Erik Menendez, Lyle Menendez Ted Soqui/Sygma/Getty Images; MIKE NELSON/AFP/Getty Images
Erik Menéndez and Lyle Menéndez weren’t released from prison ahead of Thanksgiving — so what will they be eating behind bars this year?
Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56, are reportedly in for a feast at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility this holiday season. A menu for Thursday, November 28, acquired by In Touch reveals that the brothers will have an option of turkey or ham for the main course with sides such as green salad, fresh mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet corn, dinner rolls and cranberry sauce. Erik and Lyle will get to select from assorted pies for dessert.
According to the outlet, the brothers had options including roasted chicken, lunch meat sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch throughout October. For dinner, inmates could choose from cheese pizza, beef patties, chicken breast and fish. A lemon cake was added to the menu for dessert on the weekend.
Erik and Lyle are both at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility as they await news of a potential resentencing. They were originally arrested in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder after their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, were found dead in their own Beverly Hills home. Two subsequent trials resulted in Erik and Lyle’s conviction and life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Lyle and Erik Menéndez are sharing their side of the story — about the crime, the aftermath and their current lives in prison — more than three decades after their high-profile murder case resulted in a life sentence. The Menéndez Brothers, which started streaming Monday, October 7, on Netflix, features audio from interviews Lyle, 56, […]
The siblings have maintained that their mother and father were physically, emotionally and sexually abusive and that they acted in self-defense. After being locked away for nearly three decades, Erik and Lyle’s murder case returned to the spotlight through the release of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Monsters, which provided a dramatized look at their lives.
In October, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón recommended that a judge resentence Erik and Lyle to 50 years, which could make them eligible for parole and prison release.
“I won’t speak to whether [Erik and Lyle] have a plan [after their potential prison release]. I just think that in order to get through each day, you’ve got to just ground yourself,” their attorney Mark Geragos exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “It’s a long road from life without [parole] for almost 17 years to being hopeful.”
The request got more complicated after Gascón lost his bid for reelection earlier this month. Erik and Lyle also petitioned for clemency, but Governor Gavin Newsom said he will defer the decision to allow District Attorney-elect Nathan Hochman to review the case upon entering office.
Erik and Lyle were expected to get an update during a Monday, November 25, court date focused on the entry of two new pieces of evidence — which were not presented during Erik and Lyle’s initial trials — into consideration to support their allegations of sexual abuse by their father.
However, Judge Michael Jesic said he needed more time to get up to speed on the case and would not be ready by December 11, which was the original date for the official hearing. He moved the resentencing hearing to January 30 and 31.
Erik and Lyle, who were meant to appear at the court date virtually, heard the news but weren’t seen due to technology glitches at the prison. The siblings — and other family members — have remained positive about their potential release.
Before their case was reexamined, Netflix’s The Menéndez Brothers offered Erik and Lyle the chance to share their side of the story three decades later.
“I do worry and I think it is important that the seriousness of my crime not be minimized or diminished,” Erik said in the documentary, which debuted in October. “I went to the only person that had ever helped me and that had ever protected me. Then ultimately this happened because of me. Because I went to him. Then afterwards, he was arrested because of me. Because I couldn’t live with what I did, I couldn’t. I wanted to die. In a way, I did not protect Lyle. I got him into every aspect of this tragedy. Every aspect of this tragedy is my fault.”
Lyle, meanwhile, admitted he still blamed himself for the events that took place.
“For me, I never could escape that night. That night just floods back into your mind a lot,” he noted in the doc. “I never found understanding. I sometimes feel like I rescued Erik. But did I? Look at his life now. It feels impossible that I couldn’t do better. I couldn’t rescue all of us.”