August 21, 2025 • 15 mins
A highly-anticipated and tearful, 10-hour hearing. But in the end, a parole board decided Erik Menendez was not "suitable" for release and will remain in prison. His rules violations while in prison didn't help his case.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, folks, it is late on Thursday, August twenty second,
and we have just gotten word that parole has been
denied for Eric Menindez. Welcome to this episode of Amy
and TJ. An episode being recorded much later than anticipated
because as I record this, it is past ten o'clock
(00:22):
on the East coast, it is past eight o'clock on
the West coast, And for the past ten hours, the
parole board hearing for Eric Menindez has been taking place.
That is a much longer duration than most were anticipating,
thought this might go three hours or so. It has
been a long, long day and we're just getting word
before I started recording here, folks that yes, Eric Menindez,
(00:46):
all that momentum, all the publicity, and a lot of
people thought this was going to be it. But no,
Eric Menindez is not going to be getting out of prison,
at least through the parole system, at least through that
metthad that for now, because parole has been denied. The
parole Board says he can come back and it's eligible
to go before the parole board again in three years.
(01:09):
But as of now, Eric Menendez is going to stay
in prison. His brother lyle is up with his parole
board hearing tomorrow. So what does this mean for him?
Is it an automatic? Not necessarily. Just because his brother
was denied, it doesn't mean that Lyle will be denied.
I'll explain that in a second. But this parole board
(01:31):
hearing happened today at eleven thirty am Eastern time, eight
thirty local out there from the prison in San Diego.
He was doing it from his San Diego prison. This
was video conference. He wasn't taken into a courtroom, so
this was all done via video conference. Now why was
he even up for parole now? This is the first
time he has ever been eligible. This is his first
shot up at this. Well, he's eligible now because after
(01:54):
they were convicted, he and his brother were convicted of
killing their parents. They got life in prison without the
possibility of parole. But just this summer, at the start
of the summer, they were reclassified and they were resentenced,
i should say, and they were eligible for parole immediately,
and that's why we ended up here. The decision now
(02:15):
that this board has made is that Eric is not
suitable to be released. They are saying he is enough
of a risk that he should be denied bail. Right
now now. Because of the system and the rules and
the laws out there in California, we had no access today,
no video, no audio to this parole board hearing. This
(02:37):
isn't the same as a court hearing. There is no
judge in there and lawyers on both sides and people
sitting at a table. It's not that kind of situation.
This is actually supposed to be kind of a private event.
This is supposed to be a very a private and
confidential happening here a parole board hearing, so it does
not the same rules that the whole public gets access.
(02:59):
So what happened and instead this time is that one
pool reporter was assigned I believe it was from the
La Times. He was the only person who was in
there and able to watch, but he wasn't able to
disseminate that information in real time because there are rules
about that information going out before the parole board has
actually made their decision. So so many people, if you've
(03:19):
kept up on social media, maybe you were following this
story today as well. Everybody seemed to be doing the
same thing, hitting refresh, refresh, refresh, looking for some kind
of update of any kind, and it just did not
come because it could not come the rules did not allow.
So we've all been standing by and we all got
the information at the same time just a little bit
(03:40):
ago that yes, the board has denied, denied, denied Eric
Mendez the opportunity now to get out on parole. Now,
this was a long hearing in part because so many people,
according to the reporter inside, showed up to speak on
Eric Menendez's behalf. By this reporter's count, at least eighteen
(04:01):
people family friends were there to speak on his behalfs
that there were a lot of tears during the video
conference today, a lot of tears during the hearing, and
the family even made a plea yes about the boys.
I say the boys, they were twenty one and eighteen,
they're fifty seven and fifty four now. But saying that
the Eric and Lyle, they've been remorseful, they've admitted what
(04:24):
they've done, they've been rehabilitated, they plan on doing good
work and continuing some of their work when they get
out of prison. They made this claim, but they also said, hey,
we have been waiting thirty years for them to come
home or hoping for them to come home. We have
forgiven them and the family is trying to move on.
