PinnedUpdated Aug. 23, 2025, 1:56 a.m. ETLyle Menendez still belongs in prison for killing his parents, a state panel decided on Friday, despite the remorse he has expressed and the good works he has done for fellow inmates.A day after his brother, Erik, was denied parole, Lyle was handed the same fate after a hearing that lasted 11 hours. He was praised for showing “potential for change” but faulted for persistent “antisocial personality traits.”Both brothers faced pointed criticism from the commissioners, who said they were troubled by repeated violations of prison rules, particularly involving using cellphones inside the facilities.The parole decisions close off one path to freedom for the brothers, more than three decades after they murdered their parents inside the family’s home in Beverly Hills, Calif.The board said they could try for parole again in three years, and in the meantime, the brothers could seek clemency from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. They could also continue their efforts to get a judge to reduce their convictions or grant them a new trial.The case became a national fascination in the 1990s, and again in recent years after documentaries, docudramas and works of journalism revealed the extent of the abuse that their father inflicted on them.Here are the details:The proceedings: Lyle Menendez, 57, appearing from prison on video, faced hours of questioning from a panel of two parole board commissioners. The tone of the hearing was different at the outset from the one for Erik on Thursday. Read more ›The rationale: In handing down the panel’s decision Friday, board members said they believed the murders carried out by Lyle demonstrated a remarkable level of callousness and disregard for others. They also cited what they said was a pattern of recent misconduct in prison by Lyle. Read more ›Family response: The family of Lyle and Erik Menendez released a statement after the proceeding. “While we are of course disappointed by today’s decision as well, we are not discouraged.” They vowed to continue fighting for the release of the brothers.Erik’s fate: After a 10-hour hearing on Thursday, a different panel of commissioners found that Erik had “not been a model prisoner,” deciding that he should remain behind bars for at least three more years. Read more ›Anger over audio: Friday’s hearing grew contentious near the end when Lyle Menendez and his team learned that an audio recording from Erik Menendez’s hearing the day before had appeared on the internet. They complained that it turned Friday’s hearing into a spectacle. The parole board said that it had released the audio legally. Read more ›A shocking crime: Lyle’s hearing took place 36 years almost to the day after he and Erik marched into their living room with shotguns on Aug. 20, 1989, and opened fire on their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. The case transfixed the country for its lurid violence against a backdrop of wealth and privilege in one of the country’s most exclusive enclaves. Read more ›Aug. 23, 2025, 2:06 a.m. ETCredit...The New York TimesThe Menendez murder case has captivated the American media and public for more than 30 years, since the first of two trials that was televised live on Court TV through the release last year of two Netflix shows, which spawned new interest in the brothers’ fate.Here is a collection of The New York Times’s coverage of the case, from Lyle Menendez’s riveting testimony to the brothers’ convictions. The full Times archive is available to subscribers at TimesMachine.March 14, 1990“Beverly Hills Journal; Real Life Produces Plot Fit For Movie”The first article written about Erik and Lyle Menendez came a few days after they were arrested, separately, and charged with killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on Aug. 20, 1989.Just minutes from the studios where the most bizarre crime plots are hatched for movies and television, a searing real-life story of blood, money and alleged patricide is unfolding among the privileged of Beverly Hills.July 21, 1993“Sons Killed Parents; Why Is Only Issue”The first murder trial began after three years of legal debate over the admissibility of a psychotherapist’s tape-recorded notes of a session in which Erik Menendez confessed to the killings. The brothers said they acted out of fear for their lives after confronting their father over years of sexual, physical and mental abuse.Lyle Menendez held his head down through much of this morning’s court session. Erik Menendez appeared near tears as his attorney, Leslie Abramson, described years of sexual abuse, sodomy and sadism that she said his father had inflicted on him.The prosecution maintains that the brothers killed their parents out of greed, hoping to inherit $14 million.Sept. 12, 1993“Stories of Sexual Abuse Transform Murder Trial”When 25-year-old Lyle Menendez took the stand, the mood of the trial shifted.Lyle Menendez’s gripping testimony on Friday countered the prosecutors’ portrayal of the two handsome, healthy, well-dressed young men as spoiled rich children who believed they could have whatever they wanted.The defendant was in tears almost from the start as he told a story of a frightened child suffering terrifying pressures from a demanding and cruel father, and expressions of hatred from his mother.Sometimes putting his knuckles to his mouth in an effort to compose himself, sometimes squeezing and wiping his eyes, sometimes burying his head in his sleeve, he said his father had raped him and had forced him to perform oral sex in what Jose Menendez had told him was a ritual of male bonding.