Sacramento – Lyle Menendez also saw California parole officials reject his free bid the day after his brother was denied release, ruling that he would murder his parents at a shotgun in 1989.
The parole board roasted Menendez, 57, who worked to get witnesses to lie at his trial, his luxury shopping rave hunting for his parents’ killings and whether he felt relief after the murder.
“I felt the shameful period of those six months when I had to lie to my grieving relatives,” Menandez told the board. “I felt the need to suffer. It was not comforting.”
Menendez said that, like his older brother, he sometimes felt like Erik’s protector, but he soon realized that these murders were not the right way to sexual abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of their parents.
“I began to feel like I didn’t save my brother,” he said. “I destroyed his life. I saved no one.”
On Friday afternoon, after his brother’s parole hearing was released publicly on Thursday afternoon, the hearing on Friday afternoon at Lyle Menendez, one of the most famous inmates in the state’s prison system.
The audio released by ABC 7 sparked anger and frustration among the brothers’ relatives and their attorneys who accused the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of leaking audio and opening Lyle’s hearing.
A CDCR spokesperson confirmed that the audio “error” was issued based on the record request, but did not elaborate on or immediately answer other questions from the New York Times.
“I’ve protected myself, I’ve been here all the time, I’ve been here, I’ve been here all the time, I’ve been here yesterday, I’m sure this will only be released in the transcript,” said Tifani Lucero Pasto, a relative of the brother. “You have misled your family.”
Heidi Rummel, parole lawyer for Lyle Menendez, also criticized the CDCR, accusing the agency of turning the hearing into a “miracle.”
“I don’t think you can understand the emotions this family is experiencing,” she said. “They spend a lot of time trying to protect their privacy and dignity.”
After the audio was published, Rummel said that family members who planned to testify decided not to speak and said she would seek to seal the transcript of Friday’s hearing.
Parole Commissioner Julie Garland said the regulations that allow the issuance of audio under the California Public Records Act. According to state law, transcripts of parole hearings are usually made public within 30 days of grant or rejection.
During the first call to the state parole board, Lyle Menendez was challenged for his credibility.
Garland mentioned Menandez’s appeal to letting witnesses lie, plan to escape, and lie to relatives to kill the killing, which is “the exquisiteness of the lies and manipulation net you prove”.
Menendez said he had no plans at the time, “There are a lot of things that happened.”
“Even if you cheated on the whole family as a murderer, and you recruited all these people to help you… do you think this is not a good liar?” Garland asked.
Menendez said that after the crime, he felt remorseful, perhaps helping to build “strong beliefs” that he had nothing to do with the killing.
Former Los Angeles County Attorney Dmitry Gorin said the board’s decision to deny parole was consistent with past decisions involving violent crimes.
“Although this is a high-profile case, the case where the parole board rejects that release shows that it attempts to lock down violent offenders because they still pose a risk to society,” Goering said. “The parole board has historically not released people convicted of murder, and the case is no different.
He called the decision a victory for the Los Angeles District. Atti. Nathan Hochman opposes the brothers’ release.
The brothers were initially sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole because their parents, Jose and Menandez, kitten, killed them, but after qualifying for indignation, they were given the opportunity to be free.
Many family members supported their cause, but the horrible crime and the actions of the brothers led to their release overturning.
The murder occurred when the brothers purchased shotguns in San Diego as false identification and shot in the family living room.
Investigators compared the bloody crime scene with the gang execution, with Jose Menendez being shot five times, including one in the head. There is evidence that their mother crawled on the floor and was injured before the last fatal explosion when the brothers reloaded and opened fire.
According to court records, the brothers reported the killings as 911. Shortly thereafter, prosecutors pointed out at the trial that the two siblings began to spend a lot of money, including buying Porsches and a restaurant purchased by Lyle. Erik bought a jeep and hired a personal tennis coach.
Prosecutors argued that the murder prompted the murder when Jose Menendez shared his plan to ban the brothers.
But during the trial, the Menandes brothers and relatives testified that the two siblings had experienced years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their fathers.
Contrary to their madness at the trial, parole hearings on Thursday and Friday were quiet, but occasionally controversial.
The Times reporter was the only member who allowed the hearing to be viewed on the screen of a projector in a room within a room outside Sacramento headquarters.
