David P. Conn

David P. Conn, known as an aggressive but fair deputy district attorney who won the high-profile Menendez brothers' case in 1996, has died. He was 56. Conn died Tuesday, about five months after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, said his wife Rosemary. Conn was best known as the prosecutor who salvaged the Menendez case after a first trial ended in a hung jury. He won first-degree murder convictions and life sentences for Erik and Lyle Menendez, accused of murdering their millionaire parents in August 1989. Conn also helped police during the grand jury phase of the O.J. Simpson trial. The son of a factory worker and a homemaker, Conn grew up in New York and dropped out of his Catholic high school to join the Marine Corps. When he was sent to Vietnam, he worked at fixing radar equipment. After the military, he used the GI Bill and graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1977. Colleagues said it did not take long for Conn to make a name for himself as a superb lawyer when he joined the district attorney's office the following year. "David was a huge talent as a trial lawyer," said former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who asked Conn to retry the Menendez case. "One of the best, if not the best trial lawyer, in our office at the time." Current District Attorney Steve Cooley said in a statement that Conn "was a presence in the courtroom, always in command of the law and the facts of a case." After the Menendez case, Conn was reassigned to a suburban courthouse, a move that put him at odds with Garcetti. Conn felt he should have received a promotion following the Menendez case. Rosemary Conn, however, said the move was the best thing that happened to her husband. "It gave him the impetus to do things he put on the back burner," she said. After 18 years with the district attorney's office, he left in 1997 to work at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro. Five years later, he started his own criminal defense practice. Along with his wife of 34 years, Conn was survived by daughters Jessica and Danielle, along with two sisters and a brother. Services were scheduled for Nov. 4 in New York.