“I was the most important thing in his life,” the young man testified, and he said he lived in desperation to earn his father’s love.Nov. 17, 1993“Witness Recants on Brothers Who Killed Parents”A woman whose information led to the brothers’ arrests testified that she was “brainwashed” when she went to the police in 1990. She was brought to the stand by the defense to discredit a psychotherapist after the jurors heard an audiotape of a therapy session in which Erik Menendez shared his convoluted feelings about killing his parents, at times even self-loathing, while Lyle Menendez repeatedly said they were carrying out their mother’s wishes.But in the tape, the brothers make no mention of sexual molestation or self-defense. Instead, they suggest that the killings were planned and that they took pride in what they had done. Lyle Menendez says on the tape that he killed his depressed mother because he believed he was doing her “a favor.”“What Erik and I did took courage beyond belief,” Lyle is heard saying on the tape, recorded on Dec. 11, 1989. “There was no way I was going to make a decision to kill my mother without Erik’s consent. I didn’t even want to influence him on that issue. I just let him sleep on it for a couple of days.”At another point in the tape, Lyle said: “I think one of the big, biggest pains he has is that you miss just having these people around. I miss not having my dog around — if I can make such a gross analogy.”Jan. 29, 1994“The Other Menendez Trial, Too, Ends With the Jury Deadlocked”The first trial, which lasted six months, ended in a mistrial, with deadlocked juries in each brother’s case.The sex of the jurors played a significant role in the deliberations in Erik’s case, lawyers for both sides and one alternate juror said, with five of the six men voting for first-degree murder; everyone else voted for lesser charges.“Most of the women felt he wasn’t guilty,” said Kenneth Pearson, 44, the alternate juror, who said he had spoken with the jurors who deliberated. “The men felt he was.” That the defendant faced the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, Mr. Pearson said, played no role in the deliberations.After speaking with jurors, Erik’s lawyer, Leslie Abramson, said there was more argument than discussion in the deliberations. “There was basically a war,” she said.March 21, 1996“Menendez Brothers Guilty Of Killing Their Parents”In a retrial, Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of murdering their parents.The defendants, Erik, 25, and Lyle, 28, sat quietly and calmly as the jury forewoman repeated the word guilty. The courtroom, filled with spectators, family and reporters, remained silent during the reading of the verdict, which came after nearly four days of deliberation by 10 original jurors and two alternates. The full original jury had deliberated since March 1, until two jurors became ill.The verdict was a resounding victory for the prosecution and the searing story of blood, money and parricide that it had presented. The murders and the accusations against the young men had provoked feelings of shock and anger that resonated throughout the world.April 18, 1996“Jury Decides to Spare Menendezes the Death Penalty”A jury rejected the prosecution’s request for the death penalty and decided that Erik and Lyle Menendez should instead spend the rest of their lives in prison.Speaking to reporters after the verdict was announced, Charles Gessler, the lawyer for Lyle Menendez, 28, said his client was “relieved because he wants to live.” Mr. Gessler added: “You know life without parole is not something to be looking forward to. So you can’t say he is happy, but he is relieved that it was life.”Leslie Abramson, the lawyer for Erik Menendez, 25, said of her reaction to the decision: “I’m so excited. It’s a tremendous relief.”A reporter asked, “Was it a win?”“Oh, what’s a win?” she replied. “They’re going to spend the rest of their lives in prison.” She added, on a more positive note, that the brothers were “such considerable human beings that they will find a way to be productive.”Aug. 23, 2025, 1:52 a.m. ETGov. Gavin Newsom has affirmed the vast majority of parole recommendations he receives. Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThe decision by California parole commissioners that the Menendez brothers should not be released from prison takes significant political pressure off Gov. Gavin Newsom, who would have had the final say if the parole board had recommended release.Lyle and Erik Menendez can still try to seek freedom by petitioning the governor for clemency, which they applied for last year. But granting it would put Mr. Newsom in a risky political position. He would have to explain why he thinks they should get out of prison when the parole board stated they pose a potential threat to public safety 36 years after they killed their parents in the living room of their Beverly Hills home.“I don’t think there will be a real strong political push for Newsom to grant clemency if his own parole board is recommending against the release,” said Laurie Levenson, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.Mr. Newsom began weighing clemency for the brothers even before a Los Angeles judge reduced their sentence of life without parole in May. Early this year, he asked the parole board to conduct a risk assessment that could help him evaluate whether to grant them clemency. That assessment was also considered by the commissioners who determined the brothers were not suitable for parole.Commissioners said Erik Menendez broke numerous prison rules during his years behind bars by using a cellphone, taking drugs and participating in a tax fraud scheme. Murdering his mother showed a lack of “empathy and reason,” they said, rebutting his contention that he feared being killed by his parents.The parole board is appointed by the governor. So it would make sense for Mr. Newsom, a Democrat who is considering a run for president in 2028, to lean on the board’s findings to reject the brothers’ clemency requests, Ms. Levenson said.Mr. Newsom has affirmed the vast majority of parole recommendations — last year he rejected only 11 parole grants of 1,154 people who were recommended for release. However, he has reversed parole board decisions in some of the highest-profile, and most notorious, cases that have reached his desk.After Sirhan B. Sirhan, who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 in Los Angeles while he was campaigning for president, was recommended for parole in 2022, Mr. Newsom rejected it after lobbying from members of the Kennedy family.Mr. Newsom has also repeatedly rejected parole for followers of Charles Manson, the cult leader who orchestrated several murders in Los Angeles in 1969. In one of the cases, Mr. Newsom’s decision to reject a panel’s recommendation of parole for Leslie Van Houten was overruled by an appeals court.Ms. Van Houten, who was serving a life sentence for her role in the stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in the Los Feliz neighborhood one night after the slaying of the actress Sharon Tate, was released from prison in 2023.Mr. Newsom will likely have a decision to make this year in the case of Patricia Krenwinkel, another member of the Manson family, who is California’s longest-serving female inmate and was recommended for parole in late May.Aug. 23, 2025, 1:26 a.m. ETThe Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving their sentences.Credit...Mike Blake/ReutersErik Menendez was denied parole on Thursday, with the panel citing several reasons in its decision.Mr. Menendez, in killing his mother, Kitty, showed that he was “devoid of human compassion,” said Robert Barton, the panel’s presiding commissioner. He also concluded that Mr. Menendez was not in “imminent fear” for his life before he and his brother, Lyle, murdered their parents, rebutting an assertion that both brothers have made.A major factor in the decision appeared to be the prison violations Erik had committed over the years. Mr. Barton noted that Mr. Menendez had been caught recently with a cellphone, which is contraband; had used drugs in prison; and participated in a tax fraud scheme several years ago.Mr. Barton questioned whether Mr. Menendez had given false information to his family about his prison behavior.“Contrary to your supporters’ beliefs, you have not been a model prisoner, and frankly we find that a little disturbing,” Mr. Barton said.Ultimately, the panel concluded that Mr. Menendez was still a risk to public safety.Appearing via video feed from a San Diego prison, Mr. Menendez recounted how his father, Jose Menendez, had abused him, and said that his mother told him that she had known about it, a moment he described as “the most devastating moment in my entire life.” Mr. Menendez added that he feared his father would abuse him again, and that he began to see both parents as responsible.He also said that the benefits of using a cellphone — having a sense of connection with the outside world — outweighed the consequences of his getting caught.The denial of parole was not the final say by the board on his chance at freedom.Mr. Menendez could seek parole again in three years. And he could petition to come back before the board in as soon as 18 months if he has