SACRAMENTO — A day after his youthful brother was denied launch, Lyle Menendez additionally noticed California parole officers reject his bid for freedom, ruling he’ll stay behind bars for now for the 1989 shotgun murders of his mother and father.
The parole board grilled Menendez, 57, over his efforts to get witnesses to lie throughout his trials, the lavish purchasing sprees he and his brother Erik, 54, took after their mother and father’ killings, and whether or not he felt reduction after the murders.
“I felt this shameful interval of these six months of getting to mislead family members who had been grieving,” Menendez instructed the board. “I felt the necessity to undergo. That it was no reduction.”
Because the elder brother, Menendez stated he at occasions felt just like the protector of Erik, however that he quickly realized the murders weren’t the suitable approach out of sexual abuse they had been allegedly struggling by the hands of their mother and father.
“I form of began to really feel like I had not rescued my brother,” he stated. “I destroyed his life. I’d rescued no one.”
The carefully watched listening to for Lyle Menendez, one of the crucial well-known inmates at present within the state’s jail system, was thrown into disarray Friday afternoon after audio of his brother’s parole listening to on Thursday was publicly launched.
The audio, printed by ABC 7, sparked anger and frustration from the brothers’ family members and their legal professional, who accused the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation of leaking the audio and tainting Lyle’s listening to.
A CDCR spokesperson confirmed the audio was “erroneously” issued in response to a file request, however didn’t elaborate or instantly reply to further questions from The Occasions.
“I’ve protected myself, I’ve stayed out of this, I’ve not had a relationship with two human beings as a result of I used to be afraid, and I got here right here at this time and I got here right here yesterday and I trusted that this may solely be launched in a transcript,” stated Tiffani Lucero-Pastor, a relative of the brothers. “You’ve misled the household.”
Heidi Rummel, Lyle Menendez’s parole legal professional, additionally criticized CDCR, accusing the company of turning the listening to right into a “spectacle.”
“I don’t suppose you may presumably perceive the emotion of what this household is experiencing,” she stated. “They’ve spent a lot time attempting to guard their privateness and dignity.”
After the audio was printed, Rummel stated members of the family who deliberate to testify determined to not communicate in any case, and stated she could be trying to seal the transcripts of Friday’s listening to.
Parole Commissioner Julie Garland stated rules allowed for audio to be launched below the California Public Information Act. Transcripts of parole hearings usually turn into public inside 30 days of a grant or denial, below state regulation.
Throughout his first-ever attraction to the state parole board, Lyle Menendez was questioned over his credibility.
Garland referred to Menendez’s attraction to get witnesses to lie, plans to flee, and lies to family members in regards to the killings as a “sophistication of the online of lies and manipulation you demonstrated.”
Menendez stated he had no plan on the time, there was simply “quite a lot of flailing in what was occurring.”
“Despite the fact that you fooled your complete household about you being a assassin, and also you recruited all these individuals that can assist you… you don’t suppose that’s being an excellent liar?” Garland requested.
Menendez stated the regret he felt after the crimes maybe helped create a “sturdy perception” he didn’t have something to do with the killings.
Like his brother, Lyle Menendez was denied parole for 3 years, however could possibly be eligible to use for an earlier listening to.
After the choice, which got here on the finish of a marathon 11-hour listening to, members of the parole board famous that Menendez had a powerful help system of family members for when he may be launched sooner or later, and likewise recommended the 57-year-old for having no incidents of violence regardless of being in jail for 3 many years.
However Garland stated Menendez nonetheless struggled with delinquent character traits, incidents of deception, and rule breaking.
“We discover your regret is real,” Garland stated. “In some ways, you appear like you’ve been a mannequin inmate.”
Garland additionally highlighted what she stated was a scarcity of self-control, impulsiveness and poor decision-making throughout the crimes — together with the brothers’ “callous” choice to shoot their mom a remaining time.