During Friday’s hearing, the parole board quickly explored allegations of sexual assault on the brothers on their father, which Lyle Menendez was confused and “had a lot of shame on me.”
“It’s almost my relationship with my father,” he said, adding that even if the abuse stopped, his father began to abuse Erik.
“It took me a while to realize it stopped,” Menandez said. “I think I’m still worried about it for a long time.”
He said that when he grew up, the younger brother who cared for him gave him purpose and helped him protect him “a spiral that drowned my own life.”
Menendez claimed his mother had sexually abused him, but said he did not share it in a comprehensive risk assessment because he “did not see it as abuse.”
“Today, I think it’s sexual abuse,” he said. “When I was 13, I felt like I was agreeing, my mother was dealing with a lot of things, and I just felt maybe not.”
Board members also asked Lyle Menendez why he did not mention the possibility that they were cancelled in the parental will submitted by the board, but Menendez believed their inheritance was not the motive for the killing.
Instead, it became a “later problem” because they feared that their parents wouldn’t have money after their death.
“I believe there is a will that will cancel us somewhere,” he said.
The result of Thursday’s hearing means Erik is unable to seek parole again, a decision that shocked some of his brother’s relatives and supporters.
“What threat does my father have to society,” his stepdaughter, Talia Menendez, wrote on Instagram shortly after making the decision. “This has caused torture to our family. How long??”
Relatives said in a statement issued Thursday that they were disappointed by the decision, noting that passing Lyle Friday’s hearing was “undoubtedly difficult”, although they remained “cautiously optimistic and hopeful.”
Friends, relatives and former roommates all touted the brothers’ lives, pointing to the programs they led for inmates, including lessons for anger management, meditation and helping inmates in hospice care.
But board members questioned the two siblings who violated the rules and sometimes reused the banned cell phone.
During Friday’s hearing, Lyle said he sometimes uses his cell phone to keep in touch with his family outside the prison. But Deputy Parole Commissioner Patrick Reardon questioned the explanation and asked why Menendez needed a cell phone and whether he could make legal calls from a jail-issued tablet.
Board members noted that the rule violation resulted in Menendez being banned from home visits for three years.
Raden pointed out that Menendez pleaded guilty to two mobile phone violations in November 2024 and in March 2025. Menendez is also involved in three other violations, although another of his roommates are responsible for the violations.
Menendez said the violation occurred when he lived in the dormitory with five other inmates and admitted using his cell phone was a “gang-like activity.” He said the group may have browsed at least five phones.
Menendez’s parole lawyer Heidi Rummel pointed out when closing that despite cell phone issues, Menendez’s prison records were not violent.
“This board will say you’re dangerous because you’re using your phone,” she said. “But there’s zero evidence that he used it for crime, he used it for violence. He didn’t even lie.”
But board members are repeatedly focused on what seems to be a credibility issue. Sometimes it feels like Menandez is “two different incarcerated people,” Raden said.
“At different times, you seem to be different things,” Rayden said at the hearing. “I don’t think I use my phone from time to time. There seems to be a mechanism where you always have a phone.”
Garland asked Menendez if he was on the Men’s Advisory Committee (the Men’s Advisory Committee) (designed to contact issues between prisoners and prison administrators) to manipulate others and obtain unfair benefits.
Menendez said the position allowed him to use the wall phone and used the position to help him barter or gain preference.
Garland also pointed to an assessment that found Menendez exhibited antisocial characteristics, rights, deception, manipulation and resistance to the assessment of the consequences of acceptance.
Menendez said he had discussed these issues, but he disagrees with his traits of narcissism.
“They are not the type of people like me who self-mentioned mental health,” he said, adding that he felt his father exhibited narcissistic tendencies and lack of self-reflection. “I just think that’s not me.”
Menendez pointed out his work to help prisoners in prisons who were bullied or ridiculed.
“I will never call myself a prisoner,” he said. “I would say I’m a good person and I spent a lot of time helping people. I’m very open and receptive.”
The parole board praised Menandez’s work and education history while in prison, noting that he was pursuing his master’s degree.
Despite the violations, Menandez believes he feels he is doing well in prison.
“My life is defined by extreme violence,” he said. “I want to be defined by something else.”
