ATTORNEYS REST IN MENENDEZ TRIAL : JURY TO RECONVENE MONDAY TO BEGIN DELIBERATIONS ON BROTHERS' FATE.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

Nearly six years after Jose and Kitty Menendez were slain in their Beverly Hills mansion, jurors will get a chance to decide whether the couple's sons, Erik and Lyle, should live or die for the crimes.

The eight-man, four-woman jury - which was handed the case Friday - met briefly to select a foreman or forewoman. Deliberations will begin Monday morning.

The three-week-long penalty phase of the brothers' trial concluded with passionate arguments by both sides, and a final appeal from Lyle Menendez's attorney for jurors to show mercy.

``Lyle Menendez will spend the rest of his life in prison,'' said attorney Charles Gessler, his voice straining with emotion. ``But at least no one will ever again tell Lyle Menendez that you have to be No. 1.''

Gessler was referring to pressure the brothers claim Jose and Kitty Menendez placed on them to succeed at any cost.

Defense lawyer Barry Levin, who represents Erik, asked the jury to ``please, please spare'' his client, whom he described as a ``friend.''

``It will be a decision you will never, ever regret,'' Levin said.

Erik's lead attorney Leslie Abramson, who earlier told Judge Stanley Weisberg that she planned to make a statement, did not argue on behalf of Erik.

Abramson was at the center of a legal scandal during the penalty phase of the brother's murder retrial after a psychiatrist testified that she ordered him to excise notes from his sessions with Erik.

Weisberg instructed the jury not to consider the alteration of notes in weighing the death penalty. Weisberg also said any possible misconduct on the part of Dr. William Vicary or defense counsel should not be considered.

The duty to plead for Erik's life fell to Levin.

``Erik Menendez will spend the rest of his life locked in a cell the size of your bathroom,'' Levin told the jury. ``He will spend the next 50 or 60 years there until he dies.''

The younger brother lowered his head and stared at the floor as Levin spoke.

He urged the jury to take into consideration that Erik was only 18 when he killed his parents. ``Would any of us want to be judged by a decision we made at 18 years old?'' he asked the jury.

Deputy Public Defender Terri Towery spoke in a soft voice as she told jurors that although Jose and Kitty Menendez did not deserve to die, their treatment of their sons played a role in their deaths.

``If that relationship had been different, do you think this tragedy would have happened?'' she asked.

She asked the jury to look for ``some compassion, some mercy and understanding'' for Lyle's actions. ``Compassion is not approval, mercy is not acceptance and understanding is not justification,'' she said.

Prosecutor David P. Conn started his rebuttal argument with Lyle's own words.

``I miss my parents, but then again I miss my dog too,'' Conn said, repeating what the eldest Menendez brother told his former psychiatrist, Jerome Oziel, in December 1989.

``Those are the words of Lyle Menendez,'' Conn said. ``Look into his eyes. You see black eyes, dead eyes, and they should be dead for the horror they have committed.''

Lyle stared at Conn but showed no reaction.

Conn urged the jury to reject the defense theory of a lifetime of abuse and sentence the brothers to death. He suggested jurors send a message to society that even wealthy defendants can be sent to Death Row.

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Photo: Barry Levin, counsel for Erik Menendez, urged the ju rors Friday to give his client a life sentence rather than the death penalty.

Steve Grayson/Pool