After more than 30 years in Prison, Erik Menendez was recently denied parole by the California board, which decided that he still poses a risk to public safety. Lyle, his older brother, was found guilty alongside Erik for the murder of their parents decades ago. But he will have his own chance to have a confrontation for them to be released. The Menendez brothers were able to have the chance to face the California Board of Parole after they were resentenced in May this year to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The decision was announced after a 10-hour hearing in which Erik appeared on a video from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, CA. Donovan argued that Lyle had been rehabilitated in prison and had sincerely apologized for the pain that he caused to his family
members. The Menendez brothers were 18 and 21 at the time. They said they brutally shot Kitty and José Menendez after years of sexual assault by their father. They were sentenced to life in prison in 1996, after the prosecutors “proved” that they committed the violence to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
While they were handing down the denial this evening in the LA County District Attorney’s Office, Robert Barton, Parole Board Commissioner, said that they give great weight to youth offender agents, they will continue willingly, for they have a policy on committed crimes and violent prison laws, which was a determining factor in denying the parole request.
It appears that the state parole board has denied a petition from Erik Menendez, a 54-year-old man who went through an all-day session on Thursday last week. There were some updates for the news social media they required from a LA Times reporter who was picked to attend the hearings from a conference in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation headquarters that is near Sacramento, CA.
However, the board considered recommending parole for Lyle Menendez on Friday last week. It was forbidden for anyone to hear the audio
except for the state prison authorities. The media programs were forbidden from circulating any details from so-called pool reports from the LA Times reporter until after the parole board had a problem with their decision.
One of the brothers, Lyle Menendez, said to Erik that only one person can pose a heavy risk for public safety in several ways, with numerous types of criminal actions and behavior, which would include those who were found guilty of in prison. He also said that he encouraged Erik Menendez to use his “great support network” more frequently to be more aware of the prison policies. For Lyle’s brutal commitment to his killings of their parents would severely weigh against him. Lyle, who is many years older than Erik, he has testified during the trial back in 1993, which was 32 years ago. He continuously kept shooting the gun directly in a very close range at José and Kitty Menendez. Last week on Thursday, Robert Barton confirmed that the point at which the Menendez brothers’ mother was killed was devoid of human sympathy.
The restrictions were the same as they were applied to the Lyle Menendez hearing from Friday last week, which ran very long, but as the audio came to a close, that led the news to break out, which created a huge complication. TV station ABC7 published an audio of Erik Menendez’s hearing, which appears to have been accidentally handed over in response to a public records request.
One of the brothers offered differing chronologies of his father’s critical abuse, in which the prosecutors have raised any questions about the credibility of the Menendez brothers’ claims. It was said in the legal filings, for one point, he asked his girlfriend to lie and say his father
sexually assaulted and drugged him. The news report brought the audio to an interim stop, sparking frustration and revolting anger from the Menendez brothers’ family and their attorney, who accused the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of leaking the hearing and spoiling Lyle Menendez’s audio. The hearings for the parole were part of many attempts by the brothers to have the justice system reconsider on their case. For some of you who don’t know what a justice system is, well, it is a network of governmental and for private agencies that maintain the process for justifying laws and to ensure on fairness and for due process for individuals. They emphasize that child sexual assault has evolved over the years. While the path is halted for the next 3 years, the Menendez brothers are still planning on working for a legal challenge in the hopes of getting a new trial and also to have an active clemency application with Newsom’s office.
A few days ago marked the 36th anniversary of Kitty and José murders which was passed earlier this week. On August 20, 1989, two of the brothers rushed into the den up in their Beverly Hills home and shot and killed both of their parents with multiple bullet wounds. The Menendez brothers confirmed the reason why they did that was because they were out of fear for a lifetime of abuse for them, especially by
their father. One of the brothers’ relatives, Tiffani Lucero-Pastor, said that she protected herself to stay out of this situation and has never have been in a relationship with 2 people because she was scared. She came today and came yesterday, and she had trusted that this would be published in the transcript. She also added to the CDCR that they deceived the family. Lyle Menendez’s parole attorney, Heidi Rummel, criticized the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and accused the agency of turning the audio into a “spectacle”.
Rummel’s said that they don’t understand what this family is undergoing. She added that they have spent so much time trying to protect their dignity and privacy, and she added that she would be looking forward to sealing the transcripts of Friday’s audio. For decades behind bars, the Menendez brothers were able to earn college degrees and serve as caregivers and mentors. Julie Garland, parole commissioner, regulates on the hearing to be published under the California Public Records Act. The Transcript became public within 30 days of a denial or grant, which is under state law.
The Menendez Brothers’ relatives screamed at the Parole Board and to the Deputy District Attorney (DA), it was said by Rummel’s that they came into the hearing to hope and expect an equitable and fair hearing where Lyle Menendez could be heard and to be understood and considered. The attorney then is seeking what will surely be a commitment to overturn on today’s decision, as it was told by the audio, they will have a public spectacle, and this would aggravate its twenty-fold, which means that it would as greater and larger. Now they have their relatives
who are not going to speak for them. It has been well documented that then 21-year-old Princeton student Lyle Menendez and Erik 19 year 19-year-old murdered both of them in a clear shot in their Beverly Hills home on August 20, 1989. One of the brothers went back to reload to finish off their mother, Kitty Menendez, who Lyle today, and Erik said that he regretted it, Ms. Menendez (Kitty) tried to crawl away after she was wounded had long been alleged the shootings as we all know, they both suffered for years of abuse at the hands of their fathers, José Menendez.
Early in the hearing on August 22, 2025, at 9:03 am, with the brother’s lawyer, Heidi Rummel, which who was with Erik for the hearing on Thursday last week, Ethan Millius, L.A County Deputy, from the authorities of the state CDCR, and especially the brother’s family members, who will also be attending immediately. Commissioner Garland praised the rehabilitation in which he sought Mr. Menendez for his very clear, heartfelt, determined, well-written obedience to the parole board. It was said by Erik Menendez that the remorse he deeply felt after the crime scene supposedly helped him create a “strong belief” that he had nothing to do with the murders. His brother, Lyle Menendez, may have been denied for parole; however, he could be suitable for an earlier hearing.
Sources: CNN, TheGuardian, Daily Maverick, Deadline, Los Angeles Times