They even made an argument that one of the relatives
that was there has staged four cancer and argued that
(04:47):
they might die before Eric and Lyle get out, And
that was a part of the argument that some people
in the family were making, but the board seemed to
be vrding to the reporter in the room, really really
really interested and hung up on a few issues with Eric,
because Eric had some rules violations while he's been in
(05:09):
prison over the past thirty years. And the reason that's
key is because they are making a decision to put
you back out into society. You are in prison because
you broke rules, you did something wrong. If we put
you back out there, can you still follow the rules?
And the only indication we have of whether or not
you can is what you've been doing the past thirty
years in prison. And he has been violating rules at times. Again,
(05:32):
nothing necessarily so outlandish, but some of these instances were
it was caught with a cell phone on occasions that
is a major no no in prison. I suppo to
have a cell phone. He was caught with a cell phone,
also allegedly caught with drugs, also allegedly helped a gang
in a tax scheme of some kind. Also, he did
(05:55):
have a couple of instances of violence in prison. I
think one was in the night. If I believe, you know,
I don't have the day's right, so let me not speculate.
But it's been at least a decade, and I believe
two decades that one of them allegedly happened. So the
parole board is really hung up and looking at this
(06:15):
guy who is convicted and has admitted to a very,
very heinous crime. Do we want to let him back out?
This wasn't a one off. This is Yes, it's over
thirty years, and I guess on average that's not a
lot over thirty years, but it was enough. And according
to the reporter who was listening that they were really
(06:36):
really hung up on several of those and asked him
about them in depth. The other thing, and a lot
of legal experts talked about this the mom. As you know,
we're all here because Eric and Lyle killed their parents.
They killed their dad, who they accused of molesting them.
(06:58):
But the board was hung up on or certainly questioned
them about why you had to kill the mom. You
all will remember this case, remember it well. Some of
these details and this it really was. It was a sensation,
it was a media sensation. And still the fascination continues
with this case. There have been documentaries of course that
(07:20):
hit Netflix series last year. There's just this fascination. But
folks were always wondering in nineteen eighty nine, you're saying,
your dad was the one who was molesting you, Who
was the threat? Why did you have to kill the mom?
And it wasn't just an instant death for the mom,
(07:40):
if you will, there was some reloading involved in the crimes.
Details are just atrocious, they absolutely are. So the argument
that was made over the years that the Meninda's brother's
maid was that this was done in self defense. They
were in fear of their stepfather who was doing the harassing.
(08:02):
They were fear in fear of their lives and fear
of the harassment and the harasser. So why did you
have to kill the mom? It was unnecessary. She wasn't
a threat, She wasn't an imminent threat of any kind.
And the reporter in the room said one of the
board members specifically asked why did you shoot her? And
(08:24):
his answer were simply a wish he hadn't done it.
I mean, they have said that they have admitted. But
the board went through and so much was expected that
they would go through what happened over the past thirty years,
what kind of and not necessarily go through it and
not trying to reltigate and relive the entire crime, but
(08:44):
they were going to look at how you behaved over
the past thirty years. But it was interesting to hear
from the reporter that they did go back. They did
have questions still about the crime, why you did it,
and that was something that they brought up, and they
were hung up on why did you have to kill
your mom? And I heard some legal experts talk about
that before that this could be a challenge, like you
(09:05):
want to make the argument that the guy was doing
this to you, your dad was doing this, and he
was the imminent threat, then why did you have to
kill mom? And also this idea of the imminent threat
did you have to shoot them? Right? There was an
imminent threat in that moment, an imminent threat of something
happening that night. You had options. Now, a lot of
(09:26):
people will tell you these two are these young men
were abuse victims, and there's so much more we've learned
over the past couple of decades and even years about
what goes into and what that kind of abuse can
do to a person, So don't want to downplay that.
