Law & Order: Arnel Salvatierra's Connection to the Menendez Brothers

Edie Falco as Leslie Abramson

If you've been watching Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Brothers you may have heard a lesser known true crime mentioned in conjunction with the brothers' brutal murder of their parents. That case centered around Arnel Salvatierra.

But who is he?

In 1986, Salvatierra was a 17-year-old living in California with his parents, Oscar and Ligaya, and his siblings. On Feb. 19, 1986, Salvatierra shot his father three times in the face while he was sleeping in his bedroom. Both the murder and Salvatierra's alibi were carefully planned. Oscar worked for the San Francisco-based Philippine News, and his son sent a death threat in the mail in hopes that people would believe his death was politically motivated.

While there are obvious surface connections between the two cases, what binds Salvatierra to the Menendez brothers is Leslie Abramson. The lawyer, who is played by Edie Falco in the NBC drama, represented all three of the boys. Her representation of Salvatierra may have even made her the perfect choice for the Menendez brothers given the similarities between their situation and Salvatierra's. The outcome of the 1986 case certainly had to make Abramson seem like a smart choice.

The real Leslie Abramson in 2007

Abramson was successful in getting Salvatierra a lesser sentence. After his mother, Ligaya, testified on her son's behalf that Oscar was abusive toward her and the children, a jury found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter, while acquitting him of first-degree murder. According to The Los Angeles Times, Ligaya testified, "No one could object to Oscar. That was the rule of the house. Nobody even argued with him. 'If I say it's black, it's black, even if it's white,' he used to say. That was the rule."

Despite Salvatierra admitting that the murder was premeditated, the jury believed there was enough evidence to support Abramson's argument that the young man had been abused by his father, and witnessed his father abuse his mother and siblings for years. As part of his probation, Salvatierra agreed to undergo psychiatric counseling. Unlike the Menendez brothers, his case has largely faded from memory, and it seems that Salvatierra went on to live a quiet life — at the very least, he has stayed out of the news since receiving his probation sentence in 1989.

Perhaps the Salvatierra case didn't capture the country's fascination in the same way as the Menendez case did because Abramson was able to prove to the jury that her client's home life was so painful that he was driven to extreme measures. The Menendez case is far more mysterious. Even a lawyer as dedicated as Abramson couldn't convince a jury that the brothers killed their parents due to abuse. While Salvatierra's story is fairly straightforward, the Menendez brothers' case remains one of the most puzzling and shocking murders of the 20th century.