The second of two American brothers
convicted of murdering their parents
more than 30 years ago has been denied
his request for release from prison. The
parole board spent over 12 hours
considering whether to approve L.
Menendez, who's now 57, for parole
before denying his request. It comes a
day after his younger brother, Eric, was
also denied parole, meaning both will
now stay in prison for at least another
3 years before they can apply again. The
brothers have served 35 years of a life
sentence for the 1989 shotgun murders of
their parents in their Beverly Hills
home in California in a notorious case
that still divides Americans. Increased
attention has been paid to it following
a recent Netflix series. Well, our Los
Angeles correspondent Peter Bose told us
more about the parole board hearing.
It was a very long hearing. It went on
all day. And just like the day before
when Eric Mendez appeared before the
board, Lyle Mendez was questioned about
his time in prison. That is the key
issue at these parole board hearings.
They want to see how the inmate has
behaved, whether they've followed prison
rules, that kind of thing. And they said
that to a large extent he had been a
model prisoner. L Mendez got an
opportunity himself to address the board
and he expressed remorse. He expressed
extreme sadness about what had happened.
He says his mom and dad didn't have to
die on that day. And the board said that
despite his remorse, which they
considered to be genuine, that he still
potentially posed a risk to the general
public and that's why he wasn't being
released. And largely the same reason
was given for his younger brother Eric,
which means that the pair of them will
continue to stay behind bars. And in
both cases, they have been given the
opportunity to apply again for parole
within the next 3 years.
>> Have there has there been any reaction
so far to this uh denial of parole?
>> We have heard some reaction from family
members already. And just as they said
24 hours ago when Eric Menendez was
denied parole as well, they acknowledged
that in most cases in California, in
fact, it's more than 80% are denied on
their first attempt at getting parole.
So in some senses, the family members
say that this is no huge surprise, but
clearly they are disappointed at what's
happened. We heard from several family
members, at least the board heard from
several family members during this very
long hearing, character references in a
sense, saying that they believe that
Lyall and the day before Eric were
reformed characters and that they had
changed. And uh particularly in the case
of Lyall, we heard that his time in
prison, he has been attempting to help
other prisoners with rehabilitation,
something that Eric has also worked on
as well. So taking all those issues
together, the family still believe they
strongly believe that their day will
come and that they will eventually get
freedom again.
>> Peter Bose. Well, Allison Treel is a
criminal defense attorney in Los
Angeles. She also went to school with
Eric Mendez. I asked her whether the
decision to deny Ly's parole was
expected.
>> I am not shocked that he was denied
parole. Um, clearly the board focused a
lot of its attention. This is one of the
longest parole hearings in California
history. California's parole uh system
is usually set up for about a 2 to three
hour hearing. Then the committee
members, which are about two members of
a 21 uh committee that is appointed by
the governor. Um they they review the
case and they make a decision
immediately thereafter. So the total
hearings for the most part are about 3
hours. here you have about 10 hours for
Eric, 12 hours for Lyall. And the bulk
of that time was was focused um not on
their rehabilitative efforts, not on all
the good things that they have done in
prison, not on the family support, but
on the murders themselves, on the
burglaries that uh came before the
murders and on the violations. And for
Eric, um, even though Lyall technically
had more violations than Eric, the
violations that Eric had were more
serious. So, they were talking about
drug use. Um, cell phones for both of
them was a major issue. Eric was
inappropriate contact with visitors. for
for Lyall, it was the fact that he also
had violations as recent as uh 2024 and
2025, knowing that this this matter was
going to come before the parole board or
the court. And so they said, "Look,
here's the situation. We do believe that
he has accepted responsibility. We do
believe that it's genuine." They
applauded his efforts at work and
education. He's obtaining his master's
degree, but they were concerned with the
reports that he was still antisocial. He
was deceptive. He was manipulative. They
talked about the fact that he had
encouraged people to lie at the trial.
So, all of those factors, he was a
moderate risk. And like your reporter
said, it's actually it's actually a
smaller number for lifers. So for
lifers, the chances of parole at your
first hearing is about 6% in the state
of California, which is really, really
low. So the family was disappointed, but
they I'm sure they were not shocked.
>> Now, you went to high school with Eric.
What was he like?
>> Very smart, arrogant,
um, entitled. Uh, I studied with him. I
knew him quite well. I played on the
tennis team with him. Um, but you never
imagine that the person that you um find
to be arrogant
um would ever do something like this,
would ever murder their parents. Um, I
remember specifically spending time
immediately after the murders with Eric
and several of our friends and we were
consoling him and I found it striking
that he really wasn't sad that he talked
about the money that he um now had and
the watch that he had bought, the car
that he was going to focus all his
energies of playing tennis in Israel.
And I came home and was um having a
conversation with my father who was a
psychiatrist and I said, "You know, it's
so strange. He really wasn't sad. There
we were to console him and um he didn't
really seem that sad about it." And my
father, the psychiatrist, said, "Well,
you know, people express um grief
differently and they they mourn in
different ways." And I said, "Yes, but
this this was different." So, um, it was
it's an interesting full circle moment
because here we are 35 years later. I
knew him well before the murders. I knew
him before the burglaries
um, which were which the parole board
considered and they considered the
seriousness of those against both Lyall
and Eric and um, and found them that
they still posed a danger to the
community. And so they they felt that
the fact that they were they were
committing violations, prison rule
violations while this matter was pending
that they did they they really they
really weren't ready to be released.
They were a moderate level. They should
be a low level and um that is why they
were denied for 3 years. They could have
been denied up to 15 years. So the
silver lining for them is that they can
renew this request in 3 years and they
also have an attendant habitat corvvis
petition pending um in the superior
court in California which may result in
them receiving a new trial. That is
possible.
>> I wonder this this case has made global
headlines partly recently because of the
Netflix series. What does that make you
feel like when you knew Eric in his
younger years?
>> Well, again, um I also knew his father
and I cannot speak to whether Eric and
Lyall were sexually abused. I wasn't in
their home. Um but their father was a
tyrant. Um I played tennis with Eric and
the father was really nasty and
controlling and demeaning and um was
cruel. Was was a cruel human being. The
mother was very quiet and meek. Um, I
have questioned through the years, you
know, why in the world would an 18 and
21year-old not just leave? Um, why
wouldn't they just leave the home? Um,
were they in such fear? Were they
molested? These are questions that have
always I've always um have been
unanswered for me. They still remain
unanswered for me. Um, so on a personal
side, I think to myself, here I am 35
years later. I'm an attorney. I'm
actually talking about a case where
somebody I know um has been in prison um
while I have gone on to have a career
and raise a family and he spent every
day of those years incarcerated
um and is 35 years enough time to spend
in prison. Um, and then on the other
hand, I think about the brutality of the
crime and the fact that there really
wasn't a justification, even if he was
molested, to kill his mother. And um,
and both of them did express remorse. I
think that Lyall showed much more
remorse. I think that Lyall um certainly
convinced the board that he um that he
owned it, that he accepted
responsibility for what he did. He
didn't make any excuses. Um, but the
board felt that overall given the
brutality of the crime, given the prior
burglaries and the violations while
incarcerated, they just were not
suitable for Police.