After a California parole board ruled that Erik Menendez will remain behind bars for at least three more years, the Menendez family is bracing for another potentially painful outcome as Lyle Menendez faces the parole board.
“Now they’re preparing for neither of them being released,” sources close to the family tell PEOPLE. “For Erik, they’re disappointed with the outcome, but believe it was a win since he can be up for parole again in three years.”
Erik was denied parole on Thursday, Aug. 21, more than three decades after he and his brother, Lyle, were convicted of murdering their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in 1989 in their Beverly Hills, Calif., home.
The denial largely stemmed from infractions during his time behind bars, which Commissioner Robert Barton said included drugs, a cellphone, and a tax fraud scheme, the The New York Times reported.
“Contrary to your supporters’ beliefs, you have not been a model prisoner, and frankly we find that a little disturbing,” Barton said, according to the outlet.
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The family believes the decision “stems from [Erik’s] new risk assessment connected to the cellphone violation,” sources told PEOPLE.
Now, Lyle awaits a decision as he faces the parole board Friday, Aug. 22. A legal expert recently told PEOPLE that he may face a similar outcome unless “his parole commissioners are different” and if his behavior behind bars is unlike Erik’s.
“It would be really, a miscarriage of justice if one brother were paroled and the other were not, because they’re so similarly situated,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said.
In May, a judge ruled that Lyle and Erik would be resentenced from life in prison without parole to 50 years to life. The resentencing made the brothers, who were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996, immediately eligible for parole because they were under 26 at the time of the killings. Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.
Lyle and Erik do not dispute that they killed their parents, but have long contended they were sexually abused by their father, which Kitty was allegedly aware of but did nothing to stop. They also claimed Jose had threatened to kill them if they told anyone about the abuse.
After the murders, prosecutors argued that the brothers’ motive was greed, pointing to their lavish spending spree following the killings.
Following Erik’s hearing, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman praised the California Board of Parole Hearings’ decision, stating that it “does justice” for the victims.
