Prosecutor Examines Home Life in Menendez Murder Retrial

Despite the trappings of privilege--the Beverly Hills mansion, the luxury cars, the Ivy League schooling and the poolside lifestyle--one’s family life can be hell, a prosecutor acknowledged Wednesday during closing arguments in the retrial of the Menendez brothers.

But an unhappy home life is no excuse for murder, Deputy Dist. Atty. David P. Conn told jurors on the 80th day of the second trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are accused of murder in the August 1989 shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

In his departure from previous trial strategy, in which prosecutors virtually ignored defense claims of sex and child abuse, Conn applied his own spin to the Menendez soap opera during the second day of what is expected to be a weeklong argument.

By doing so, Conn wrote the script for an American tragedy--the slaying of a penniless, immigrant father who married a small-town beauty queen, rose to wealth and power, and then was cut down by resentful sons he had pushed and coddled, but would never be half the man he was.