More than 35 years after the shotgun killings of their parents in Beverly Hills, this is what the Menendez brothers look like now: Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, appear in blue prison uniforms at video hearings from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, where they share a housing unit and have spent recent years as fixtures of prison programming. Erik was last photographed on August 21, 2025, wearing glasses and a white long-sleeve undershirt beneath his blue prison shirt, seated at a table with his hands clasped in front of a computer monitor. Lyle, visibly emotional at his own parole hearing the following day, spoke with a strained, shaking voice and tears in his eyes.1
Both brothers were denied parole in August 2025. A habeas corpus petition seeking a new trial was denied the following month. Their remaining paths run through clemency and a possible motion to reduce their convictions.
Recent Images and Hearings
The most current widely circulated image of Erik comes from his August 21, 2025, parole hearing, which he attended by remote video connection. No detailed written descriptions of his aging have been published; the photograph shows a man who has spent his entire adult life incarcerated.
A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation booking photo taken on October 10, 2024, is among the more recent images of Lyle. During his August 2025 parole hearing, he appeared via video wearing a blue prison jumpsuit. Press accounts focused less on his physical appearance than on his emotional state as he spoke about the anniversary of his parents’ deaths and expressed remorse.
Lyle’s hair has been part of his public image since the original trial, when it was revealed he wore a toupee to conceal hair loss that began in his late teens. According to journalist Robert Rand’s book The Menendez Murders, his father Jose insisted he get a hairpiece, believing a full head of hair was essential for a political career. The piece was glued on and required a special solvent to remove. Five days before the murders, Kitty Menendez ripped it off his head during an altercation.
At their May 13, 2025, resentencing hearing, both brothers also appeared by video from Donovan. Both wore blue prison garb and spoke for roughly ten minutes each. NPR reporter Steve Futterman described their statements as “quite moving,” noting there were tears at times.
Where They Live Now
Lyle and Erik were reunited in the same housing unit at Richard J. Donovan in April 2018, after more than 20 years at separate California prisons. During the years apart, they communicated by letter and even played chess by mail.
They now live in a section of the facility known as Echo Yard, a non-designated programming facility that offers more freedom and access to rehabilitative programming than a standard housing unit. The brothers reside in different dorm rooms with other inmates but see each other at meals, exercise, and recreation. Dorm rooms are locked at 9:00 p.m.
As Group A prisoners, both are permitted visits and free phone calls. Since June 2023, they have had state-issued tablets that let them send emails and text messages, make limited video calls, read magazines, and follow the news.
How They Spend Their Days
Both brothers have been heavily involved in prison programming for decades.
Erik founded at least five programs at Donovan, including a support group for elderly and disabled inmates. He works with terminally ill inmates through a hospice care program, leads religious meditation classes, and is certified to teach meditation. He has taught workshops on what he calls “toxic shame” and alternatives to violence, sometimes leading up to five classes a week. He learned American Sign Language to communicate with deaf inmates, and he became a skilled oil painter who has worked up to 12 hours a day on his art. As of late 2024, he and Lyle were collaborating on a mural for the Echo Yard walls that was about 60 percent complete. Erik has been sober since 2013.
Lyle founded a beautification initiative called the GreenSpace project, which raised more than $250,000 to install trees, grass, and outdoor community spaces inside the prison. He co-founded a group that helps inmates examine how childhood experiences influence criminal behavior, and he established a mentorship program pairing life-sentence inmates with younger prisoners. He served in inmate government for 15 years at Mule Creek State Prison before his transfer to Donovan, supported the training of service dogs, and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Irvine in June 2024. He is pursuing a master’s degree in urban planning. Both brothers have offered guidance to survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Marriages and Family
Both brothers married while incarcerated.
Erik married Tammi Saccoman in 1999 at Folsom State Prison after the two began corresponding as pen pals during his first trial. They remain together, and Erik has a stepdaughter, Talia, through Tammi.
Lyle’s first marriage, to former model Anna Eriksson in 1996, ended in divorce. He married Rebecca Sneed in 2003 in the maximum-security visiting area at Mule Creek State Prison. In November 2024, Sneed announced on social media that the two had been separated for some time but remained “best friends and family.” She continues to manage his social media pages with his input.
Health
In July 2025, family members reported that Erik had undergone two surgeries for complications related to large kidney stones in both kidneys and needed a third procedure.
Where the Case Stands
On May 13, 2025, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic resentenced both brothers to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole under California law because they were under 26 at the time of the crimes. Their original sentences, imposed in July 1996 after their March 1996 first-degree murder convictions, had been life without the possibility of parole.
Erik appeared before the parole board on August 21, 2025, and Lyle on August 22. Both were denied. The board found that each posed “an unreasonable risk to public safety,” citing contraband cellphone violations in late 2024 and early 2025, the nature of the killings, and concerns that neither brother had fully accepted responsibility. The board also acknowledged positive factors: Lyle’s remorse was described as “genuine,” and commissioners noted he had not been involved in a violent incident in 30 years. Both received credit for their rehabilitation work.
Each brother received a three-year denial, meaning they can request an administrative review in one year and could potentially appear before the board again in as little as 18 months if they maintain a clean record.
On September 16, 2025, Judge William Ryan denied the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which had sought a new trial based on a letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders describing abuse by his father, and allegations from former Menudo member Roy Rossello that Jose Menendez had raped him. Ryan ruled the new evidence was not strong enough to have changed the outcome of the original trial. District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the ruling “a full kibosh” on that effort.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos has also explored asking a court to reduce the murder convictions to voluntary manslaughter, which would entitle the brothers to immediate release because they have already served far longer than the maximum sentence for that charge. As of the most recent reporting, Geragos had not formally filed that motion.
Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered an independent risk assessment and scheduled a clemency-related hearing for June 13, 2026. Newsom has said the results will factor into his decision on whether to grant clemency. Criminal law professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School has said it would be politically difficult for the governor to grant clemency after his own appointed parole board recommended against release.