Second Trial Begins For Erik Menendez

Erik Menendez tearfully admitted on the witness stand Wednesday that he shot his parents, saying he acted after enduring repeated sexual abuse by his father and not out of greed for the family fortune.

Gaunt and wearing glasses, Menendez, 25, told jurors in his second murder trial that his father sexually molested him and that his mother often humiliated him.

Defense attorney Barry Levin asked if Menendez killed his parents.

“Yes, I did,” Menendez said.

When Levin asked why, a tearful Menendez answered, “We were afraid.”

“What was it you were afraid of?” Levin said. “I was afraid of dying,” Menendez answered.