Lyle and Erik Menendez are scheduled to face separate parole hearings beginning Thursday in California and — depending on the outcomes — could eventually be released from prison nearly 30 years after being convicted of killing their parents.
Lyle and Erik Menendez are scheduled to face separate parole hearings beginning Thursday in California and — depending on the outcomes — could eventually be released from prison nearly 30 years after being convicted of killing their parents.
A panel of parole officers will evaluate each of the brothers via videoconference. They’ll appear from prison in San Diego.
In 1995, a jury convicted both brothers of first-degree murder in the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez inside their Los Angeles-area home. The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996.
They became eligible for parole after a Los Angeles judge in May reduced their sentences from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole under California law because they were under the ages of 26 when they committed their crimes.Who are the Menendez brothers and what did they do?
Lyle and Erik Menendez are the sons of Jose and Kitty Menendez. Jose Menendez, a Cuban-American business executive who at one time was an executive at RCA Records, moved his family from Princeton, New Jersey, to California when his sons were teenagers.
On Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle Menendez dialed 911 to report the shotgun-killings of their parents inside their home. Both brothers told investigators that the murders were related to the Mafia or had something to do with their father’s business dealings. At the time, Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21. With access to the family’s wealth, the brothers spent small fortunes on Rolex watches, cars and houses. But two months after the killings, Erik Menendez confessed to his psychologist that he and his brother killed their parents.