But still the argument was made that the brothers may
have had options, so why do this if they didn't
(09:48):
have some other motive. Obviously, the argument has always been
made because they went on that spending spree afterwards that
you hear so much about spending tens of and yes,
hundreds of thousands of dollars of their parents money and
the immediate aftermath of the deaths, so that continues to
be brought up. But the board was very interested, very
(10:10):
interested in that particular thing. Why why did you have
to kill your mom? Now, the family did express that
they were disappointed in what happened today, disappointed that they
are not that he wasn't granted parole. They did put
out a statement saying, while we respect the decision, today's
outcome was of course disappointing and not what we hoped for.
(10:30):
But our belief in Eric remains unwavering, and we know
he will take the board's recommendation in stride. His remorse,
growth and the positive impact he's had on others speak
for themselves. We will continue to stand by him and
hold to the hope he is able to return home soon. Tomorrow.
We turn our attention to Lyle's hearing, and while it
(10:51):
is undoubtedly difficult, we remain cautiously optimistic and hopeful that
the Commissioner will see in Lyle what so many others have,
a man who is taken responsibility, transformed his life and
is ready to come home again. That's the statement from
the family, And I give you idea of this board
(11:13):
hearing here. They're actually going to have different board members
for Lyle tomorrow than they do did for Eric today. Now,
that is just one of the reasons why there is hope.
There is hope that even though Eric was denied today,
(11:37):
Lyle could still be granted parole when he goes before
the board on Friday. How is that possible? All right?
We continue now. Yes, it is late as of this recording,
(11:58):
way past my bedtime, and this is way passed When
a lot of people thought that parole board hearing for
Eric Menndez thought it would be done a lot sooner
than now. But this thing went ten hours today started
at eight thirty local times, that's eleven thirty Eastern time
on this morning, and it went for some ten hours,
(12:18):
and because we didn't have any cameras, didn't have access,
and the one reporter that was in there wasn't able
to give real time updates publicly, we have all essentially
been standing by for ten hours waiting for any trickle
of information to come out, and sure enough we got it.
A little bit ago. Eric Menendez has been denied, denied
parole by this parole board. They say he can come
(12:38):
back in three years. His brother Lyle is up tomorrow,
up on Friday. Now you hear his brother Eric has
been denied, and there were in this together the same crime,
then surely he would be denied as well. But this
is why, not necessarily there was argument that there could
be a split decision, And here is why. The same
(13:00):
parole board members are not expected to rule for each
So you got a different set of eyes, a different
set of ears tomorrow who will be considering Lyle's case.
Lyle's case will be considered based on his merits and
based on his behavior in prison, so he doesn't necessarily
(13:21):
have as many rules violations as his brother, or the
board members who are there tomorrow could maybe not put
as much emphasis on those rules violations. You just don't know. Yes,
common sense might dictate and you might assume that he's
going to be denied, but there is reason for possibly
(13:42):
his case and his history in prison being viewed differently
by a different set of Parole Board members. Now we
say all this, we see what happens, but we have
to remember there's one other option, one other possibility. Right now,
Gavin Newsom can step in and get them out of prison.
He can grant them clemency anytime he sees fit. He
(14:04):
has held off on doing so, but now he might
not have a decision to make if the parole Board
denies both Menindez brothers. It's tough to figure that the
guy who was setting up to run for president wants
to be running a tough on crime campaign and have
(14:25):
to be asked questions about why he went against the
parole board and let two double murderers out of prison.
Politics just comes into that, but take the politics out
of it. If he just went with the parole board,
why wouldn't he listen to the experts on this So
(14:46):
an extraordinary day with an extraordinary lack of details all day,
but this was the one that was anticipated for so long,
after all these years, after all the moments them, after
all the documentaries, after all the Netflix hit shows, after
all the celebrity endorsements, after all that's gone on. In
(15:07):
this case, they finally get to this day and denied.
We'll keep an eye on it tomorrow as well, when
Lyle is up. We'll see how long that one goes.
But folks, just going to hop on and give you
all the update, and stayed up late to do so,
so I always appreciate you hanging with us. And a reminder,
(15:27):
Rogues is out on this one. She is in Bolder
dropping her daughter off for her sophomore year in college,
so Robes will be back with me soon. But now
I always appreciate you all listening.
