What choice did they have?

I’ve seen lots of people say “well lots of kids are abused and they don’t kill their parents”.

This is true. But Jose had brain washed Erik to believe that if he said no to the abuse or he ran away Jose would kill him. (Watch Erik’s testimony about “mirror time” from the trial footage) Jose threatened him with a knife as well.

I fully believe that Jose was evil and powerful enough to stay true to his word and that the boys believed this was the case. I also saw from the trial footage that Jose had guns in his closet so he had the means to kill them if he wanted to.

They couldn’t have gone to the police because no would have believed them and then they’d be at the mercy of Jose. The members of the family who knew didn’t do anything.

So…what real choice did they have?