Erik Menendez denied parole

(CN) — Erik Menendez, the younger of the two brothers convicted of killing their parents in 1989, was denied parole on Thursday following a nearly 10-hour hearing in which he was questioned by the parole board about the brutal murders.

“I believe in redemption, or I wouldn’t be doing this job," Parole Commissioner Robert Barton told Menendez. “But based on the legal standards, we find that you continue to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety.”

Barton cited Menendez’s “continued willingness to commit crimes and violate prison rules” throughout his more than 35 years behind bars as the primary reason for the denial.

During the dramatic marathon hearing, conducted remotely, Barton and two other commissioners questioned Menendez about the gruesome murders. He said the brothers had bought shotguns to stop their father, Jose, a wealthy record executive, from sexually abusing them anymore.

“My father was the most terrifying human being I’d ever met,” the 54-year-old said. “My purpose in getting the guns was to protect myself in case my father or my mother came at me to kill me. Or my father came in the room to rape me.”

When asked later in the hearing if he truly thought his mother was going to kill him, he said yes, adding, “My brain was not processing in any capacity to have logical or rational thought.”

The murders, he said, were not planned. That night, Jose told the then-18-year-old to go to his room and that he would be coming there shortly. Menendez said he understood that to mean his dad was about to sexually assault him again.

“Dad was going to come to my room and rape me that night,” he told the board. “That was going to happen. One way or another. If he was alive, that was going to happen.”

When Barton asked why he didn’t simply leave the house, Menendez said, “When I look back at the person I was then and what I believed about the world and my parents, running away was inconceivable. Running away meant death.”

Barton then asked a pointed follow-up: “Why kill Mom?”

Menendez explained that his mother, Kitty, had known about the sexual abuse and did not try to stop it, continuing to support Jose.

“When Mom told me … that she had known all of those years, it was the most devastating moment in my entire life,” Menendez said. “Mom had shown she was united with my Dad. … On that night, I saw them as one person. Had she not been in the room, maybe it would have been different.”

The two brothers shot their father six times. They fired 10 shots into their mother, including the fatal shot fired after having reloaded.

Visibly emotional, though not crying, Menendez said: “I wish to God I did not do that.”

After issuing the denial, Barton told Menendez, “The killing of your mother especially showed a lack of empathy and reason.”

During their two trials, prosecutors argued the brothers killed their parents for their money, citing the lavish spending spree they indulged in the months after the murders, which included new cars and Rolex watches.

“I was torn between hatred of myself over what I did and wishing that I could undo it and trying to live out my life, making teenager decisions," Menendez said, explaining the spending. He called the purchase of the Rolex “an incredibly callous act” that was done “to make myself feel more like a man now.”

The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In recent years, there has been a movement to free the brothers, based on a greater understanding of the trauma inflicted on them by Jose. More than 20 of their family members, including Jose and Kitty’s siblings, supported their release. Last year, they successfully lobbied District Attorney George Gascón to file a motion for the brothers to be resentenced.

But Gascón lost his reelection bid to the far more conservative Nathan Hochman, who set about reversing many of Gascón’s reforms. Hochman withdrew his support for the brothers’ release, arguing they had not “exhibited the full insights and accept complete responsibility for their actions.”

In May, a Superior Court judge sided with the brothers, praising their participation in self-help programs and work done to help other inmates and beautify the prison. But on Thursday, the parole commissioners questioned Erik Menendez about his prison record and the many violations he received during his decades of incarceration. He admitted to making “pruno,” or prison wine, in his cell, smoking marijuana and trying heroin in 1998.

“If I could numb my sadness with alcohol, I was going to do it," he told the commissioners. “I was looking to ease that sadness within me.”

Menendez also admitted to “doing things” for a prison gang known as the Two Fives, or Two Fivers, including helping them out with some sort of “tax scheme,” the particulars of which were not explained.

“It was an extremely violent yard that I was trying to survive,” Menendez explained. “I was in tremendous fear. When the Two Fivers came and asked for help, I thought this was a great opportunity to align myself with them and to survive.”

Menendez said that until last year, he had little to no hope of ever being released from prison, and so he never considered the consequences of the many rules he broke over the years, including using cellphones smuggled into the prison, inappropriate touching during visits and physical altercations with other inmates. He said his behavior began to change, though, in 2013, when he found faith in a higher power and quit using drugs.

“From 2013 on, I was living for a different purpose," he said. “My purpose in life was to be a good person. … I asked myself who do I want to be when I die. I believe I’m going to face a different parole board when I die.” He admitted he continued to use a cellphone until recently.

As for the crime he committed exactly 36 years and one day ago, Erik Menendez said, “I’ve called it a forever crime. It will impact every generation to be born. I cannot express sorrow and remorse enough. Doing it for the rest of my life will not be enough.”

Given 10 minutes to address the commissioners, Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian argued that Erik Menendez was not ready to be released, in part because he hasn’t yet come to terms with “the full severity and depravity of his conduct.”

“When one continues to diminish their responsibility for a crime and continues to make the same false excuses that they’ve made for 30-plus years, one is still that same dangerous person that they were when they shotgunned their parents,” Balian said.

Menendez’s attorney, Heidi Rummel, director of USC’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, argued Menendez is not a dangerous person and never would have been a dangerous person were it not for his father’s abuse.

“What made him dangerous was unresolved trauma, a myopic fear and an inability to ask for help," Rummel said.

In issuing the denial, Barton focused mainly on Menendez’s “institutional misconduct,” which he said “showed a lack of self-awareness.” His willingness to work for the Two Fivers gang was especially “problematic,” as was his drug use.

“What that tells us is that when you’re placed under stress and you’re in new circumstances, you may reach out for something that is not a healthy coping skill,” Barton said.

The board’s decision can be appealed to the full board and is also subject to a review by the board’s chief legal counsel. If the denial is upheld, Menendez can apply for parole again in three years.

His brother Lyle Menendez’s parole board hearing is scheduled for Friday.

The information in this story from the parole hearing was taken from a pool report, compiled by James Queally of the Los Angeles Times .

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