Hey, folks, it is late on Thursday, August twenty second,
and we have just gotten word that parole has been
denied for Eric Menindez. Welcome to this episode of Amy
and TJ. An episode being recorded much later than anticipated
because as I record this, it is past ten o'clock
(00:22):
on the East coast, it is past eight o'clock on
the West coast, And for the past ten hours, the
parole board hearing for Eric Menindez has been taking place.
That is a much longer duration than most were anticipating,
thought this might go three hours or so. It has
been a long, long day and we're just getting word
before I started recording here, folks that yes, Eric Menindez,
(00:46):
all that momentum, all the publicity, and a lot of
people thought this was going to be it. But no,
Eric Menindez is not going to be getting out of prison,
at least through the parole system, at least through that
metthad that for now, because parole has been denied. The
parole Board says he can come back and it's eligible
to go before the parole board again in three years.
(01:09):
But as of now, Eric Menendez is going to stay
in prison. His brother lyle is up with his parole
board hearing tomorrow. So what does this mean for him?
Is it an automatic? Not necessarily. Just because his brother
was denied, it doesn't mean that Lyle will be denied.
I'll explain that in a second. But this parole board
(01:31):
hearing happened today at eleven thirty am Eastern time, eight
thirty local out there from the prison in San Diego.
He was doing it from his San Diego prison. This
was video conference. He wasn't taken into a courtroom, so
this was all done via video conference. Now why was
he even up for parole now? This is the first
time he has ever been eligible. This is his first
shot up at this. Well, he's eligible now because after
(01:54):
they were convicted, he and his brother were convicted of
killing their parents. They got life in prison without the
possibility of parole. But just this summer, at the start
of the summer, they were reclassified and they were resentenced,
i should say, and they were eligible for parole immediately,
and that's why we ended up here. The decision now
(02:15):
that this board has made is that Eric is not
suitable to be released. They are saying he is enough
of a risk that he should be denied bail. Right
now now. Because of the system and the rules and
the laws out there in California, we had no access today,
no video, no audio to this parole board hearing. This
(02:37):
isn't the same as a court hearing. There is no
judge in there and lawyers on both sides and people
sitting at a table. It's not that kind of situation.
This is actually supposed to be kind of a private event.
This is supposed to be a very a private and
confidential happening here a parole board hearing, so it does
not the same rules that the whole public gets access.
(02:59):
So what happened and instead this time is that one
pool reporter was assigned I believe it was from the
La Times. He was the only person who was in
there and able to watch, but he wasn't able to
disseminate that information in real time because there are rules
about that information going out before the parole board has
actually made their decision. So so many people, if you've
(03:19):
kept up on social media, maybe you were following this
story today as well. Everybody seemed to be doing the
same thing, hitting refresh, refresh, refresh, looking for some kind
of update of any kind, and it just did not
come because it could not come the rules did not allow.
So we've all been standing by and we all got
the information at the same time just a little bit
(03:40):
ago that yes, the board has denied, denied, denied Eric
Mendez the opportunity now to get out on parole. Now,
this was a long hearing in part because so many people,
according to the reporter inside, showed up to speak on
Eric Menendez's behalf. By this reporter's count, at least eighteen
(04:01):
people family friends were there to speak on his behalfs
that there were a lot of tears during the video
conference today, a lot of tears during the hearing, and
the family even made a plea yes about the boys.
I say the boys, they were twenty one and eighteen,
they're fifty seven and fifty four now. But saying that
the Eric and Lyle, they've been remorseful, they've admitted what
(04:24):
they've done, they've been rehabilitated, they plan on doing good
work and continuing some of their work when they get
out of prison. They made this claim, but they also said, hey,
we have been waiting thirty years for them to come
home or hoping for them to come home. We have
forgiven them and the family is trying to move on.
