Menendez Brothers 'Have Big Plans' If They’re Released From Jail — After Holding Yoga Sessions and Serving on Prison Councils While Behind Bars
The Menendez brothers are hoping six key witnesses they met in jail will support bid for freedom.
Nov. 5 2024, Published 2:02 a.m. ET
Jailed brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez are planning to launch their counseling business if they are freed.
The pair - who claimed they were abused by their father - have been working behind bars with the victims of sexual trauma, RadarOnline can reveal.
Speculation is mounting over the possibility of them being released after 28 years in prison.
Jailed brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez are planning to launch their counseling business if they are freed.
Since their 1996 conviction, Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, have been preparing for life on the outside. The brothers have both earned multiple college degrees, been mentors in college programs, and have worked as hospice carers for elderly prisoners.
Earlier this year, Lyle received a degree in sociology and it's thought he may consider working as a prison reform advocate if he is freed, thanks to newly surfaced evidence.
While locked up, Erik has embraced painting, yoga sessions and religion while Lyle has served on prisoner councils. Both have also offered support and guidance to prisoners who are victims of sexual abuse.
Since their 1996 conviction, Lyle and Erik have been preparing for life on the outside.
A source told us: "They want to use the skills they have honed in prison to help others and a counseling business is very much on the cards if they win their freedom. They would be in massive demand given their experiences growing up and their years of incarceration."
Now 35 years on since the brothers fatally shot their parents, Jose, 45, and Kitty Menendez, 47, on August 20, 1989 in the family's Beverly Hills home, it seems likely their case will be re-examined and their convictions possibly overturned.
An insider said the Menendez brothers: ‘They want to use the skills they have honed in prison to help others and a counseling business is very much on the cards if they win their freedom.’
As well as, new testimony by a former boy band member, who was managed by businessman Jose, could corroborate Lyle and Erik's claim of sexual and emotional abuse by their father.
Musician Roy Rossello alleged last year he was drugged and raped by Jose in the Menendez family home in New Jersey in 1986 - he was 14 years old at the time.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said in a news conference that he is open to allowing prosecutors to consider the new evidence.
Now 35 years on since the brothers fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, in the family's Beverly Hills home, it seems likely their case will be re-examined and their convictions possibly overturned.
"There's no question [the brothers] committed the crimes," the district attorney said, "The question is, to what degree of culpability should they be held accountable to, given the totality of the circumstances?" For the first 22 years of their life sentences, Lyle and Erik were held in separate prisons, until finally being reunited at the low-security Richard Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California in 2018.
Despite being incarcerated, both brothers are married. Erik wed pet groomer Tammi Saccoman in June 1999, while Lyle tied the knot with his second wife, journalist Rebecca Sneed, in November 2003 after splitting with his first wife of five years, Anna Eriksson, in 2001.
Their post-conviction lawyer, Mark Geragos says he hopes the brothers will be released by the end of the year and believes their futures could include working in some way to help other inmates.
The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in July 1996, after the judge limited the defense's ability to call the brothers ‘battered children.’
"Most importantly, 24 of the family members have signed a letter asking the DA to resentence them and let them come home" he shares, adding, "These are two people I would venture to say you're never going to have to worry about reoffending."
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in July 1996, after the judge limited the defence's ability to call the brothers "battered children."
Public perception was Lyle and Erik were "spoilt trust-fund kids" who murdered their "overbearing" parents to inherit a US$14 million fortune. After their parents' deaths, they spent US$700,000 on luxury goods, businesses and sports cars. They recently explained this was their way of coping.
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The brothers - who were just 18 and 21 years old at the time - killed their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989.
"Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive," Erik said, explaining this in the newly released Netflix documentary The Menendez Brothers.
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