Where Are Lyle And Erik Menendez Now? New Evidence Could Get Them Released From Prison

Lyle and Erik Menendez had been convicted of murdering their dad and mom in Beverly Hills in 1989. The second installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix anthology sequence, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, revisits the notorious true crime story. Learn on to be taught the place the Menendez brothers at the moment are and the brand new proof that would set them free.

On Aug. 20, 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez had been discovered shot a number of instances at shut vary within the household room of their Beverly Hills mansion. Police initially suspected that the mob was concerned as a result of ugly nature of the murders. Lyle and Erik, who had been 21 and 18 on the time, informed investigators they discovered their dad and mom shot to dying once they arrived dwelling.

After their dad and mom’ deaths, the Menendez brothers gave the impression to be spending their inheritance extravagantly on Rolex watches, actual property, and enterprise ventures. A serious breakthrough within the case occurred when Judalon Smyth, the mistress of Erik’s psychologist, Jerome Oziel, tipped off authorities. She revealed that Erik had confessed to the murders throughout remedy classes, and there have been audiotapes of the confessions.

Why Did Lyle And Erik Menendez Kill Their Mother and father?

In March 1990, the brothers had been arrested for first-degree homicide of their dad and mom. The case led to a extremely publicized multi-year authorized battle involving two juries, two trials, and one mistrial. The Menendez protection workforce argued that the brothers killed their dad and mom in self-defense. Each brothers testified that they had been abused by the hands of their mom and father.

Nevertheless, prosecutors argued that cash was the motive. They alleged that the brothers wished management of their dad and mom’ $14.5 million property. The brothers reportedly spent as much as $700,000 of their inheritance on luxurious gadgets, enterprise ventures, and journey.

The primary trial ended on Jan. 13, 1994, in a mistrial. Jurors could not agree on whether or not the brothers must be convicted of manslaughter due to the alleged abuse or first-degree homicide.

In the end, on the finish of the second trial, the jury discovered Lyle and Erik Menendez responsible of first-degree homicide. The brothers had been sentenced to 2 consecutive life jail phrases with out the opportunity of parole.

The place Are Lyle And Erik Menendez Now?

Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving out their life sentences on the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, based on the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The brothers should not eligible for parole.

After their conviction, the 2 males had been transferred to separate prisons. The final time they noticed one another was in 1996, once they might see one another throughout the jail yard however couldn’t talk. Separate transports took them to completely different amenities.

Over time, Lyle repeatedly requested a switch nearer to his brother. On February 22, 2018, he was moved from Mule Creek State Jail in Northern California to San Diego’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, the place Erik had been incarcerated since 2013.

On April 4, 2018, the brothers had been lastly reunited when Erik moved to Lyle’s unit. Journalist Robert Rand informed ABC Information that when the guard opened the door, Lyle noticed his brother, they usually each “burst into tears instantly.”

“They only hugged one another for a couple of minutes with out saying any phrases to one another,” Rand added. “Then the jail officers allow them to spend an hour collectively in a room.”

In January 2017, Lyle informed ABC Information that he had come to phrases along with his actions. “I’m the child that did kill his dad and mom, and no river of tears has modified that and no quantity of remorse has modified it,” he defined. “I settle for that. You might be usually outlined by just a few moments of your life, however that’s not who you’re in your life, . Your life is your totality of it…You may’t change it. You simply, you’re caught with the selections you made.”

Lyle nonetheless claims that they skilled abuse by their father, which he mentioned bonded him and his brother Erik by means of secrets and techniques. “It’s so painful and sophisticated and complicated,” he mentioned. “We’ve got an intimacy associated to that shared expertise… [and] the bond turn into very nice and intense.”

“I’m the older brother so I discover myself making an attempt to guard Erik fairly a bit by means of childhood, however just about making an attempt to outlive,” Lyle continued. “It was fairly crushing to in the long run to understand that I had not been capable of shield to or save him from such horrible abuse as I assumed. I assumed we had form of survived early childhood fairly properly and that turned out to not be true.”

Whereas Erik declined to be interviewed by ABC Information in 2017, he informed ABC’s Barbara Walters in a 1996 interview that he felt “super regret” for the killings. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t take into consideration what occurred and want I might take that second again,” he mentioned on the time.

What Is The New Proof Supporting Lyle and Erik Mendendez’s Allegations of Abuse?

The query now isn’t whether or not Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their dad and mom however quite whether or not they did so in concern and self-defense after enduring a lifetime of abuse. New proof might assist this declare, and the brothers’ protection legal professional, Cliff Gardner, is hoping to safe their launch.

The newly surfaced proof features a letter Gardner claims was written by Erik Menendez to his cousin, Andy Cano, in December 1988 — about eight months earlier than the crime — based on CBS Information.

A part of the letter reads, “I’ve been making an attempt to keep away from dad. It’s nonetheless occurring, Andy, nevertheless it’s worse for me now. … Each evening I keep up pondering he would possibly are available. … I’m afraid. … He’s loopy. He’s warned me 100 instances about telling anybody, particularly Lyle.”

Andy Cano testified on the brothers’ trials and mentioned that Erik informed him — years earlier than the killing — that his father was touching him inappropriately. Nevertheless, prosecutors at trial instructed that Cano was mendacity, CBS Information reported.

On April 2023, Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, alleged that Erik and Lyle’s father, Jose, sexually assaulted him as a youngster.

In a sworn affidavit filed in 2023, Rosselló mentioned that he visited Jose Menendez’s dwelling within the fall of 1983 or 1984 as a youngster. He mentioned he drank “a glass of wine” after which felt like he had “no management” over his physique. He alleged that Jose took him to a room and raped him. Rossello additionally said within the affidavit that Jose sexually abused him in two different cases.

“I do know what he did to me in his home,” Rosselló mentioned within the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, based on Individuals. “That’s the person right here that raped me… That’s the pedophile.”

Erik responded to Rosselló’s declare in a cellphone name with Rand, the journalist who has saved in contact with the brothers. “It’s unhappy to know that there was one other sufferer of my father. I at all times hoped and believed that at some point the reality about my dad would come out, however I by no means wished for it to come back out like this – the results of trauma that one other youngster has suffered,” he mentioned.

In Might 2023, Gardner filed a habeas petition, presenting the letter and Rossello’s affidavit as new proof that argues his purchasers’ convictions must be overturned. The Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace informed “48 Hours,” that it’s investigating the claims made within the habeas petition, per CBS Information.

Watch the official trailer for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story under.