They even made an argument that one of the relatives
that was there has staged four cancer and argued that
(04:47):
they might die before Eric and Lyle get out, And
that was a part of the argument that some people
in the family were making, but the board seemed to
be vrding to the reporter in the room, really really
really interested and hung up on a few issues with Eric,
because Eric had some rules violations while he's been in
(05:09):
prison over the past thirty years. And the reason that's
key is because they are making a decision to put
you back out into society. You are in prison because
you broke rules, you did something wrong. If we put
you back out there, can you still follow the rules?
And the only indication we have of whether or not
you can is what you've been doing the past thirty
years in prison. And he has been violating rules at times. Again,
(05:32):
nothing necessarily so outlandish, but some of these instances were
it was caught with a cell phone on occasions that
is a major no no in prison. I suppo to
have a cell phone. He was caught with a cell phone,
also allegedly caught with drugs, also allegedly helped a gang
in a tax scheme of some kind. Also, he did
(05:55):
have a couple of instances of violence in prison. I
think one was in the night. If I believe, you know,
I don't have the day's right, so let me not speculate.
But it's been at least a decade, and I believe
two decades that one of them allegedly happened. So the
parole board is really hung up and looking at this
(06:15):
guy who is convicted and has admitted to a very,
very heinous crime. Do we want to let him back out?
This wasn't a one off. This is Yes, it's over
thirty years, and I guess on average that's not a
lot over thirty years, but it was enough. And according
to the reporter who was listening that they were really
(06:36):
really hung up on several of those and asked him
about them in depth. The other thing, and a lot
of legal experts talked about this the mom. As you know,
we're all here because Eric and Lyle killed their parents.
They killed their dad, who they accused of molesting them.
(06:58):
But the board was hung up on or certainly questioned
them about why you had to kill the mom. You
all will remember this case, remember it well. Some of
these details and this it really was. It was a sensation,
it was a media sensation. And still the fascination continues
with this case. There have been documentaries of course that
(07:20):
hit Netflix series last year. There's just this fascination. But
folks were always wondering in nineteen eighty nine, you're saying,
your dad was the one who was molesting you, Who
was the threat? Why did you have to kill the mom?
And it wasn't just an instant death for the mom,
(07:40):
if you will, there was some reloading involved in the crimes.
Details are just atrocious, they absolutely are. So the argument
that was made over the years that the Meninda's brother's
maid was that this was done in self defense. They
were in fear of their stepfather who was doing the harassing.
(08:02):
They were fear in fear of their lives and fear
of the harassment and the harasser. So why did you
have to kill the mom? It was unnecessary. She wasn't
a threat, She wasn't an imminent threat of any kind.
And the reporter in the room said one of the
board members specifically asked why did you shoot her? And
(08:24):
his answer were simply a wish he hadn't done it.
I mean, they have said that they have admitted. But
the board went through and so much was expected that
they would go through what happened over the past thirty years,
what kind of and not necessarily go through it and
not trying to reltigate and relive the entire crime, but
(08:44):
they were going to look at how you behaved over
the past thirty years. But it was interesting to hear
from the reporter that they did go back. They did
have questions still about the crime, why you did it,
and that was something that they brought up, and they
were hung up on why did you have to kill
your mom? And I heard some legal experts talk about
that before that this could be a challenge, like you
(09:05):
want to make the argument that the guy was doing
this to you, your dad was doing this, and he
was the imminent threat, then why did you have to
kill mom? And also this idea of the imminent threat
did you have to shoot them? Right? There was an
imminent threat in that moment, an imminent threat of something
happening that night. You had options. Now, a lot of
(09:26):
people will tell you these two are these young men
were abuse victims, and there's so much more we've learned
over the past couple of decades and even years about
what goes into and what that kind of abuse can
do to a person, So don't want to downplay that.
