Menendez brothers denied parole for 1989 murders after breaking prison rules

Lyle Menendez was denied parole on Friday by the same board that a day earlier rejected his brother Erik’s appeal for freedom after serving decades in prison for killing their parents in 1989 at their Beverly Hills mansion. The reason was the same: misbehaviour behind bars. A panel of two commissioners denied the 57-year-old parole, noting that he still displayed “antisocial personality traits like deception, minimisation and rule-breaking that lie beneath that positive surface”. “Joseph [Lyle] Menendez was denied parole for three years at his initial suitability hearing today,” read a brief statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The outcome of Lyle Menendez’s hearing is the latest blow to a movement that has swelled in recent years, amplified by Netflix’s smash hit dramatic series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The show and myriad documentaries have fixated on the gory details of the 1989 shotgun murders, and the televised jury trial that captivated audiences with accounts of their abusive upbringings and posh lifestyles. The brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting their father, Jose, and mother, Kitty, in their Beverly Hills mansion almost exactly 36 years ago on August 20, 1989. While defence lawyers argued that the brothers acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers sought a multimillion-dollar inheritance. A judge reduced their sentences in May, and they became immediately eligible for parole. The parole hearings marked the closest they have come to winning freedom since their convictions almost 30 years ago. Erik Menendez, 54, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, was denied parole on Thursday after commissioners determined his misbehaviour in prison made him still a risk to public safety. A day later, Lyle Menendez told the parole board details about the abuse he suffered under his parents. He cried, face reddened, while delivering his closing statement. He seemed to still want to protect his “baby brother”, telling commissioners he took sole responsibility for the murders. “I will never be able to make up for the harm and grief I caused everyone in my family,” he said. “I am so sorry to everyone, and I will be forever sorry.” The state corrections department chose a single reporter to watch the videoconference and share details with the rest of the press. Abuse claims The panel began by asking how abuse affected decision-making in his life. The older brother described how his father physically abused him by choking, punching and hurting him using a belt. “I was the special son in my family. My brother was the castaway,” he said. “The physical abuse was focused on me because I was more important to him, I felt.” He also said his mother sexually abused him. He appeared uncomfortable discussing this with the panel, who asked why he did not disclose his mother’s abuse in a risk assessment conducted earlier this year. Commissioners asked if one death made him more sorrowful than the other. “My mother. Because I loved her and could not imagine harming her in any way,” he said. “I think also I learned a lot after about her life, her childhood, reflecting on how much fear maybe she felt.” Later, he broke down in tears when recounting how they confronted their mother about Jose Menendez’s abuse of his younger brother. “I could not wrap my mind around the fact that she knew,” he said. Lyle Menendez’s parole lawyer, Heidi Rummel, was more outspoken during his hearing than the one for Erik Menendez on Thursday. She quarrelled with the commissioners over several lines of questioning and whether the panel had access to trial evidence in the case. The panel asked Lyle Menendez whether the murders were planned, and about the brothers buying guns. “There was zero planning. There was no way to know it was going to happen Sunday,” he said, referring to buying the guns as “the biggest mistake”. “I no longer believe that they were going to kill us in that moment. At the time, I had that honest belief.” Garland asked him about the “sophistication of the web of lies and manipulation you demonstrated afterward”, referring to having witnesses lie for them in court – and attempts to destroy his father’s will. Menendez maintained that there was no plan, only that he was “flailing in what was happening” and didn’t want to go to prison and be separated from his brother. In closing, Rummel expressed frustration that the hearing spent almost no time on Menendez’s achievements in prison or his efforts to build positive relationships with correctional staff. She noted he never touched drugs or alcohol inside. “How many people with an LWOP sentence come in front of this board with zero violence, despite getting attacked, getting bullied, and choose to do something different?” she said, referring to his life without parole sentence. More than a dozen of their relatives attended Friday’s hearing via videoconference, but many did not testify citing privacy concerns after learning audio from Erik Menendez’s hearing on Thursday was published online. “I want my nephew to hear how much I love him, and believe in him,” said his aunt, Teresita Menendez-Baralt. “I’m very proud of him and I want him to come home.” Similar to his brother’s hearing the day before, the panel zeroed in on Menendez’s use of cellphones in prison as recently as March. “I had convinced myself that this wasn’t a means that was harming anyone but myself in a rule violation,” Menendez said. He said correctional staff were monitoring his communications with his wife and family and selling them to tabloids, so he saw cellphones as a way to protect his privacy. There was “a lot of stress in his marriage” around the time he transferred to the prison in San Diego, and he wanted to stay in close touch with his wife, he said. Commissioner Patrick Reardon applauded him for starting a prison beautification project and mentorship programmes. However, he questioned whether the cellphone violations tainted those accomplishments. “I would never call myself a model incarcerated person,” Menendez said. “I would say that I’m a good person, that I spent my time helping people. … I’m the guy that officers will come to to resolve conflicts.” The panel noted that a psychologist found that Menendez is at “very low” risk for violence upon release. According to previous court documents, Menendez has not been in any fights during his time in prison. He said non-violence was a promise he made to his grandmother. “My life has been defined by extreme violence,” he said. “I wanted to be defined by something else.” The brothers still have a pending habeas corpus petition filed in May 2023 seeking a review of their convictions based on new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Menendez brothers denied parole for 1989 murders after breaking prison rules

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A parole board rejected Lyle Menendez’s plea a day after it turned down a similar request from his brother, Erik

A parole board rejected Lyle Menendez’s plea a day after it turned down a similar request from his brother, Erik