Psychologist analyses the Menendez brothers' body language in chilling court testimonies

A psychologist and body language expert has shared his theories on the Menendez brothers' court testimonies after analysing some of the 'most intense' parts of the trial.

Dr John Paul Garrison, better known online as Dr G, scrutinised video footage from inside the courtroom in 1993 of Lyle and Erik giving evidence and detailing the alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of their parents.

He wanted to help viewers draw their own conclusions about the siblings' sincerity and whether they fatally shot José, 45, and Mary Louise 'Kitty' Menendez, 47, for financial gain, as the prosecution claimed.

The couple were killed at their Beverly Hills home on 20 August, 1989, but the case has now been thrust back into the spotlight by Netflix, as it is the subject of the second series of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's Monster.

In a video originally shared in August last year, Dr G revealed what he thought of Lyle and Erik's testimony on the stand as they accused their mother and father of inflicting emotional, physical and sexual abuse upon them throughout their lives.

The clinical and forensic psychologist began by taking a look at footage of Erik giving evidence about the 'really nasty' reaction his mother allegedly had to the demise of his relationship with a woman.

Examining the clip, Dr G said: "Look at his brow right now, the anger. When he is impersonating his mother he sees her as being angry towards him. That seems very real for him.

"There's a lot of emotion there when he's talking about this, he's shaking his head, he's furrowing his brow.

"When he's impersonating somebody, he really seems to be getting into how it must have felt to be on the other end of that, or how he perceived her."

The prosecutor then began quizzing Erik about his father and Dr G pointed out that he began to close his eyes 'a bit'.

The expert believes Erik Menendez was 'disassociating' while delivering his testimony about the alleged abuse he suffered (Court TV)

"When we think or remember things that we don't like, it's very common for us to close our eyes," Dr G explained.

"It's almost a way that we're trying to block the thoughts - obviously it doesn't actually work in that way, but it's something unconscious that we tend to do."

He added: "He's not looking around at everybody trying to put on a performance, he's responding to questions consistently and quickly and the way that he's doing it all speaks to someone speaking the truth."

Further footage of Erik claiming that the alleged abuse took a darker turn when he was aged 13 indicated that he was 'someone who has experienced serious trauma and has post-traumatic stress issues', according to the psychologist.

All in all, the expert believes that Erik was having a 'genuine reaction' that someone with PTSD would and he doubts that the son of José and Kitty would have had 'the sophistication to fake' such troubling testimony.

Dr John Paul Garrison shared his theories (YouTube/Dr G Explains)

Dr G then moved onto the other Menendez brother, Lyle, who he said delivered even more detailed and chilling testimony.

As he discussed his relationship with his father and the control he allegedly exerted over him and his brother, Lyle's 'body language was all working in concert', according to the YouTuber.

"We see it when people are lying, things are out of sync, they're asynchronous, things don't quite have the right rhythm - so far everything that Lyle is saying has the rhythm of someone who's telling the truth," Dr G said.

The prosecutor then began to dig into the shocking details of the alleged abuse Lyle suffered when he was a child and he began to 'chew on his bottom lip' on the stand in a bid to comfort himself, according to Dr G.

Lyle Menendez appeared emotional as he gave evidence on the stand (Court TV)

"You can already see tears welling up in his eyes you can already see him trying to pacify himself," Dr G said.

"We saw him cover his mouth just now, and oftentimes people do that when they don't want to say something and he is explaining things that are very shameful and embarrassing to him.

"I am sure talking about these things has got to be embarrassing, so that reaction, covering his mouth like that felt very natural. It didn't come in a dramatic moment, it seemed like it just unconsciously happened."

Lyle then began to open up about how José's alleged abuse when he was aged seven.

Reacting to the footage, Dr G told viewers: "Did you see the big breath in when she's asking the questions as it got more intense? Similar to when she was talking to his brother as things got more intense, his heart starts beating, he's going to have to take in deeper breaths.

"I do not believe he is a good enough actor to pull off this being untrue or fake. He really is too consistent with someone who has experienced abuse for this to be a fake emotion, because people who perform get aspects of the performance wrong."

Dr G went on to point out how he could see Lyle expressing 'sadness in his eyebrows' while discussing the disturbing details, whereas someone who was lying would usually reel off information in an 'almost movie-like fashion'.

Explaining his conclusions to viewers, the body language expert stated that he believes the Menendez brothers were 'too consistent and too accurate' with their testimony to be liars.

"It just seems unbelievable to me," Dr G said. "There is nothing I saw from Eric Menendez nor Lyle Menendez that would implicate in any way that they were being deceptive or not telling the truth.

"There were elements of this that would make them the best and most well-informed actors in the world if they were in fact being deceptive."

Ultimately, the brothers were both convicted of killing their parents in 1996 and were sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.