BROTHERS GET 2 LIFE TERMS, OF PAROLE : EVALUATION WILL DETERMINE IF PAIR WILL GO TO SAME PRISON.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

Seven years after they shotgunned their parents to death, Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced Tuesday to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg said the brothers carefully planned the fatal shootings of Jose Menendez, a wealthy entertainment executive, and his wife, Kitty, at the family's Beverly Hills mansion.

``The evidence is quite clear that they considered killing one parent, then both parents,'' Weisberg said. ``Then they decided ultimately on killing both as part of the conspiracy.''

Erik, 25, and Lyle, 28, showed no reaction.

As he was led away by deputies, Lyle, dressed in a pink shirt and slacks, turned and waved at his fiancee, Anna Eriksson, and other family members gathered in court.

Weisberg, who quickly denied defense motions for a new trial, had no choice but life without parole. Jurors in April recommended that the brothers' lives be spared.

Outside court, prosecutor David Conn said the sentences were symbolic of the horrific nature of the 1989 slayings.

``We are grateful that justice was done in this case,'' Conn told reporters. ``People in this country were wondering why they weren't convicted the first time.''

In the brothers' first trial, two juries were seated and eventually deadlocked on murder charges. The brothers claimed that they killed out of fear after years of sexual, physical and mental abuse.

One jury was seated in the retrial, and Weisberg dramatically cut back on the evidence and witnesses that were allowed.

At the heart of both trials was the abuse defense, but in the second trial prosecutors said the brothers fabricated the abuse allegations and were in fact, greedy, rich kids who wanted to inherit the Menendez family's $14 million fortune.

Jurors convicted the brothers of first-degree murder in the slayings of both parents, and the special circumstances of lying in wait, multiple murders and conspiracy.

Weisberg credited the brothers for the more than 3,400 days already served in the Los Angeles County jail.

The brothers will be taken to a California Department of Corrections reception center for four to six weeks of evaluation to determine where they will be placed in the state's vast prison system.

Erik and Lyle have asked to be sent to the same prison. J.P. Tremblay, assistant secretary of the state Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, said no decision has been made.

``There have been situations where family members have been put together,'' Tremblay said. ``But there are situations where we don't put partners in crime together.''

Beverly Hills Detective Leslie H. Zoeller, who investigated the bloody shooting at the Menendez mansion, urged that the brothers be separated due to their past history of conspiring with each other.

``They committed murder together,'' Zoeller said. ``As co-conspirators, they should be separated or it could harm the facility they are in.''

But Erik's lawyer, Leslie Abramson, called the suggestion a ``last-ditch effort'' by the prosecution ``to inflict greater punishment on them than what the law prescribes.''

``I don't hear them making statements like that about serial killers, about baby rapists. But because these are highly notorious defendants . . . they think it's a free-for-all for inhumanity and I have had enough of it.''

The brothers have expressed regret and self-hatred over their actions, according to probation reports made public after Tuesday's one-hour sentencing hearing.

Erik Menendez, who is on daily doses of Inderal, Xanax and Pamelor for depression and anxiety, and who sees a psychologist weekly, states in the report: ``I don't want anyone to think that the horror of what we did (has not affected us.)

``I want people to understand how much I wish we could go back and change what happened . . . From the very first night, I realized the horror of what happened and what a mistake was made.''

Lyle Menendez also expresses regrets, not only to his parents but to his relatives. He said he has visited his parents' graves, has no hatred toward them and has ``made peace with mom and dad.''

In the probation report, Lyle admits that three months after his arrest in the killings, he was fantasizing about escaping from jail, but insists no plans were ever made.

Psychologist Stuart N. Hart wrote that he believes the brothers will likely be targeted in prison.

``The notoriety they have received, their youthful good looks, misimpressions that they were spoiled brats and public exposure of allegations that they were sexually abused will make them prime targets,'' Hart states.

In the probation report, Hart recommends that Lyle and Erik be placed in the same institution ``for their therapeutic and educational needs, and for their desire to be of use to others.''

Numerous letters from relatives, friends and former jurors were submitted with the probation report, most in support of the brothers and their request to be allowed to serve their prison terms together.

In a letter from Eriksson to Weisberg, she writes that she and Lyle had developed a ``very loving and strong'' relationship.

She said what most touched her is Lyle's love for his brother. ``In quiet moments, Lyle will say to me, `Aside from my brother, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me', '' she wrote.

Eriksson asks the judge to keep the brothers together, adding that her fiance is not a hardened criminal and that ``Lyle tries to shield me from how he is treated, but I have heard the way that inmates taunt him, and I am terrified for his safety.''

On Tuesday, Weisberg did not address Lyle Menendez's request to marry Eriksson, a longtime pen pal.

Last week, Superior Court Judge Nancy Brown said she would marry the pair, but Judge John Reid, acting presiding judge of the court, vetoed the plan, saying he objected to having a defendant married at taxpayers' expense.

Further complicating the wedding plans, the Sheriff's Department said internal jail rules require Weisberg, as the sentencing judge, to perform such a marriage. But Menendez did not want Weisberg to perform the ceremony.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) Lyle Menendez prepares to leave the courthouse after sentencing.

Associated Press 

(2 -- color) LYLE MENENDEZ

(3 -- color) ERIK MENENDEZ