LYLE Menendez has been denied parole just a day after his brother’s request was turned down – but the brothers may have another shot at freedom.
Both of the Menendez brothers have been in jail since 1989, when they were first arrested for the murders of their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez.
The Mega AgencyErik Menendez was denied parole during a parole hearing[/caption]
The Mega AgencyLyle Menendez’s parole request has been rejected[/caption]
GettyErik had his parole hearing on August 21[/caption]
APThe brothers have been in jail since 1989[/caption]
The brothers were convicted of the murders in 1995 and were sentenced to life without parole one year later.
After appealing the case for years, the brothers were re-sentenced to 50 years with the possibility of parole.
The re-sentencing follows decades of protests by the Menendez family to reduce the brothers’ sentences.
“If they were the Menendez sisters, they would not be in custody,” Anna Maria Baralt, Jose Menendez’s niece, said at a news conference last year.
“We have evolved.”
Lyle was making his first appeal for release after a judge reduced both his and his brother’s sentences, making them eligible for parole.
It came just one day after his brother Erik’s freedom plea was turned down.
NEXT STEPS
The California parole board denied both brothers’ parole requests as it said they would “pose an unreasonable risk to public safety” if they were released from prison.
Erik’s wife, Tammi, who has publicly defended her husband, believed the parole hearing to be a “setup.”
“Parole Commissioner Robert Barton had his mind made up to deny Erik parole from the start,” she posted on X after the hearing.
“This was a complete setup, and Erik never stood a chance!”
Even though Erik was denied on Thursday, he will have another chance at parole in three years.
However, the brothers’ biggest hope for freedom is a habeas corpus petition they filed in May 2023.
The petition challenges the legality of their imprisonment and seeks a new trial for the case.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office opposed the petition, but a judge is still evaluating it.
Timeline of the Menendez brothers case
Erik and Lyle Menendez’s case dates back more than three decades since their parents were found shot to death at their Beverly Hills mansion.
Below is a timeline of the brothers’ case, starting at the gruesome crime scene:
August 20, 1989 – José and Kitty Menendez are found dead from multiple shotgun wounds.
March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested outside his parents’ Beverly Hills mansion.
March 11, 1990 – Erik surrenders to police after flying back into Los Angeles from Israel.
December 1992 – Murder charges against the brothers are officially filed.
July 20, 1993 – The murder trial, highly publicized on Court TV, begins in Los Angeles with Erik and Lyle each having a separate jury.
January 28, 1994 – The first trial ends with two deadlocked juries.
October 11, 1995 – Lyle and Erik’s second trial begins with one jury.
March 20, 1996 – The Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
July 2, 1996 – Lyle and Erik are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons.
February 22, 2018 – Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison, where Erik is held.
April 4, 2018 – Lyle was moved into the same housing unit as Erik – the first time the brothers were reunited in over 20 years.
May 2023 – Lyle and Erik’s attorney files a habeas corpus petition after Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, made sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez in a Peacock docuseries.
September 19, 2024 – Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story releases on Netflix.
October 3, 2024 – Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón says his office is reviewing new evidence in connection with Lyle and Erik’s convictions.
October 7, 2024 – The Menendez Brothers documentary film comes out on Netflix.
October 16, 2024 – Family members of the Menendez brothers hold a press conference begging for the siblings to be released from prison.
October 24, 2024 – Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommends the brothers be resentenced.
November 25, 2024 – The Menendez brothers appear in court for a status hearing to learn their resentencing hearing is pushed back from December 11 to allow new DA Nathan Hochman more time to review the case.
January 30-31, 2025 – Erik and Lyle’s resentencing hearing was initially set but had to be rescheduled due to the California wildfires.
February 21, 2025 – Hochman officially opposes a new trial for the brothers.
February 26, 2025 – California Governor Gavin Newsom orders the parole board to conduct a “comprehensive risk assessment” of the Menendez brothers.
March 10, 2025 – Hochman asks the court to withdraw Gascón’s resentencing motion
April 11, 2025 – Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic denies Hochman’s motion and allows the resentencing process to continue
April 17-18, 2025 – Brothers are scheduled to go before the judge at their resentencing hearings
May 13, 2025 – Menendez brothers sentences reduced to 50 years to life in prison.
August 21, 2025: Erik Menendez denied parole after mammoth 10-hour hearing.
The petition was filed after Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, made sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez in the Peacock docuseries, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
At the time, Rosselló had alleged Jose assaulted him at his New Jersey home in 1983.
In July 2025, Rosselló, 55, told The U.S. Sun that his testimony against Jose had not been “in vain,” saying, “The judge made a wise and prudent decision.
“Now is the time for the system to implement changes in many areas, particularly regarding the statute of limitations for these crimes.”
At the time, Judge William Ryan said Rosselló’s admission, as well as a 1988 letter from Erik, could have changed the outcome of the brothers’ second trial in 1995.
Meanwhile, Erik can ask the board to review the case for any factual errors that may have affected his parole request following his Thursday hearing.
California Governor Gavin Newsom also has the ability to pardon both Menendez brothers, if he so chooses.
The DA’s office told ABC affiliate KABC Newsome can “exercise his clemency power to pardon or release the Menendez brothers at any time.”
Newsom had commented on the Menendez case in a February podcast episode, saying, “My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis.
“But this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case, as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”
ERIK DENIED PAROLE
Parole Commissioner Robert Barton said that Erik’s “continued willingness to commit crimes and violate prison rules” was what led to his parole request being denied.
“I believe in redemption or I wouldn’t be doing this job…but based on the legal standards, we find that you continue to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety,” Parole Commissioner Robert Barton said.
According to Barton, Erik has not been a model prisoner, despite the public’s beliefs.
The commissioner cited Erik’s prison violations, which included inappropriate behavior with visitors, drug smuggling, and using a phone in prison.
“The phone, again, in the abstract, it’s easy for the people on the outside to look at that and go, ‘what’s the big deal?’” Barton said.
“[It] doesn’t change the fact that you knew what you were doing and you knew why you were doing it.”
Barton said Erik’s murder of his mother, Kitty, showed he was “devoid of human compassion.”
“I can’t put myself in your place,” he said.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had rage to that level, ever.
“But that is still concerning, especially since it seems she was also a victim herself of the domestic violence.”
Barton said that Erik could either throw himself a “pity party” or better himself so he may receive parole in the future.
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