Lyle Menendez stunned guests when he dialed into a crime convention from the Californian prison where he and his brother are serving life without parole for the 1989 murder of their parents.
Menendez, now 56, spoke about his dreams of freedom after 24 family members signed a petition demanding they be resentenced.
He and younger brother Erik were jailed in 1996 for the first degree murder of Jose and Mary ‘Kitty’ Menendez who died in a hail of gunfire at their Beverly Hills mansion.
But evidence that their sons had been subjected to years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their record executive father was ruled inadmissible.
‘I would just express gratitude to so many, an enormous number of people around the world and around the country who have written to my brother and I,’ Lyle Mendez said over speakerphone.
‘And just express gratitude for their support, their belief that we should be given a second chance.’
Lyle, a then-22-year-old Princeton student, and Erik, a then-19-year-old professional tennis player, walked into the den of their $5 million Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989 and shot Jose point blank in the back of the head.
They then turned the gun on their mother as she tried to run from the room. In total, they shot Jose five times and Kitty nine.
Prosecutors believed that Lyle and Erik killed their parents because they wanted unfettered access to their $14 million estate. Both bought Rolex watches, condominiums, sports cars, and expensive other items in the months after the murders.
The brothers had two trials – the first had a hung jury and was ultimately ruled a mistrial, but when they were retried together in 1996, they were found guilty.
They lost an appeal against their conviction in 2005 and are both currently serving out their sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.
‘Every day counts and life sort of asks you a question what are you going to do with your life,’ Lyle said. ‘And I just decided that even though I’m incarcerated and there isn’t hope of freedom I still have a chance to be a productive person and feel proud of what I’m doing with my day.’
Lyle’s lawyer Mark Geragos took the call from his client during a panel event with Laura Ingle at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville on Sunday.
The elder brother has just completed a bachelor’s degree in sociology and said he would like to return to the jail if he is released.
‘I’ve had these discussions with corrections officials who are in charge of letting formerly incarcerated people return to the prisons to do good work,’ he explained.
‘And they are definitely open to and would like me to continue to work on this idea of transforming prison yards so that it creates living environments and communities that produce better neighbors.’
An automated voice broke into the call to remind him that it was being recorded as he has set up therapy groups with fellow inmates and he hopes to help other survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
‘I’ve had talks with Rosie O’Donnell about creating a foundation where we would go and try to speak to the forums in those groups, and help in that space,’ he added.
‘It’s an area that I spend a lot of my time in.
‘As you’re probably aware, a lot of the prisoners had difficult childhoods and come from difficult circumstances, and so I’ve formed groups where they can more confidently talk about that.
‘So, I’ll probably continue those two things. That would be exciting.’
During their trial, the brothers did not deny the killings but claimed they acted in self-defense, namely out of fear their father would kill them for threatening to reveal the abuse.
Arguments put forward by their defense team described the pair as ‘not harboring the mental state needed for first-degree murder and were therefore guilty of manslaughter’.
The brothers’ case was boosted last year when Roy Rossello a former singer in boy band Menudo claimed that there father had raped him at 13.
The Menendez’s lawyers also filed a recently unearthed letter that Erik sent his cousin Andy Cano about eight months before the killings.
‘I’ve been trying to avoid dad,’ the hand-scrawled message read.
‘It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now. I can’t explain it. He is so overweight that I can’t stand to see him.
‘I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night, I stay up thinking he might to come in. I need to put it out of my mind.
‘I know what you said before but I’m afraid. You just don’t know dad like I do. He’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.’
Their cousin testified that when Erik was 13, he came to him and told him that his father Jose was touching and ‘massaging’ his genitals, asking if that was normal.
Another one of their cousins’ named Diane Vander Molen, also said that Lyle spoke about the abuse to her when he was eight years old, and that she went to his mother about his confession, but was told he was lying.
Last month the Mediterranean-style villa where the killings occurred, with the exclusive 90210 zip code was sold by its current owners for $17 million – $3 million les than its asking price.
This sale closed exactly 28 years to the day after the brothers were convicted.
‘Virtually the entire family on both sides have signed a letter as victims asking that these two gentlemen be resentenced,’ Geragos told the convention.
‘It’s always been my contention that if these mugshots were of the Menedez sisters they would not be in custody right now.
‘There has been a sea change in the 30 years since then.’