Erik Menendez has been denied parole, despite a reduced sentence that makes him eligible for release.<\/p>\n
Just one day later, so was his older brother Lyle.<\/p>\n
Now, the brothers’ chance to\u00a0re-enter society together has been pushed back another three years, after which they will be eligible for parole again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the surface, the brothers were the privileged sons of a successful Hollywood executive.<\/p>\n
But behind the closed doors of the Beverly Hills mansion the family resided in, the story was far darker.<\/p>\n
Erik and Lyle Menendez were just 18 and 21 years old when they fatally shot their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez inside their $5 million home on Elm drive in 1989.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The brothers\u2019 defence rested on allegations of long-term abuse, leaving the public divided on whether they were cold-blooded killers or abused sons fighting to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Erik (left) and Lyle (right) in 1996 and 2018.\u00a0 (Reuters: HO SN \/ AP: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)<\/p>\n
Two high-profile trials later \u2014\u00a0one that ended in a deadlocked jury \u2014\u00a0Lyle and Erik were sentenced to life behind bars.<\/p>\n
Multiple university degrees, a reunion in 2018 and two marriages later; here’s a look into how the brothers have spent the past 36 years behind bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A reunion in San Diego<\/p>\n
When both brothers were sentenced to two consecutive life prisons terms without the possibility of parole in 1996, they were promptly placed in separate vans \u2014 before being driven to separate prisons.<\/p>\n
“We thought we were going to the same prison,” said Erik in the Netflix documentary The Menendez Brothers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They put him in one van and I didn’t understand why they were putting me in another van. I started screaming out to Lyle and they shut the door,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It was the last time I saw him.”<\/p>\n
The brothers communicated through letters, even playing chess through the mail, but didn’t see each other for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Erik Menendez (right) and his brother Lyle told the court that their father subjected them both to sexual abuse.\u00a0 (Reuters: Lee Celano)<\/p>\n
Then after more than 20 years apart, Lyle and Erik were reunited at the R.J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego prison.<\/p>\n
“It felt like it was finally a chance to heal,” said Lyle, speaking of their tearful reunion.<\/p>\n
Academia and love behind bars<\/p>\n
Since their reunion, Lyle and Erik Menendez have focused on rehabilitation and education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair led trauma-healing workshops, mentorship programs, and created the ‘Green Space Project’ to beautify the prison with murals and gardens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
Lyle earned a sociology degree and is pursuing a master\u2019s, while Erik completed associate degrees and is working toward a bachelor\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both brothers also married while incarcerated \u2014\u00a0Lyle even married twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erik married his wife Tammi Menendez in 1998, four years after she started writing letters to him in jail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their marriage, which still remains strong to this day, meant that he inherited a stepdaughter, who is active on socials advocating for her dad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lyle was briefly married to Anna Eriksson \u2014 \u00a0who also became known to him after penning letters \u2014 \u00a0before he married Rebecca Sneed.<\/p>\n
The pair separated last year after 20 years together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Re-examining the case\u00a0<\/p>\n
The televised trial turned two young men into household names and drew millions into their legal battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prosecutors painted them as greedy killers, while the defence framed them as traumatised survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two mistrials, retrials, and ultimately life sentences \u2014 the legal battle mirrored the nation\u2019s divided opinion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Erik Menendez, left, and his brother Lyle, were arrested six months after their parents died.\u00a0 (Los Angeles Times via Getty Images: Larry Davis)<\/p>\n
For years after their conviction, the brothers filed petitions for appeals of their cases while in prison, but state and federal judges denied the petitions.<\/p>\n
But after becoming the subjects of documentaries and true crime shows, a cultural shift was sparked and the case became re-examined through a lens of abuse and trauma.<\/p>\n
In October, a few weeks after the Netflix documentary landed, then-LA County District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n announced he was reviewing new evidence in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n