How the Menendez brothers have spent 34 years in prison

Erik Menendez listens to his attorney Leslie Abramson at a long table as his brother Lyle looks on.

Nov. 25, 2024 Updated 4:36 PM PT

If a judge resentences the Menendez brothers, their lives behind bars in the past 34 years will play a role on whether or not they are paroled.
Rehabilitation officials praised the Menendez brothers for creating and leading programs to improve the lives of incarcerated people.
A convicted murderer who has roomed with both brothers said they focus on helping others to generate hope.
Some law enforcement officials do not believe the brothers should ever be released from prison.

For all the attention focused on Erik and Lyle Menendez — the TikTok freedom campaign, the multiple documentaries and docudramas — one fact gets easily lost: While their lives and actions have been chronicled exhaustively up to their trials for violently killing their parents, much less is known about their 34 years behind bars.

Now, with a judge mulling whether to resentence them, the two brothers could have a chance at being released. A jury sentenced them to life without the possibility of parole, and it is only in recent years that momentum has built up around the possibility that they could be freed.

Shortly before he lost his bid for reelection, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón filed a motion seeking resentencing for the brothers. He also supported their request for clemency from Gov. Gavin Newsom, highlighting what he said was the brothers’ dedication to rehabilitation during their time in prison.

But Newsom punted the decision back to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and its incoming district attorney, Nathan Hochman, who has said he wants to review the Menendez brothers’ case and their time in prison before making a decision. On Monday, Superior Court Judge Superior Court Judge Michael V. Jesic postponed the next hearings on resentencing until January.

“The methodology to study that case is the same whether it gets media attention or not,” Hochman said Saturday on “Fox & Friends.” “You got to speak to the prosecutors, law enforcement, victim family members and the defense, and only then can you form an opinion on whether or not the resentencing is appropriate.”

At the core of the decision, Hochman said, will also be the question of whether the Menendez brothers have been rehabilitated, and whether their time and actions in prison during the last three decades reflect that. But Hochman has not said whether he would continue to move forward with the resentencing request; he’s said only that his office would review the case once he is sworn in.

“You have to look at thousands of pages of confidential prison files that the public doesn’t have access to,” Hochman said.

After more than three decades thinking they would spend their lives in prison, the Menendez brothers now face the possibility they could be freed. Whether or not they are could hinge on how the infamous pair spent their day-to-day lives in prison.

Lyle is now 56 and Erik is 53. They lived apart in separate prisons from 1996 to 2018, when they were reunited at a prison near San Diego. During those three decades, Lyle married Rebecca Sneed in 2003, and Erik married Tammi Saccoman in 1999.

(Sneed, an attorney, announced on Facebook last week that she and Lyle have separated but remain “best friends and family,” according to E! News. “I am forever committed to the enduring fight for Lyle and Erik’s freedom, as has been so evident over the years,” she wrote.)

Gascón, the brothers’ attorneys and rehabilitation officials have said they’ve both been model prisoners with no behavior issues during their incarceration, but have instead taken leadership roles in rehabilitation programs and projects to improve prison life for inmates.

The Times spoke with rehabilitation program providers at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego who have worked closely with the brothers for years, as well as with Lyle‘s roommate at the prison, who described the brothers as “mentors.”

According to these people, the Menendezes have been deeply involved in rehabilitation programs and projects to care for disabled inmates and improve life inside for staff and convicts.

Lyle earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Irvine this year and is working on a master’s degree in urban development. Erik is set to graduate from UC Irvine with a degree in sociology this fall.

Joel Baptiste Abreu, 47, an inmate at Richard. J. Donovan, said he first met Erik in California State Prison, Sacramento.

Erik “gave me a sense of purpose,” said Abreu, who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 1997 killing of a Westminster man. “I’d ask him, how do you deal with this? And that’s when he told me, ‘Help other people. When you’re putting yourself in the position to help other people, it generates hope.’ ”

Abreu and Erik were later transferred to Richard J. Donovan, and Abreu is now roommates with Lyle. He said he considers the brothers his best friends.

He befriended Erik after he noticed his behavior in prison, Abreu said.

“He was one of the most adjusted people in the yard,” he said. “He seemed to be very, I mean, Zen Buddhist.”

Eventually, Abreu ended up in the same yard as the brothers.

That’s when he and Lyle began the Rehabilitation Through Beautification project, a program where inmates worked on upgrades for the prison, creating green space and painting a 1,000-foot mural.

Abreu, Erik and two other inmates have done most of the artwork, and continue to work on murals throughout the prison.

“We’re both artists,” Abreu said of Erik. “He’s been a great mentor.”

Abreu said Erik and Lyle Menendez have been central to how he views his incarceration.

“You’re a convict, you’re a felon, you’ve done these horrible things, which is true,” he said. “But we want to transcend that. We’re trying to transform.”

In a 2005 interview with People, before he was transferred to Richard J. Donovan, Erik described his life in prison as having to constantly be on guard, and having been involved in some fights. His high profile, he told the magazine, often made him a target of other inmates and guards.

“Most guys have treated me well, but I have been bullied. It’s like a small jungle,” he said in the People interview. “You have to stand up to them, but at the same time you have to be extremely respectful.”

At Pleasant Valley State Prison at the time, Erik said he spent his time reading, writing, meditating and trying to help other inmates.

