One day after a state parole board panel rejected his brother’s bid to be freed from prison, Lyle Menendez will appear before a separate panel Friday in hopes he will be recommended for release after serving roughly 35 years for the 1989 shotgun slaying of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion.
After a nearly 10-hour hearing Thursday, a parole panel rejected a parole bid by 54-year-old Erik Menendez. Lyle Menendez, 57, will hope for a different fate Friday.
The brothers spent about 35 years behind bars without the possibility of parole for the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun killings of Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. The Menendez brothers claim the killings were committed after years of abuse, including alleged sexual abuse by their father.
In May, however, the brothers were resentenced to 50 years to life, automatically making them eligible for parole consideration because they were younger than 26 when the crime occurred.
During Thursday’s hearing for Erik Menendez, the younger of the brothers faced hours of questioning about the murders and his relationship with his parents, along with his write-ups for numerous violations while in state prison.
Parole Commissioner Robert Barton told Erik Menendez, “I believe in redemption or I wouldn’t be doing this job — but based on the legal standards we find that you continue to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
The parole commissioner cited statements from family members supporting his release, saying of them, “Two things can be true. They can love and forgive you and you can still be found unsuitable for parole.”
“… Contrary to your supporters’ beliefs, you have not been a model prisoner and frankly we find that a little disturbing,” Barton said, citing many of Erik Menendez’s prison violations, including inappropriate behavior with visitors, drug smuggling, misuse of state computers and incidents of violence in 1997 and 2011.
He told Erik Menendez that the “truest thing you said in terms of accountability is there is no justification for your actions,” calling it a “tragic case” and saying that Kitty Menendez’s killing “especially showed a lack of empathy and reason.”
Barton cited Erik Menendez’s “continued willingness to commit crimes and violate prison rules” and noted that the seriousness of the crime itself was “not a primary reason for this denial.”
“It’s still your behavior in prison,” he said, noting in particular Erik Menendez’s violations of state prison rules involving cell phones.
Deputy Parole Commissioner Rachel Stern noted that Erik Menendez led rehabilitation groups while violating California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation rules, also citing his recent behavior involving phones.
The parole denial for Erik Menendez — who like his brother is housed at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego — is for at least three years, but he can ask for an earlier hearing.
As he wrapped up his comments to the parole board panel, Erik Menendez said, “I just want my family to understand that I am so unimaginably sorry for what I have put them through from August 20, 1989, until this day, and this hearing. I know that they have been here for me and they’re here for me today, but I want them to know that this should be about them. It’s about them and if I ever get the chance at freedom I want the healing to be about them.”
“Don’t think it’s the healing of me. It’s the healing of the family. This is a family tragedy,” he said.
He cited the pain the killings have caused family members.
“I’ve called it a forever crime,” he said. “It will impact every generation to be born. I cannot express sorrow and remorse enough. Doing it for the rest of my life will not be enough.”
In his closing statement to the panel, Habib Balian of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office lauded Erik Menendez’s efforts to improve himself, but questioned whether he understands “the full severity and depravity of his conduct” and whether his behavior has been “calculated” as a result of his chance to be released from prison.
“He’s on the road. He’s not there yet. He doesn’t have insight (into his crimes),” Balian said. “… When what you’ve done is shotgun your parents to death, deleted any competing wills, taken their money, spent their money, you’re a violent person.”
He contended that Erik Menendez has minimized his accountability and “had to create a fake, false self-defense narrative.”
“When one continues to diminish their responsibility for a crime and continues to make the same false excuses that they’ve made for 30-plus years, one is still that same dangerous person that they were when they shotgunned their parents,” Balian said. “… He is not reformed. He is still an unreasonable risk to society. He has no insight into his crimes.”
Erik Menendez’s attorney, Heidi Rummel, countered, “This crime, as the rest of the world seems to understand, was driven by extraordinary trauma, physical abuse, emotional abuse and relentless domination by his parents. Yes, Mr. Balian, it is a terrifying crime. But what was happening in that home, to young teenagers, was also terrifying.”
She added, “Mr. Menendez is so far from the person he was when he committed this crime.”
She argued that his violations while in prison were “low level violations” and that he had made “dramatic changes in his life” while in state prison in 2013.