Family of the siblings stated they had been upset within the choice, however not discouraged.
“The method for parole is exceptionally rigorous, however we’re extremely happy with how Erik and Lyle confirmed up — with honesty, accountability, and integrity,” family members stated in a joint assertion. “This isn’t the tip of the street. Each will go earlier than the Board once more, and their habeas petition stays below overview. Within the meantime, we all know they are going to take time to replicate on the Board’s advice and can proceed to steer, mentor, and construct packages that help rehabilitation and hope for others.”
Dmitry Gorin, a former Los Angeles County prosecutor, stated the board’s choice denying parole was per previous selections involving violent crimes.
“Though it is a high-profile case, the parole board rejecting the discharge demonstrates that it seeks to maintain violent offenders locked up as a result of they nonetheless pose a danger to society,” Gorin stated. “Traditionally, the parole board doesn’t launch individuals convicted of homicide, and this case isn’t any totally different.
He referred to as the choice a win for Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, who has opposed the brothers’ launch.
Gorin additionally characterised the problems with the audio launch.
“They had been promised privateness, they need to anticipate that the state would honor it,” he stated. “Everybody deserves a proper to a good listening to and a proper to privateness per the state guidelines.”
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, stated “there are not any winners within the Menendez brothers case, when you will have two useless mother and father and two murderers who had been victims of intercourse abuse.”
“Many authorized pundits like myself thought the parole board could be a mere formality and the brothers could be launched in a matter of days or even weeks,” Rahmani stated. “However Hochman and his deputy Habib Balian saved their greatest argument for final and so they’ll hold the Menendez brothers in jail, a minimum of for now.”
The brothers had been initially sentenced to life with out the potential for parole for the killings of their mother and father Jose and Kitty Menendez, however after qualifying for resentencing they gained an opportunity at freedom.
Many members of the family have supported their trigger, however the ugly crime and the brothers’ conduct behind bars led to pushback towards their launch.
The killings occurred after the brothers bought shotguns in San Diego with a false identification and shot their mother and father within the household lounge.
The bloody crime scene was in contrast by investigators to a gangland execution, the place Jose Menendez was shot 5 occasions, together with as soon as at the back of the pinnacle. Proof confirmed their mom had crawled, wounded, on the ground earlier than the brothers reloaded and fired a remaining, deadly blast.
The brothers reported the killings to 911, in keeping with courtroom information. Quickly afterward, prosecutors throughout the trial famous, the 2 siblings started to spend massive sums of cash, together with shopping for a Porsche and a restaurant, which was bought by Lyle. Erik purchased a Jeep and employed a personal tennis teacher.
Prosecutors argued it was entry to their multimillion-dollar inheritance that prompted the killing after Jose Menendez shared that he deliberate to disinherit the brothers.
However throughout the trials, the Menendez brothers and family members testified that the 2 siblings had undergone years of sexual and bodily abuse by the hands of their father.
In distinction to their frenzy round their trial, Thursday and Friday’s parole hearings had been quiet — but often contentious — affairs.
A Occasions journalist was the one member of the general public allowed to view the listening to on a projector display screen in a room contained in the company’s headquarters exterior of Sacramento.
Throughout the Friday listening to, the parole board shortly dove into the allegations that the brothers had been sexually assaulted by their father, which Lyle Menendez stated confused and “brought about quite a lot of disgrace in me.”
“That just about characterised my relationship with my father,” he stated, including that the worry of being abused left him in a state of “hyper vigilance,” even after the abuse stopped and his father started to abuse Erik.
“It took me some time to comprehend that it stopped,” Menendez stated. “I believe I used to be nonetheless apprehensive about it for a very long time.”
Rising up, he stated, caring for his youthful brother gave him objective, and helped to guard him from “drowning within the spiral of my very own life.”
Menendez alleged his mom additionally sexually abused him, however stated he didn’t share it throughout his complete danger evaluation as a result of he “didn’t see it as abuse actually.”