a clean prison record.Aug. 23, 2025, 1:09 a.m. ETErik Menendez on Thursday. Released audio of his testimony halted his brother’s parole hearing on Friday.Credit...California Department Of Corrections And Rehabilitation, via ReutersLyle Menendez’s parole hearing came to an abrupt halt late on Friday after more than eight hours of testimony when Mr. Menendez and his representatives learned that audio from his brother Erik’s hearing the day before had appeared on the internet.When Mr. Menendez’s lawyer, Heidi Rummel, learned that the audio had been released by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, she expressed outrage and suggested the proceedings be adjourned.She said that audio had never been released in the many parole hearings she has appeared at on behalf of clients and accused the state corrections agency of turning the hearing into a “public spectacle.”The commissioners, after consulting with agency officials, said the audio had been released in accordance with public records law.Ethan Milius, a deputy district attorney with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, said that the release of audio had little effect on the hearing, noting that transcript would be released publicly soon anyway.Ms. Rummel demanded to know whether the agency also planned to release audio from Friday’s hearing and was told yes.Ms. Rummel said that the remaining family members who had not spoken before the revelation no longer wished to speak and that Mr. Menendez could not have a full and fair hearing.The discussion between the commissioners and family members and their representatives grew contentious. Tiffani Lucero-Pastor, one of Mr. Menendez’s cousins, began at one point to yell at the commissioners and recite Marsy’s Law, California’s victims bill of rights, which provides some privacy protections.“I want to know why the state of California and this prison system has wholly dismissed our rights as victims,” she said. “Who has decided our rights as victims get thrown out the window? This is disgusting. This process is damaged and broken.”Ms. Rummel demanded that the parole board not release the audio recording of Friday’s hearing until she could challenge it in court.Although the agency agreed to the request, several family members still refused to deliver their statements. The panel then ended the hearing and began its deliberations.Aug. 23, 2025, 1:00 a.m. ETLyle Menendez with his lawyer during his trial in 1994.Credit...Ted SoquiIn court testimony and other legal proceedings throughout the years, Lyle and Erik Menendez have asserted that their mother, Kitty, was aware of the sexual abuse being perpetrated by their father, Jose. Several surviving members of the family who have supported the brothers’ release have disavowed much of the way Jose and Kitty treated their sons.On Friday, Lyle said his mother had sexually abused him. The statements came one day after parole board members said they found that Erik Menendez’s killing of their mother showed a lack of “empathy and reason.”The assertion about being sexually abused by Ms. Menendez, which was raised in the brothers’ first murder trial, prompted a parole commissioner to note that such information was not included in the set of official documents involved in Lyle’s parole request that was used to help assess his risk of recidivism.In response, Lyle let out a long sigh. “I didn’t see it as abuse really,” he said of his reaction back then. “I just saw it as something special between my mother and I. So I don’t like to talk about it that way.”He continued: “Today, I see it as sexual abuse. When I was 13, I felt like I was consenting, and my mother was dealing with a lot.”“I just felt like maybe it wasn’t,” he said before correcting himself. “It’s abusive, but I never saw it that way, in the same way.”He went on to tell the panel that he may have omitted some details about his mother’s sexual abuse during interviews with doctors. “They didn’t ask,” he said. “I didn’t volunteer.”Aug. 23, 2025, 12:49 a.m. ETJosé and Kitty Menendez’s grave in Princeton Cemetery in Princeton, N.J.Credit...Rachel Wisniewski for The New York TimesSpeaking through tears, Lyle Menendez referenced in his closing statement on Friday the recent 36-year anniversary of his crime. He said he could still remember the day of the murders.Then, like his brother, Erik, did a day before, he thanked his family.“Despite all of this they are still here, showing up for me, disrupting their lives, dealing with public scrutiny,” Lyle Menendez said, his face red. “And I will never deserve it.”He said his mother and father “did not have to die that day,” noting that the decision to use violence was solely his — not his “baby brother’s” responsibility.Mr. Menendez recalled how his grandmother had long ago taught him to make pinkie promises. They made one in county jail, he said, and he said he has thought about that moment about a thousand times.