State parole officials had not yet publicly announced that Erik Menendez would remain behind bars, but word of the outcome was already spreading among his family members early Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
Stunned and angry at the decision, some relatives took to social media just as news broke that Menendez, 54, had been denied parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of his parents, a grisly crime committed with his older brother, Lyle.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is my dad a threat to society,\u201d Talia Menendez, his stepdaughter, wrote on Instagram. \u201cThis has been torture to our family. How much longer???\u201d<\/p>\n
In the all-caps post, Menendez\u2019s daughter castigated the parole board, calling them \u201cmoney hungry media feeding pieces of trash\u201d after the decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou will not have peace until my dad is free!!!!\u201d she wrote in a following post. <\/p>\n
A hearing for Lyle, 57, began Friday morning, leaving family members who support his case clinging to hope his ruling will be different.<\/p>\n
Originally sentenced to life without parole, the brothers eventually qualified for resentencing because they were under 26 years old at the time of the killings.<\/p>\n
Several petitions and legal filings went nowhere for decades, but their case received renewed attention after the popular Netflix series \u201cMonsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story\u201d sparked a social media interest in their case, and the sexual abuse the two siblings alleged was perpetuated by their father, Jose Menendez. <\/p>\n
A superior court granted their resentencing petition in May, paving the way for the parole hearings this week.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen relatives of the two brothers testified in favor of parole during the Thursday hearing for Erik Menendez, and were also expected to speak for Lyle as well. <\/p>\n
After a nearly 10-hour hearing Thursday, Parole Commissioner Robert Barton commended the support Menendez received from his family. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got a great support network,\u201d he said Thursday<\/a> before pointing to Erik Menendez\u2019s repeated violation of prison rules by using a contraband cellphone. \u201cBut you didn\u2019t go to them before you committed these murders. And you didn\u2019t go to them before you used the cellphone.\u201d<\/p>\n Erik\u2019s wife, Tammi Menendez, blasted the decision. <\/p>\n \u201cParole Commissioner Robert Barton had his mind made up to deny Erik parole from the start!\u201d she wrote on X. \u201cThis was a complete setup, and Erik never stood a chance!\u201d<\/p>\n Anamaria Baralt, a Menendez cousin, tried to remain positive in a video posted on Instagram, noting he could re-apply for parole in three years.<\/p>\n \u201cErik was given the lowest possible denial time,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing. we are certainly disappointed as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n However, she said she was proud of Menendez as he addressed the parole board for the first time, something the family did not view as a possibility a few years ago. <\/p>\n \u201cWe knew this was a steep climb,\u201d she said in the video. \u201cCalifornia is very rigorous in its standards. Not many people get out on parole on their first try. So it wasn\u2019t entirely a surprise. But it is nonetheless very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy group that pushes for criminal justice reform, the vast majority of inmates who go before the board are denied parole. <\/p>\n