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Lyle Menendez’s bid for parole was denied, just a day after a California hearing panel handed down the same decision to his brother Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
The parole panel’s August 22 decision followed an all-day suitability hearing at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.
Lyle, 57, will be able to seek parole again in three years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told Oxygen.
A day earlier, on August 21, 54-year-old Erik’s pursuit of parole was also rejected. Erik, too, will be able to seek parole again in three years.
Both hearings were tightly contained. But according to a Los Angeles Times report, the unplanned release of an audio recording from Erik’s hearing nearly derailed Lyle’s hearing.
TV station ABC7 published the recording on Friday night after it was shared in response to a public records request.
The corrections department said that the audio had been released in error, according to the Times. Although a parole attorney for both brothers argued that the fairness of Lyle’s hearing had been compromised as a result of the release, the session was concluded, and the parole denial decision was made.
Why was Lyle Menendez denied parole?
Both Erik and Lyle were denied parole because of their misbehavior behind bars, according to the Associated Press.
The panel noted that Lyle 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,” commissioner Julie Garland told Lyle. “Citizens are expected to follow the rules whether or not there is some incentive to do so.”
Garland added that the panel found that Lyle was a “model inmate in many ways who has demonstrated the potential for change.”
“Don’t ever not have hope,” she told Lyle.
How parole opened up for the Menendez brothers
The brothers were convicted of the 1989 shooting murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They are incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, Calif.
For over three decades, the brothers were both serving life sentences without the opportunity of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder in a second highly publicized trial that ended in March of 1996.
Their parole hearings became a reality earlier this year when a judge resentenced the brothers from life in prison without the possibility of parole, to 50 years to life in prison.
Judge Michael Jesic ruled in May of 2025 that the brothers’ sentences should be reduced to life sentences with the possibility of parole, citing the fact that Lyle and Erik were just 21 and 18 years old, respectively, at the time of the murders.
What comes next for Lyle Menendez?
Lyle’s parole decision, like Erik’s, is not final. It’s subject to a thorough review that includes the California Board of Parole and the governor, NBC Los Angeles reported.
An audio recording of the hearing will be transcribed and become part of the review process.