But still the argument was made that the brothers may
have had options, so why do this if they didn't
(09:48):
have some other motive. Obviously, the argument has always been
made because they went on that spending spree afterwards that
you hear so much about spending tens of and yes,
hundreds of thousands of dollars of their parents money and
the immediate aftermath of the deaths, so that continues to
be brought up. But the board was very interested, very
(10:10):
interested in that particular thing. Why why did you have
to kill your mom? Now, the family did express that
they were disappointed in what happened today, disappointed that they
are not that he wasn't granted parole. They did put
out a statement saying, while we respect the decision, today's
outcome was of course disappointing and not what we hoped for.
(10:30):
But our belief in Eric remains unwavering, and we know
he will take the board's recommendation in stride. His remorse,
growth and the positive impact he's had on others speak
for themselves. We will continue to stand by him and
hold to the hope he is able to return home soon. Tomorrow.
We turn our attention to Lyle's hearing, and while it
(10:51):
is undoubtedly difficult, we remain cautiously optimistic and hopeful that
the Commissioner will see in Lyle what so many others have,
a man who is taken responsibility, transformed his life and
is ready to come home again. That's the statement from
the family, And I give you idea of this board
(11:13):
hearing here. They're actually going to have different board members
for Lyle tomorrow than they do did for Eric today. Now,
that is just one of the reasons why there is hope.
There is hope that even though Eric was denied today,
(11:37):
Lyle could still be granted parole when he goes before
the board on Friday. How is that possible? All right?
We continue now. Yes, it is late as of this recording,
(11:58):
way past my bedtime, and this is way passed When
a lot of people thought that parole board hearing for
Eric Menndez thought it would be done a lot sooner
than now. But this thing went ten hours today started
at eight thirty local times, that's eleven thirty Eastern time
on this morning, and it went for some ten hours,
(12:18):
and because we didn't have any cameras, didn't have access,
and the one reporter that was in there wasn't able
to give real time updates publicly, we have all essentially
been standing by for ten hours waiting for any trickle
of information to come out, and sure enough we got it.
A little bit ago. Eric Menendez has been denied, denied
parole by this parole board. They say he can come
(12:38):
back in three years. His brother Lyle is up tomorrow,
up on Friday. Now you hear his brother Eric has
been denied, and there were in this together the same crime,
then surely he would be denied as well. But this
is why, not necessarily there was argument that there could
be a split decision, And here is why. The same
(13:00):
parole board members are not expected to rule for each
So you got a different set of eyes, a different
set of ears tomorrow who will be considering Lyle's case.
Lyle's case will be considered based on his merits and
based on his behavior in prison, so he doesn't necessarily
(13:21):
have as many rules violations as his brother, or the
board members who are there tomorrow could maybe not put
as much emphasis on those rules violations. You just don't know. Yes,
common sense might dictate and you might assume that he's
going to be denied, but there is reason for possibly
(13:42):
his case and his history in prison being viewed differently
by a different set of Parole Board members. Now we
say all this, we see what happens, but we have
to remember there's one other option, one other possibility. Right now,
Gavin Newsom can step in and get them out of prison.
He can grant them clemency anytime he sees fit. He
(14:04):
has held off on doing so, but now he might
not have a decision to make if the parole Board
denies both Menindez brothers. It's tough to figure that the
guy who was setting up to run for president wants
to be running a tough on crime campaign and have
(14:25):
to be asked questions about why he went against the
parole board and let two double murderers out of prison.
Politics just comes into that, but take the politics out
of it. If he just went with the parole board,
why wouldn't he listen to the experts on this So
(14:46):
an extraordinary day with an extraordinary lack of details all day,
but this was the one that was anticipated for so long,
after all these years, after all the moments them, after
all the documentaries, after all the Netflix hit shows, after
all the celebrity endorsements, after all that's gone on. In
(15:07):
this case, they finally get to this day and denied.
We'll keep an eye on it tomorrow as well, when
Lyle is up. We'll see how long that one goes.
But folks, just going to hop on and give you
all the update, and stayed up late to do so,
so I always appreciate you hanging with us. And a reminder,
(15:27):
Rogues is out on this one. She is in Bolder
dropping her daughter off for her sophomore year in college,
so Robes will be back with me soon. But now
I always appreciate you all listening.
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.