“As we speak, I see it as sexual abuse,” he stated. “After I was 13, I felt like I used to be consenting and my mom was coping with so much and I simply felt like perhaps it wasn’t.”
Board members additionally questioned Lyle Menendez on why he didn’t point out the likelihood they had been faraway from their dad or mum’s will of their submissions to the board, however Menendez contended their inheritance was not a motive within the killings.
As a substitute, he stated, it grew to become “an issue afterward” as they apprehensive they’d haven’t any cash after their mother and father’ deaths.
“I consider there was a will that disinherited us someplace,” he stated.
The results of Thursday’s listening to means Erik can’t search parole once more for 3 years, a choice that left some family members and supporters of the youthful brother surprised.
“How is my dad a menace to society,” Talia Menendez, his stepdaughter, wrote on Instagram shortly after the choice was made. “This has been torture to our household. How for much longer???”
Mates, family members and former cellmates have touted the brothers’ lives behind bars, pointing to packages they’ve spearheaded for inmates, together with courses for anger administration, meditation, and serving to inmates in hospice care.
However members of the board questioned each siblings about their violation of guidelines, zeroing in at occasions about repeated use of contraband cellphones.
Throughout the listening to Friday, Lyle stated he typically used cellphones to communicate with household exterior the jail. However Deputy Parole Commissioner Patrick Reardon questioned this clarification, and requested why Menendez wanted a cellphone if he might make official calls from a prison-issued pill.
The rule violation, board members identified, had resulted in Menendez being barred from household visits for 3 years.
Reardon identified that Menendez pleaded responsible to 2 cellphone violations in November 2024 and in March 2025. Menendez was additionally linked to 3 different violations, though one other cellmate of his took duty for these violations.
Menendez stated the violations occurred when he lived in a dorm with 5 different inmates, and admitted the usage of cellphones was a “gang-like exercise.” The group, he stated, in all probability went by way of a minimum of 5 cellphones.
Rummel, Menendez’s parole legal professional, argued in her closing that regardless of the cellphone points, Menendez had no violent incidents on his jail file.
“This board goes to say you’re harmful since you used your cell telephones,” she stated. “However there’s zero proof that he used it for criminality, that he used it for violence. He didn’t even lie about it.”
However members of the board repeatedly centered on what gave the impression to be problems with credibility. Reardon stated at occasions it felt like Menendez was “two totally different incarcerated individuals.”
“You appear to be various things at totally different occasions,” Reardon stated throughout the listening to. “I don’t suppose what I see is that you simply used a cellphone every now and then. There appears to be a mechanism in place that you simply at all times had a cellphone.”
Garland requested Menendez about whether or not he used his place on the Males’s Advisory Council — a bunch meant to be a liaison on points between inmates and jail directors — to govern others and achieve unfair advantages.
Menendez stated the place gave him entry to wall telephones, and used the place to assist him barter or achieve favors.
Garland additionally pointed to an evaluation that discovered Menendez exhibited delinquent traits, entitlement, deception, manipulation and a resistance to just accept penalties.
Menendez additionally stated he didn’t agree with an evaluation Garland introduced up that stated he confirmed narcissistic traits.
“They’re not the kind of individuals like me self-referring to psychological well being,” he stated, including that he felt his father displayed narcissistic tendencies and lack of self-reflection. “I simply felt like that wasn’t me.”
Menendez pointed to his work to assist inmates in jail who’re bullied or mocked.
“I might by no means name myself a mannequin incarcerated particular person,” he stated. “I might say that I’m an excellent particular person, that I spent my time serving to individuals. That I’m very open and accepting.”
The parole board applauded Menendez’s work and academic historical past whereas in jail, noting he was engaged on a grasp’s diploma.
Regardless of the violations, Menendez argued he felt he had executed good work in jail.
“My life has been outlined by excessive violence,” he stated, tears seen on his face. “I wished to be outlined by one thing else.”
