Parole refused for Erik Menendez despite the reduction in the sentence of parents’ murders in 1989

Erik Menendez was denied parole on Thursday after serving decades in prison for murdering his parents with his older brother in 1989.

A panel of California commissioners rejected Menendez’s conditional release for three years, after which he will be eligible again, in a case that continues to fascinate the public. A parole audience for her brother Lyle Menendez, who is owned in the same prison in San Diego, is scheduled for Friday morning.

The two commissioners determined that Menendez should not be released after a day hearing in which they asked why he had committed the crime and violated prison rules.

The brothers have become eligible for parole after a judge reduced their sorrows in May of life without parole to life.

The parole hearings have marked the closest that they have been to win the freedom of prison since their convictions almost 30 years ago for having murdered their parents.

Look | Why the district prosecutor was disputed against parole:

Erik Menendez loses a parole offer while Brother Lyle faces the commission of parole on Friday

A parole commission in California decided that the killer sentenced Eric Menendez will remain in prison. Friday, the board of directors will hear the case of his brother Lyle Menendez, who was also sentenced in the murder in 1989 of their parents.

The brothers were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for having fatally killed their father, Jose Menendez, and his mother, Kitty Menendez, in their manor of Beverly Hills in 1989. While the defense lawyers argued that the brothers had acted by self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, the proseciters said that the brothers years.

A judge reduced his sentences in May and they immediately became eligible for parole.

Erik Menendez pleaded for two parole commissioners, offering his most detailed account in years on how he was raised, why he made the choices he made and how he turned into a prison. He noted that the hearing had dropped almost exactly 36 years after killing his parents – on August 20, 1989.

“Today is August 21. Today is the day all my victims learned that my parents died. So today is the anniversary of their trip to trauma,” he said, referring to family members.

The State Corrections Department chose a single journalist to watch the video conference and share details with other media.

Erik Menendez’s prison file

A photo shared by authorities showed Menendez, with gray hair and glasses, sitting in front of a computer screen with a blue t-shirt on a white sleeve shirt.

The Panel of Commissioners examined all violations of rules and fought on his long prison file, including allegations that he worked with a prison gang, bought drugs, used mobile phones and helped with a tax scam.

He told the commissioners that he had no hope of going out then, he prioritized the protection of the protection of the rules. Then last fall, the Los Angeles prosecutors asked a judge of himself and his brother – opening the door to parole.

“In November 2024, the consequences were importing now,” said Menendez. “Now the consequences meant that I destroyed my life.”

A particular collage point for the commissioners was its use of mobile phones.

“What I got in terms of phone and my connection with the outside world was much greater than the consequences that I am caught with the phone,” said Menendez.

Other meetings with the law

The board of directors also mentioned its first meetings with the law, when it committed two burglaries in high school.

“I was not raised with a moral foundation,” he said. “I was raised to lie, cheat, to fly in the sense, an abstract way.”

The panel asked for details, like why he used a false identity card to buy firearms that he and Lyle Menendez are used to killing their parents, who acted first and why they killed their mother if their father was the main attacker.

Commissioner Robert Barton asked: “Do you see that there were other choices at that time?”

“When I think back to the person I was then and what I thought of the world and my parents, fleeing was inconceivable,” said Menendez. “Leak meant death.”

Its transformation behind bars

The lawyer for the parole of Erik Menendez, Heidi Rummel, underlined 2013 as a turning point for his client.

“He found his faith. He became responsible before his superior power. He found the sobriety and made a promise to his mother on his birthday,” said Rummel. “Is it perfect since 2013? No. But he was remarkable.”

Commissioner Rachel Stern also applauded it for starting a group for taking care of older and disabled prisoners.

Since the brothers come together, they have been “serious responsibility partners” for each other. At the same time, he said he had become better to set limits with Lyle Menendez, and they tend to make different programs.

More than a dozen of their relatives, who pleaded for the release of the brothers for months, published emotional statements during the audience on Thursday by video.

“Seeing my crimes through my family’s eyes was a large part of my evolution and my growth,” said Menendez. “Just see pain and suffering. Understand the extent of what I did, the generational impact.”

Family support

His aunt Teresita Menendez-Baralt, who is Jose Menendez’s sister, said that she had fully forgiven him. She noted that she was dying of stadium cancer 4 and wishes to welcome her at home.

“Erik is doing with kindness, integrity and strength that comes from patience and grace,” she said.

A parent has promised the commission of parole that she would house him in Colorado, where he can spend time with his family and enjoy nature.

The County District Prosecutor Nathan Hochman said before the parole hearings that he opposed the parole for the brothers because of their lack of insight, comparing them to Sirhan Sirhan, who murdered the presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. 2022 due to its “deficient insistence”.

During the hearing, the Los Angeles Prosecutor Habib Balian questioned Menendez about his attempts and his brothers to ask witnesses to lie in the court on their behalf, and if the brothers organized the killings as a stroke of mafia. The commissioners largely rejected the questions, saying that they did not try the case again.

What happens next

In closing statements, Balian wondered if Menendez was “really reformed” or said what the commissioners wanted to hear.

“When we continue to reduce their responsibility for a crime and continue to make the same excuses they have made for more than 30 years, you are still the same dangerous person as they were when they were their parents,” said Balian.

Lyle Menendez is expected to appear on Friday at a video conference for her parole of the same prison in San Diego.

The case drew the attention of real lovers of crime for decades and generated documentaries, television specials and dramatizations. Netflix drama Monsters: the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez And a documentary published in 2024 was credited for drawing new attention to the brothers.

A greater recognition of the brothers as victims of sexual abuse has also helped to mobilize the support of their release. Some supporters flew to Los Angeles to organize gatherings and attend hearings.