“I wanted to be productive, to find some meaning by helping others,” he told the magazine.

According to Gascón’s letter to Newsom supporting clemency, Lyle has also started new programs — such as Adverse Childhood Experience and Rehabilitation and Youth LWOP Ally, to help young inmates improve their lives in prison after being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Erik, according to Gascón’s letter, has created programs such as the Life Care and Hospice Connection program, Victims Impact & Empathy for Vulnerable Populations, Twelve Step Meditation Class, Insight Meditation Workshops and the Starlight Peace Project.

The mural at Richard J. Donovan, which depicts landmarks across San Diego, has generated headlines and been pointed to as a model project in the prison system.

But both brothers have refused to be pictured or interviewed about it, a decision they made to make sure attention to the project was not concentrated on them, Abreu said.

When Lyle and Erik become involved in programs inside the prison, they never lead the same group.

“They want to make sure that only one of them is involved because people don’t think of it as a ‘Menendez brothers’ project,” Abreu said.

But not everyone sees the brothers’ work in prison as sufficient reason for them to be released.

Tom Linehan, a former Beverly Hills police detective who investigated the double murders, said the two should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

“They should not be back out on the street, period,” he told “Inside Edition.” “They are criminals. They murdered two people.”

When he announced his support in late October for resentencing the brothers, Gascón admitted the decision has caused division in the district attorney’s office. He said he expects some prosecutors from the office to oppose his motion for resentencing at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 30-31. .

“We have people in the office that strongly believe the Menendez brothers should stay in prison the rest of their lives and don’t believe they were molested,” Gascón said. The brothers have long contended that the killings were motivated by their father’s abuse and not, as prosecutors argue, by greed. Their attorneys say the brothers should be resentenced because of newly obtained evidence of the abuse.

The brothers’ uncle, Milton Anderson, also opposes their release and has filed a motion against resentencing. More than 20 other relatives have appeared in press conferences supporting their freedom.

It’s also unclear whether Newsom would block their release. Under state law, the governor could block a decision from the parole board if he finds the inmate to be an “unreasonable risk to the public.”

A spokesperson for Newsom declined to answer questions on the case.

In his weekly podcast, “Politickin’,” Newsom did not hint at whether he would block an approval for parole for the Menendez brothers, but said he was well aware of the public interest in the case that’s surged because of recent documentaries and a Netflix series.

“I can’t even tell you how many times my kids … have said, ‘Hey, what’s going on with the Menendez brothers?’ ” Newsom told his co-host, Doug Hendrickson. “I go, ‘How the hell do you know about the Menendez brothers?’ ”

Still, Newsom said his decision would be based on facts of the case and would take into account their relatives’ support for their release.

But the most significant factor to be reviewed, Newsom said, is how the Menendez brothers have spent their 34 years in prison.

“The thing that’s perhaps the most determinative when you come up to the parole board process is what kind of prisoner have you been?” Newsom said. “Have you been focused on your rehabilitation, have you taken responsibility for your crime, and whether you’re coming out more of a broken person, or you’re coming out as a better person and, all of that, is also determinative.”

Jen Abreu, Abreu’s wife and a rehabilitation provider at the prison through her program, Redemption Row California, also has worked closely with the two brothers.

Despite how they have been depicted in countless true crime series, documentaries and television adaptations, she said the Lyle and Erik Menendez she knows are not the same people they were when they killed their parents in 1989.

The brothers’ lives have focused on those around them. They’ve sat with staff, she said, to talk about burnout and how staff could also provide input on how to improve the prison’s surroundings.

The two are aware of their notoriety, she said, but have tried to use their time in prison positively.

For the last few years, she said, Erik has organized a secret Santa for some of the inmates during Christmas.

“They understand that their lives have been put on a stage and, because of that, there are no secrets,” she said. “They understand they have to pull strength through that vulnerability and they use that to empower others.”

Erik has created and leads meditation groups, and also has led groups on conflict resolution and care for inmates in hospice.

Dr. Chandrika Kelso, founder of Helping Without Prejudice, a nonprofit that provides inmates with education and rehabilitation programs, told The Times in an interview last year that Erik initiated the meditation program at Richard. J. Donovan after seeing the benefits.

“He started doing it himself,” she said. “Now he runs his own class.”

Erik worked as a type of “ambassador,” helping inmates who use wheelchairs, were terminally ill or in hospice care, she said.

In the Victim Impact & Victim Empathy for Vulnerable Populations group, inmates confront their childhood traumas, as well as the traumas they caused to their victims, Kelso said.

Lyle has served as chair of the inmate advisory council, a group that works with prison leadership on the needs of the prison population.

“Their motivation is that this is where they live,” Kelso said. “I see two individuals who have not just adapted positively to the prison environment, but have been creating positive pathways for other inmates.”

If Hochman doesn’t rescind the request to resentence the brothers, it will be up to Jesic to decide whether to make them eligible for parole. If the brothers are resentenced, they would then appear before the parole board, which would scrutinize their lives while in prison and the programs they’ve been involved with in deciding whether they should be released.

“These two individuals were kids, and they’ve grown up now,” Joel Baptiste Abreu said. “I think society is going to be really surprised when they come out there.”

Marriage, service, TikTok fame: How the Menendez brothers spent 34 years in prison

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