Lyle Menendez denied parole

(CN) — Lyle Menendez, the older of the two brothers who shot and killed their parents in 1989, was denied parole on Friday, following a marathon hearing that lasted nearly 12 hours.

"We find your remorse is genuine,” Parole Commissioner Julie Garland told Lyle. "You have been a model inmate in many ways who has demonstrated the potential for change. But despite all those outward positives we see ... you still struggle with anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule breaking that lie beneath that positive surface."

His younger brother Erik Menendez was denied parole on Thursday. Parole board decisions can be appealed, and are also subject to a review by the board's chief legal counsel.

The brothers have said that their father, Jose, a successful record executive, subjected them to years of horrific physical and sexual abuse, causing them to live in a state of heightened fear and "hyper vigilance" around the house, even well into adulthood.

Lyle Menendez, who was 21 at the time of the killings, said Friday his dad was “very brutal with physical abuse: choking, punching, closed fists, using a belt.” He said Jose started sexually abusing him when he was six years old, and stopped abruptly two years later, after he had told his cousin about the abuse. He always suspected that she told his brother.

He also said that his mother, Kitty, sexually abused him.

"Today, I see it as sexual abuse," Lyle Menendez told the parole commissioners. "When I was 13, I felt like I was consenting and my mother was dealing with a lot."

Like his brother, Lyle Menendez said the murders weren't planned. They had purchased shotguns, he said, for "emotional protection," not for premeditated murder, as prosecutors have argued. Though he had argued during his two criminal trials in the 1990s, the first of which ended in a hung jury, that the killings were done in self-defense, he no longer believes that.

"I no longer believe that they were going to kill us, in that, moment," he said. "At the time, I had that honest belief.” He added: "Fear overwhelmed reason. I don’t have a great explanation for why I felt such terror in those moments."

When asked how he felt after the murders, he said, "I sort of started to feel like I had not rescued my brother. I destroyed his life. I’d rescued nobody.” He said he couldn't believe he'd hurt his mother and felt "lost" without his father.

"I had zero relief,” he said.

Much of the hearing focused on Lyle Menendez's prison record — which, like his brother's, was far from spotless. Lyle Menendez has been caught numerous times with a contraband cell phone, as recently as March.

"There seems to be a mechanism in place that you always had a cell phone," Garland said, referring to his time in prison since 2018. “You seem to be different things at different times."

Menendez didn't deny having free access to a cell phone, which must be illegally smuggled into prison, often by guards or gangs. He tried to defend his usage of them, saying it helped him keep in touch with friends and family, and that it helped him maintain a modicum of privacy, since he believes that some monitored communications have been sold to tabloids.

“I felt like the phone was a way to protect … privacy,” Menendez said.

He defended his prison record, calling himself a "peacemaker."

“I’m the guy that officers will come to to resolve conflicts," he said. “At the time I didn’t feel that using the phone was inconsistent with that.”

Menendez has been married twice in prison. The first ended in divorce after five years. In 2003, he married Rebecca Sneed. Last year, it was announced that they had separated. According to Garland, Lyle is romantically corresponding with three different women. Lyle said that he remains closest with his wife.

Garland noted that a risk assessment report, put together at the behest of California Governor Gavin Newsom, found Lyle Menendez to have "anti-social traits," and said he would face a "moderate risk" of violence if released.

Menendez's attorney, Heidi Rummel, director of USC's Post-Conviction Justice Project, criticized the parole board for spending so much time focusing on her client's illegal cell phone use.

"This board is going to say you’re dangerous because you used cell phones," she said, "but there is zero evidence that he used it for criminality, that he used it for violence. He didn’t even lie about it.”

She added: “We spent no time at all talking about the hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, Lyle spent following rules in prison."

Towards the end of Friday’s hearing, it was discovered that audio of Erik Menendez’s parole hearing had been released via a public record’s act request, and had made its way online. An irate Rummel called for Lyle Menendez’s hearing to be postponed but was denied. 

“We came into these hearings hoping and expecting a fair and impartial hearing where Mr. Menendez could be heard, be considered and be understood," Rummel told the parole board. "And we have a public spectacle and this has exacerbated it twentyfold. And we now have family members who are not going to speak.”

A Menendez relative attending the hearing later began to shout at the commissioners: “This is disgusting. This process is damaged and broken.”

In 1996, Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Last year, more than 20 of their family members, including Jose and Kitty's siblings campaigned to get them release, and they persuaded District Attorney George Gascón to file a motion for the brothers to be resentenced.

But when Gascón lost his reelection bid to the more conservative Nathan Hochman, the new district attorney withdrew his support for the brothers' release, arguing they had not "exhibited the full insights and accept complete responsibility for their actions."

In May, a Superior Court judge agreed to give the brothers a new sentence, giving them a shot at parole. The judge praised their participation in self-help programs and work done to help other inmates and beautify the prison.

The information in this story from the parole hearing was taken from a pool report, compiled by James Queally of the Los Angeles Times.

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