Lyle Menendez is set to face a California parole board a day after his brother was denied freedom after spending 30 years in prison in the slaying of their parents inside their California mansion.
A panel of two California commissioners denied Erik Menendez parole for three years, after which he will be eligible again, in a case that continues to fascinate the public. A parole hearing for his brother Lyle Menendez, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, is scheduled for Friday morning.
The commissioners determined that Menendez should not be freed after an all-day hearing during which they questioned him about why he committed the crime and violated prison rules. They rejected parole despite strong support from family members who have advocated for the brothers’ release for months.
The Menendez brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for killing their father, José Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. They were 18 and 21 at the time. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Erik Menendez was denied parole on Thursday by a California board that said his continued misbehavior during decades in prison for murdering his parents with his older brother in 1989 showed he is still a risk to public safety.
“Two things can be true. They can love and forgive you, and you can still be found unsuitable for parole,” commissioner Robert Barton said.
Barton said the primary reason for the decision was not the seriousness of the crime but Erik Menendez’s behavior in prison. The repeated use of a cellphone was “selfish” and a sign of Erik Menendez believing that rules don’t apply to him, Barton said to Erik Menendez, who was clearly visibly hurt by the decision but listened intently.
