Judge made brothers parole-eligible in May 2025
The California Board of Parole granted Erik and Lyle Menendez’s requests for earlier hearings on Friday and tentatively scheduled their next appearance for March. The new date is about 17 months earlier than expected.
The brothers had been eligible to apply for another hearing in August 2028. Their requests for earlier hearings were granted on Friday, moving the next opportunity before the board to March.
A Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in May 2025. The change made them eligible for parole because they were under age 26 when they committed their crimes.
The brothers were originally sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for the 1989 fatal shootings of their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion.
The May 2025 resentencing changed their sentences from life in prison to 50 years to life. It came before the parole board considered them later that year.
The California Board of Parole denied both brothers parole in August 2025. The board cited separate issues involving Lyle Menendez’s conduct and Erik Menendez’s compliance with prison rules.
For Lyle Menendez, the board said he still displayed “anti-social personality traits like deception.” The finding concerned the brother whom the board again found ineligible for parole at that hearing.
For Erik Menendez, the board said he broke prison rules by “repeatedly using a cellphone.” That conduct was the specific prison-rule violation cited in the August 2025 decision.
After the denial, the brothers were eligible to apply for another hearing in August 2028. The parole board has tentatively moved that next hearing to March following the brothers’ requests for an earlier review.