By JAIMIE DING
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lyle Menendez was denied parole 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: misbehavior behind bars.
A panel of two commissioners denied Lyle Menendez parole for three years after a daylong hearing. Commissioners noted the older brother still displayed "anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule-breaking that lie beneath that positive surface.”
“We do understand that you had very little hope of being released for years," said commissioner Julie Garland. “Citizens are expected to follow the rules whether or not there is some incentive to do so."
She also said the panel found his remorse genuine and that he has been a “model inmate in many ways who has demonstrated the potential for change.”
“Don’t ever not have hope,” she told Menendez.
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion almost exactly 36 years ago on Aug. 20, 1989. While defense attorneys argued that the brothers acted out of self-defense 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, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, was denied parole Thursday after commissioners determined his misbehavior 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.
Lyle Menendez describes abuse
The panel began by asking how abuse impacted 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 also sexually abused him. He appeared uncomfortable discussing this with the panel, who asked why he didn't 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 couldn’t 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 couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that she knew," he said.
Hearing focuses on crime, over achievements in prison
Lyle Menendez's parole lawyer, Heidi Rummel, was more outspoken during his hearing than the one for Erik Menendez on Thursday.
She quarreled 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,” he said. "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.
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 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."
Cellphones in prison
Similar to his brother's hearing the day before, the panel zeroed in on Menendez's use of cellphones in prison as recent as March 2025.
“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 programs. However, he questioned if 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 gotten into any fights in his time in prison. He said nonviolence 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.
Here’s a look at Erik’s remarks:
His upbringing
“I was not raised with a moral foundation,” he said.
“I was raised to lie, to cheat, to steal, steal in the sense, an abstract way. When I was playing tennis my father would make sure that I cheated at certain times if he told me too. The idea that there is a right and wrong that I do not cross because it’s a moral bound was not instilled in me as a teenager.”
Relationship with his father
Menendez has said for years he was sexually abused by his father. He told commissioners: “I fantasized about my father not being alive.”
Prosecutors asked why Menendez chose to kill his father rather than leave the family home, as he was already 18. He said: “In my mind, leaving meant death. There was no consideration. I was totally convinced there was no place I could go.”
He also spoke about the fear of his father: “It’s difficult to convey how terrifying my father was.”
The murders
The panel of commissioners asked Menendez why he killed his mother as well, if his father was the abuser.
Menendez explained that he did not see any difference between his parents because he found out that his mother knew about the abuse: “It was the most devastating moment in my entire life. It changed everything for me. I had been protecting her by not telling her.”
On shooting his mother: “I wish to God I did not do that.”
Breaking the prison rules
Commissioners focused on numerous rule violations Menendez committed in prison, including drinking alcohol, affiliating with a gang and having a cellphone.
On why he chose to use a cellphone: “What I got in terms of the phone and my connection with the outside world was far greater than the consequences of me getting caught with the phone.”
On substance abuse: “If I could numb my sadness with alcohol, I was going to do it … I would have taken other drugs to numb that pain … I was looking to ease that sadness within me.”
Changing his life
Menendez decided to become sober in 2013 and found faith, he said: “From 2013 on I was living for a different purpose. My purpose in life was to be a good person … I asked myself, ‘Who do I want to be when I die?’ I believe I’m going to face a different parole board when I die.”
Why he was denied parole
A panel of two parole commissioners said Menendez was unsuitable for release. They said his actions in prison, including affiliating with a prison gang and having a cellphone in violation of the rules, showed he was a risk to public safety.
Commissioner Robert Barton said: “One can pose a risk to public safety in many ways, with several types of criminal behavior, including the ones you were guilty of in prison.”
Menendez can come before the parole board again in three years. Barton encouraged him to change his behavior.
“You have two options,” he said. “One is to have a pity party … and then you become a self-fulfilling prophecy, probably not getting granted next time. Or you can take to heart what we discussed.”
Erik Menendez’s prison record
Menendez, gray-haired and spectacled, sat in front of a computer screen wearing a blue T-shirt over a white long-sleeve shirt in a photo shared by officials.
The panel of commissioners scrutinized every rules violation and fight on his lengthy prison record, including allegations that he worked with a prison gang, bought drugs, used cellphones and helped with a tax scam.
He told commissioners that since he had no hope of ever getting out then, he prioritized protecting himself over following the rules. Then last fall, LA prosecutors asked a judge to resentence him and his brother — opening the door to parole.
“In November of 2024, now the consequences mattered,” Menendez said. “Now the consequences meant I was destroying my life.”
A particular sticking point for the commissioners was his use of cellphones.
“What I got in terms of the phone and my connection with the outside world was far greater than the consequences of me getting caught with the phone,” Menendez said.
The board also brought up his earliest encounters with the law, when he committed two burglaries in high school.
“I was not raised with a moral foundation,” he said. “I was raised to lie, to cheat, to steal in the sense, an abstract way.”
The panel asked about details like why he used a fake ID to purchase the guns he and Lyle Menendez used to kill their parents, who acted first and why they killed their mother if their father was the main abuser.
Barton asked: “You do see that there were other choices at that point?”
“When I look back at the person I was then and what I believed about the world and my parents, running away was inconceivable,” Menendez said. “Running away meant death.”
His transformation behind bars
Erik Menendez’s parole attorney, Heidi Rummel, emphasized 2013 as the turning point for her client.
“He found his faith. He became accountable to his higher power. He found sobriety and made a promise to his mother on her birthday,” Rummel said. “Has he been perfect since 2013? No. But he has been remarkable.”
Commissioner Rachel Stern also applauded him for starting a group to take care of older and disabled inmates.
Since the brothers reunited, they have been “serious accountability partners” for each other. At the same time, he said he’s become better at setting boundaries with Lyle Menendez, and they tend to do different programming.
More than a dozen of their relatives delivered emotional statements at Thursday’s hearing via videoconference.
“Seeing my crimes through my family’s eyes has been a huge part of my evolution and my growth,” Menendez said. “Just seeing the pain and the suffering. Understanding the magnitude of what I’ve done, the generational impact.”
His aunt Teresita Menendez-Baralt, who is Jose Menendez’s sister, said she has fully forgiven him. She noted that she is dying from Stage 4 cancer and wishes to welcome him into her home.
“Erik carries himself with kindness, integrity and strength that comes from patience and grace,” she said.
One relative promised to the parole board that she would house him in Colorado, where he can spend time with his family and enjoying nature.
The board brushed off prosecutor’s questions
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said ahead of the parole hearings that he opposes parole for the brothers because of their lack of insight, comparing them to Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom denied him parole in January 2022 because of his “deficient insight.”
During the hearing, LA prosecutor Habib Balian asked Menendez about his and his brothers’ attempts to ask witnesses to lie in court on their behalf, and if the brothers staged the killings as a mafia hit. Commissioners largely dismissed the questions, saying they were not retrying the case.
In closing statements, Balian questioned whether Menendez was “truly reformed” or saying what commissioners wanted to hear.
“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.