The California Board of Parole Hearings on Thursday rejected the discharge of Erik Menendez, one of many two brothers convicted within the 1989 killing of their dad and mom in Southern California.
The board determined that Menendez ought to stay ineligible for parole for 3 years following a hours-long listening to carried out through videoconference, the place he appeared from jail in San Diego.
The board’s panel of commissioners denied him parole regardless of help from members of the family who known as for the brothers’ launch.
Parole board commissioner Robert Barton mentioned the choice was primarily as a consequence of Menendez’s conduct whereas in jail.
“Two things can be true. They can love and forgive you, and you can still be found unsuitable for parole,” Barton mentioned.
The panel cited Menendez’s violation of jail guidelines, together with cellphone use and allegations that he labored with a jail gang.
Erik Menendez mentioned his conduct was pushed by a perception that he would by no means be launched, main him to deal with defending himself over adhering to the foundations till final fall, when prosecutors requested a choose to resentence him and his brother, Lyle Menendez, giving them the potential for parole.
“In November of 2024, now the consequences mattered,” Erik Menendez mentioned. “Now the consequences meant I was destroying my life.”
The panel additionally took challenge with the burglaries he dedicated in highschool earlier than the homicide of his dad and mom, in addition to the killing of their mom, Kitty Menendez.
“When I look back at the person I was then and what I believed about the world and my parents, running away was inconceivable,” Erik Menendez mentioned. “Running away meant death.”
The 2 brothers had been initially sentenced to life with out parole. In Could, their sentences had been diminished to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole after serving over 30 years in jail.
The board can be set to resolve on Lyle Menendez’s parole on Friday.
The brothers, who had been 18 and 21 on the time of the killings, mentioned they acted out of self-defense following years of sexual abuse by the hands of their father, Jose Menendez, that went ignored by their mom, whereas prosecutors mentioned the brothers killed their dad and mom for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has the ultimate say on whether or not the 2 might be launched. In February, Newsom ordered the state parole board to research whether or not they would pose a threat to the general public if granted parole.
The state’s authorized normal for parole is whether or not an inmate poses an unreasonable threat to public security, which have to be decided earlier than the governor can decide on commutation.
Elma Aksalic and the Related Press contributed to this report.
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