“Has he been perfect since 2013? No. But he has been remarkable. His journey is inspiring. He was raised in a family where wealth and success masked complete dysfunction,” she told the panel.
She said “being Erik Menendez in prison means all eyes on you. Staff love to write up the Menendez brothers for things they’ve done and things that aren’t even against the rules.”
The parole board panel also heard from a number of Menendez family members and other supporters who asked for his release from prison.
During an emotional statement in which she began crying immediately, Erik Menendez’s aunt, Teresita Menendez-Baralt, told the panel, “I want to make clear that although I love my brother, I have fully forgiven Erik.”
Menendez-Baralt called him a “sweet, gentle soul” and said she wishes she could go back in time to “shield him in the way he should have been protected.”
The woman — who said she is dying from cancer — told the panel that “it would be a blessing to help him in any way I can … more than anything I hope I live long enough to welcome him into my home, to sit at the same table, to wrap my arms around him.”
Kitty Menendez’s great-niece, Natascha Leonardo, promised the parole board panel that she could house him in Colorado where he would have a home with “unconditional love and stability,” noting that the family was asking that he be released “into a network of love and support.”
In a statement released shortly after the parole board panel’s decision, family members said, “While we respect the decision, today’s outcome was of course disappointing and not what we hoped for. But our belief in Erik remains unwavering and we know he will take the board’s recommendation in stride. His remorse, growth, and the positive impact he’s had on others speak for themselves. We will continue to stand by him and hold to the hope he is able to return home soon.
“Tomorrow, we turn our attention to Lyle’s hearing. And while it is undoubtedly difficult, we remain cautiously optimistic and hopeful that the commissioner will see in Lyle what so many others have: a man who has taken responsibility, transformed his life and is ready to come home.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman issued a statement supporting the denial of parole. He commended the board for not bowing to “public spectacle or pressure.”
The District Attorney’s Office also recently filed paperwork opposing a separate request by the brothers that they be granted a new trial. The request was made in a 2023 writ of habeas corpus filed by their attorneys.
In that 2023 petition, attorneys for the brothers pointed to two new pieces of evidence they contend corroborate the brothers’ allegations of long- term sexual abuse at the hands of their father — a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in early 1989 or late 1988, and recent allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.
Attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, representing the brothers, wrote that the new evidence “not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that — in fact — he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988 — just as the defense had argued all along.”
The attorneys added that “newly discovered evidence directly supports the defense presented at trial and just as directly undercuts the state’s case.”
But Hochman said the defense’s filing “does not come close to meeting the factual or legal standard to warrant a new trial”
“The overwhelming evidence of the Menendez brothers’ premeditated, deliberate, willful and brutal murders of their parents the night of Aug. 20, 1989, leading to their convictions for first-degree murder with special circumstances, is not in any way challenged by evidence that is not `new’ or `material’ or `credible’ or `presented without substantial delay’ that would more likely than not have changed the outcome of this case,” the district attorney said.
Hochman said the brothers maintained throughout their trials that they acted in self-defense, and that the latest claims about new evidence amount to nothing more than a “Hail Mary” effort to obtain a new trial.
In the prosecution’s filing, Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack wrote, “There are few murder cases in which the evidence of planning and premeditation is as stark as that presented in this case. Petitioners confessed on tape to murdering their parents, revealing the extent of their forethought and deliberation.”
Carmack cited a “pattern of deliberate deceit,” in which the two “conspired and planned to kill their parents by, among other things, driving over 120 miles to San Diego to purchase shotguns and ammunition using false identification and a false address” and setting up a “pre-planned alibi” hours before they killed their parents.
The prosecutor added, “While sexual abuse is abhorrent and may be a motive for murder, it does not justify murder and does not negate overwhelming evidence of planning, deliberation and premeditation.”
The brothers’ first trial ended with jurors unable to reach verdicts, deadlocking between first-degree murder and lesser charges including manslaughter. The second trial, which began in October 1995 and lacked much of the testimony centered on allegations of sexual abuse by Jose Menendez, ended with both brothers being convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy.
Attorneys for the brothers have also asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant them clemency. If the parole board panel on Friday recommends parole for Lyle Menendez, the issue would also wind up in the hands of Newsom, who could accept or reject the recommendation, after it goes through a legal review process that could last as long as 120 days.
–City News Service
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
