Erik Menendez hit a roadblock in his bid for freedom after a California parole board denied his release on Thursday, claiming he still posed a risk to the public.
The parole hearing had marked the nearest Erik had come to walking free since he and his brother Lyle were handed life sentences for murdering their parents in 1989.
Erik appeared on a live feed from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, with 21 witnesses seeking his release after decades.
Parole board commissioner Robert Barton, who listened to over 10 hours of testimony, said he believed Erik was not ready to leave jail.
“I believe in redemption, or I wouldn’t be doing this job,” Barton said. “But based on the legal standards, we find that you continue to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
Barton said the way Erik’s mother Kitty was killed as being “devoid of human compassion.”
“The manner and the motive for the killings do have some weight in aggravation… the killing of your mother especially showed a lack of empathy and reason,” Barton said.
The parole board also cited Erik’s violations in prison as part of the denial. Both Erik and Lyle have been caught with cell phones while at Donovan, with Barton calling the phone use “selfish.”
During the hearing Erik told commissioners, “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.”
Erik has also faced disciplinary action for assaulting another inmate and possessing tobacco. Lyle has been cited for refusing an order and having contraband items, including a lighter and Adidas shoes.
“Contrary to your supporters’ beliefs, you have not been a model prisoner and frankly, we find that a little disturbing,” Barton told Erik. He said the prisoner now had “two options” for the future.
“One is to have a pity party,” Barton said. “Or you can take to heart what we discussed.”
Lyle’s parole suitability hearing is scheduled for Friday, where his fate could still differ from his brother’s. Erik may still have a chance at release, with California Governor Gavin Newsom separately considering a request for clemency from the brothers.
The parole board’s denial for Erik comes after a judge in May reduced the brothers’ sentences from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 50 years with the possibility of parole.
Up to a dozen of the Menendez’s relatives showed up at Thursday’s hearing to make statements as next of kin of the victims. Normally, victims’ family members oppose parole, but most of Kitty and José’s living relatives have long advocated for the brothers’ release.
Los Angeles Times journalist James Queally was the only reporter in the courtroom on Thursday. He told Brianna Keilar on CNN’s The Source that Erik had expressed remorse for the killings during the hearing.
“He spoke in detail about how there‘s nothing he can ever do to ultimately make up for the fact that he‘s put generational trauma on his family, that he‘s got cousins that are younger than him, that have lived their whole lives with the Menendez name in the news,” Queally said.
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman argued against Erik’s release. He claims the brothers never fully owned up to their crimes and were still lying about their motive.
Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21 when they gunned down their parents, Kitty and José Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.
While the brothers admitted to the murders, they insisted they acted in self-defense, alleging years of physical and sexual abuse by their father and saying they feared their parents were going to kill them.
In 1996, they were convicted of first-degree murder, and their appeals in the years that followed failed repeatedly.
Momentum shifted in the 2020s, as their attorneys presented new evidence supporting their sexual abuse allegations and the hit Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story reignited public scrutiny of the case.
Former District Attorney George Gascón emerged as a strong proponent of the brothers’ legal battle and advocated for their resentencing, but later lost his reelection bid to Hochman.
Hochman unsuccessfully tried to block Erik and Lyle’s resentencing process, and his office filed a 75-page “statement of view” before Thursday’s hearing, highlighting the brothers’ efforts to arrange an alibi and their repeated lies to investigators and family in the aftermath of the killings.
The district attorney also said the brothers have “never fully accepted responsibility for the horrific murders of their parents,” in a statement Wednesday. “We have consistently opposed their release because they have not demonstrated full insight into their crimes or shown that they have been fully rehabilitated, and therefore continue to pose a risk to society.”
Newsom’s past decisions in parole cases suggest a tough road ahead.
In 2022, the governor overruled a parole board that had granted release for Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy in downtown Los Angeles.
That same year, he also blocked the release of Leslie Van Houten, an accomplice of Charles Manson, before a California appeals court overturned his decision.
The post Menendez Brother Denied Parole After Decades in Prison appeared first on The Daily Beast.
