It was a case and trial that shocked the nation.
Two brothers, 21-year-old Lyle Menéndez and 18-year-old Erik Menéndez, returned to their household’s Beverly Hills mansion on the evening of August 20, 1989, solely to search out their mother and father murdered. Cuban immigrant and leisure exec José Menéndez and his spouse, Kitty, suffered 16 shotgun wounds between them in a grotesque double murder that rocked the in any other case quiet neighborhood.
The case has garnered a lot media consideration ever since and acquired much more protection by way of the Oxygen authentic sequence Blood & Money and in the 2023 Peacock particular Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
In the wake of the murders, suspicions quickly fell on the prosperous younger males, who have been raised in New Jersey and had large aspirations. Lyle, the promising tennis athlete, and Erik, who had his sights set on a profession in politics, have been finally arrested for gunning down their mother and father, however not earlier than utilizing their multi-million-dollar inheritance on fancy vehicles and jewellery, and even a hen wing restaurant on the East Coast.
The Menéndez Brothers have been convicted in 1996, and years later, their guilt continues to be referred to as into query on the grounds of gender bias and proof pointing to José Menéndez’s alleged abuse.
Read on to study extra about the place the Menéndez brothers are actually.
Where are Lyle and Erik Menéndez now?
Currently, each males are serving life sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, in response to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They aren’t the solely notorious prisoners to reside at the state jail: former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, R.F.Ok. murderer Sirhan Sirhan, and Manson Family killer Charles “Tex” Watson are just some who additionally dwell inside the jail’s partitions.
Between the Menéndez brothers’ conviction and 2018, the brothers remained in separate prisons to serve their sentences in what Erik Menéndez’s lawyer referred to as a “heartless” determination by the decide.
Lyle Menéndez was beforehand housed in Northern California’s Mule Creek State Prison — house to wife-killer Scott Peterson and freeway serial killer Patrick Kearney — till he positioned a request to be together with his brother, in response to CNN. The jail board authorized the request, and Lyle Menéndez was transferred to the San Diego middle in February 2018.
However, the brothers have been housed in separate items till April of that 12 months, once they have been lastly reunited.
Sources instructed journalist Robert Rand that the brothers “burst into tears” when seeing one another for the first time in 21 years, in response to ABC News. Before then, the siblings weren’t allowed to talk on the telephone, and they used snail mail to play chess with each other.
What is jail life like for the Menéndez brothers?
Erik Menéndez married his long-time pen pal, Tammi Ruth Saccoman, in 1999 and has found a ardour for artwork since being behind bars, in response to People.
“Being arrested was such a relief,” he stated in a 2005 interview with the outlet. “Once I was arrested and put into prison, that person who I was began to emerge again. I had to find it for myself.”
One of the youthful brother’s spectacular portraits of Kathy Griffin gained the actress and comedienne’s adoration, a lot in order that she recorded herself displaying it to Kim Kardashian, as beforehand reported by People.
As for Lyle Menéndez, he beforehand labored in a assist group with fellow inmates who’d endured sexual abuse, as reported by People. He was married to his first spouse, Anna Eriksson, from 1996 to 2001 earlier than marrying Rebecca Sneed in 2003. Years later, Lyle Menéndez instructed the outlet his relationship with Sneed was “very steady” and “a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment” at Mule Creek.
RELATED: Everything To Know About Erik And Lyle Menendez's Father Jose, Accused Of Sexual Abuse
When will the Menéndez brothers be launched?
Lyle and Erik Menéndez have been sentenced to life in jail with out the risk of parole. Although each admitted to murdering their mother and father, there was the query of whether or not they need to be charged with homicide or manslaughter, as beforehand reported by Oxygen.com.
When the first homicide trial ended with a hung jury, a second trial drastically restricted which proof may very well be launched in court docket, largely regarding abuse allegations in opposition to the defendants’ father.
Defense lawyer Cliff Gardner stated earlier this 12 months {that a} just lately unearthed letter between Erik Menéndez and his cousin dated December 1988 — months earlier than the murders — allegedly proved the murdered father was abusive and, subsequently, the killings didn’t name for first-degree homicide prices, in response to CBS News.
During courtroom proceedings, the brothers claimed José Menéndez allegedly threatened their lives in the event that they ever divulged claims of sexual abuse.
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad,” the youthful brother wrote in the 1988 letter. “It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now… Every night, I stay up thinking he might come in… I’m afraid… he’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”
Gardner additionally claims that allegations that José Menéndez sexually abused Menudo teen singer Roy Rossello, as featured in Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, suggests the imprisoned brothers mustn't have confronted such extreme prices.
“I always hoped and believed that one day the truth about my dad and what he did — rape and molestation — would come out and that I'd be believed,” Erik Menéndez stated in the Peacock documentary. “For so long, people just refused to believe it. But I never wished for it to come out like this, as the result of trauma that another child has suffered. It makes me very sad.”
Amidst shifting attitudes over how society views sexual abuse, a choice as as to if the brothers’ convictions will likely be vacated in favor of a brand new trial has but to be decided.
