Lyle Menendez, the older of the notorious brothers who were jailed for murdering their parents in Los Angeles in 1989, has been denied parole.
The brothers, aged 57 and 54, had received life sentences without the chance of parole in 1996 after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home.
The case was thrust back into the spotlight last year when Netflix released a documentary and miniseries.
Lyle was making his first appeal for release after a judge reduced both his and his brother’s sentences, making them eligible for parole.
It comes a day after his brother Erik Menendez was also denied parole by a panel of California commissioners.
Reaching the same verdict on Friday, a panel of two commissioners recommended that Lyle not be released for three years, after which he will be eligible to apply for parole again.
The panel concluded there were still signs that Menendez would pose a risk to the public if released from custody, despite noting that a psychologist found that he is at “very low” risk for violence upon release.
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During the hearing, Menendez cried and took sole responsibility for the murders, saying in his closing remarks: “I will never be able to make up for the harm and grief I caused everyone in my family.
“I am so sorry to everyone, and I will be forever sorry.”
‘I was the special son’
The brothers are currently waiting for the outcome of a 2023 request for a judge to consider evidence that their father had sexually abused them.
Prosecutors during both the 1993 and 1995 trials argued that the brothers killed their parents for financial gain.
The brothers’ attorneys never denied that the pair killed their parents, but argued that they acted out of self-defence after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.
While speaking to the panel on Friday, Menendez said his father physically abused him by choking, punching and hurting him using a belt.
“I was the special son in my family,” he said. “My brother was the castaway. The physical abuse was focused on me because I was more important to him, I felt.”
He also said his mother sexually abused him, but appeared uncomfortable discussing this when asked by the panel why he did not disclose it during a risk assessment earlier this year.
Buying guns ‘the biggest mistake’
When asked whether the murders were planned, Menendez said: “There was zero planning. There was no way to know it was going to happen Sunday.”
He also described buying the guns used in the murder as “the biggest mistake,” and told the panel: “I no longer believe that they were going to kill us in that moment. At the time, I had that honest belief.”
Similar to Thursday’s hearing for Erik, the panel questioned Menendez’s illicit use of cellphones while in prison.
He claimed correctional staff were monitoring his communications with his wife and family and selling them to tabloids, and used cellphones as a way to protect his privacy.
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Heidi Rummel, Menendez’s parole lawyer, shared her frustration that his achievements in prison or his efforts to build positive relationships with correctional staff were hardly mentioned during the hearing.
While more than a dozen relatives attended the videoconference hearing, many did not testify after learning audio from Thursday’s hearing was published online.
Menendez’s aunt, Teresita Menendez-Baralt, did say however: “I want my nephew to hear how much I love him, and believe in him. I’m very proud of him and I want him to come home.”
