfare, two sheriff’s deputies were called to the witness stand and the documents were entered into evidence.

However, prosecutors later will be able to argue that the writings are, in fact, escape plans. And when jurors peruse the documents, they will read entries such as the following:

“Change name. Change appearance. Plastic surgeon.”

“Need silencer. Need finances. How transfer money? How communicate overseas?”

Another sheet lists “Key Questions,” which include the following:

“Where is destination? Lebanon?

“Can we blend in? how?”

“Can we eventually move?”

“How do our girlfriends fit in?”

“How will they be looking for us?”

“Can we own properties--businesses?”

“What financial security will we have in the future?”