Surprise moments from Menendez brothers’ parole hearings – NBC Los Angeles

Lyle and Erik Menendez will remain in prison for shooting and killing their parents in 1989 after the California Board of Parole Hearings denied parole for the brothers. 

For their supporters, including younger social media users who were not born when the crimes were committed, the results were a shock. 

But for opponents, like Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, the denial was a thoughtful decision by the board partly due to the fact the brothers were willing to break the rules even after they were sent to prison.

Thursday and Friday’s parole hearings offered a glimpse into their prison lives, without possible embellishments by their lawyers or supporters. 

Lyle’s romantic relationships

Lyle Menendez’s romantic relationships were discussed during Friday’s hearing as Parole Commissioner Julie Garland asked him about his separation from his wife Rebecca Sneed.

Menendez said his marriage to Sneed has experienced obstacles in recent years after being married for more than two decades. Sneed had posted on social media in 2024 that while she and Menendez were separating, she remained a good friend and supporter.

Menendez also called Sneed his “biggest supporter” although she was not present during Friday’s hearing.

Menendez added he’s currently romantically corresponding with three women.

Use of drugs and alcohol

In February 2018, Erik Menendez was found to have invited someone into his cell to smoke Marijuana, with the inmate responding that he had received the drug from a prison gang, according to discussions from Thursday’s hearing.

Also in 2018, he referenced trying heroin, adding he was “allergic” to the drug.

In addition to his drug use, the younger Menendez brother was found with supplies to make prison wine inside his cell, the hearing revealed.

Menendez explained although he didn’t really care for alcohol, he said the violations were committed because he was “miserable” and “feeling hopeless” inside the prison.

Lyle’s new claim of sexual abuse by his mother, Kitty

When Parole Commissioner Julie Garland asked Lyle Menendez about his relationship with his mother, he said Kitty Menendez also sexually abused him without providing details.

The recount of the sexual abuse by his mom was never included in Menendenz’s comprehensive risk assessment, Garland confirmed.

Menendez explained he didn’t see the experience as “abuse.”

“I just saw it as something special between my mother and I,” Menendez said. “Today, I see it as sexual abuse.”

He said the abuse by Kitty Menendez happened when he was 13 years old.

Cellphone use

The brothers were punished a number of times for having a cellphone in their cells. Especially for Lyle Menendez, officials believe he had access to a cellphone for six years “nearly all the time.”

Parole board officials accused the elder Menendez of abusing his leadership role on the Men’s Advisory Council to have better access to phones from 2018 to November 2024.

Lyle Menendez explained why he had a cellphone, saying that he had to stay in touch with his family and community and that he didn’t think it was harming anyone.  

Parole Commissioner Robert Barton also told Erik Menendez while cellphone possession is not a serious violation, it provides a glimpse into his mind.

“The phone, again, in the abstract, it’s easy for the people on the outside to look at that and go, ‘What’s the big deal?” Barton said. “(But that) doesn’t change the fact that you knew what you were doing and you knew why you were doing it.”

Contraband

For more than three decades, the brothers appeared to have found ways to smuggle in prohibited items into their cells.

Erik Menendez was found to have art supplies and wax candles as well as spray paint inside the cell.

Lyle Menendez was reprimanded for having 31 music CDs as well as a pair of soccer shoes inside his cell in January 2003.

In May 2013, a prison guard found the elder Menendez with a black lighter. When probed about the contraband, he told prison officials that it was supposed to be used for a “religious ceremony.”