“I will never be able to make up for the harm and grief I caused everyone in my family,” Mr. Menendez said. “I am so sorry to everyone, and I will be forever sorry.”Aug. 23, 2025, 12:42 a.m. ETLyle Menendez, left, and Erik Menendez leaving a courtroom in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1990, after they were charged in the murder of their parents.Credit...Nick Ut/Associated PressOn Friday evening, a board denied parole for Lyle Menendez, the same fate his brother, Erik Menendez, was dealt the day before. While the Menendez brothers had hoped for freedom, others who have closely followed their case seemed to expect their denials.Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said on Friday that she thought that Lyle Menendez would face a “long shot” at parole.“This is no surprise,” Ms. Levenson said. “For both of them, they were not following all the rules in custody, including the use of the cellphone. For both of them, there are real questions about why they went ahead and chose to kill their parents instead of choosing other options.”During a hearing on Friday that lasted more than 11 hours, Julie Garland, the parole commissioner overseeing the hearing, said that the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez showed a “remarkable level of callousness and disregard for others.”Ms. Garland also cited Lyle Menendez’s illegal use of a cellphone in prison, and said that “incarcerated people who break rules” were also more likely to break rules in society.“Citizens are expected to follow the rules whether or not there is some incentive to do so,” she said.Alan Abrahamson, the former Los Angeles Times reporter who covered the brothers’ first trial and opposed their release, said one factor that surely weighed heavily against Lyle Menendez’s chances was the killing of Kitty Menendez.“After they burst into the den and shot their father to death, their mother was still alive, crawling on her hands and knees,” Mr. Abrahamson said.He added that a forensic report showed that the barrel of the gun was against Kitty Menendez’s cheek when Lyle Menendez pulled the trigger.“That’s just a very bad fact,” Mr. Abrahamson said.Both brothers could have a shot at parole again in as soon as 18 months.Ms. Levenson said that if they followed prison rules, it could help their case. If the brothers stop using cellphones in prison, she said, it could show the parole board that they had learned a lesson.“I think they had a lot of hope,” Ms. Levenson said. “But I think reality sank in during these hearings, which is it was always going to be an uphill battle given their record.”Aug. 23, 2025, 12:13 a.m. ETThe Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving their sentences.Credit...Mike Blake/ReutersThe members of the panel that handed down Friday evening’s decision denying Lyle Menendez parole said that the murders he committed were “callous” and cited his “deception” and disregard for rules.“We find your remorse is genuine. In many ways, you look like you’ve been a model inmate,” Julie Garland, the parole commissioner overseeing Lyle Menendez’s hearing, said, noting that Lyle had “demonstrated the potential for change.” But she added that “you still struggle with antisocial personality traits” that lie beneath the surface.As had been the case with Lyle’s brother, Erik Menendez, a day earlier, commissioners criticized Lyle for thinking that their father, Jose, posed such a considerable threat to their lives. And, as they did with Erik, they cited Lyle’s continuing illegal use of a cellphone while in prison. They added that Lyle was not only possessing cellphones but selling them.Incarcerated people who break rules are more likely to do so after re-entering society, the panel said. “Citizens are expected to follow the rules whether or not there is some incentive to do so,” Ms. Garland added.To be successful at a future parole hearing, Lyle Menendez needed to address what they said was a criminal way of thinking, which included his cellphone violations.The panel did give great weight to the fact that Lyle Menendez was under the age of 26 at the time of the crimes and very susceptible to what they acknowledged could be a negative and dysfunctional environment created by his father.Ultimately, the panel said, Lyle Menendez needs to be the person he shows he is when he is running programs for other inmates.“Don’t ever not have hope,” she said, adding that Friday’s denial was “not the end.”“It’s a way for you to spend some time to demonstrate, to practice what you preach about who you are, who you want to be,” Ms. Garland added. “Don’t be somebody different behind closed doors.”Aug. 23, 2025, 12:05 a.m. ETTim ArangoReporting from Los AngelesA typical parole hearing lasts two to four hours, but Lyle Menendez’s hearing stretched on for nearly 11 hours. It was interrupted in the evening when the participants learned that an audio recording of his brother Erik’s hearing from Thursday had been released to the public. Menendez’s family was outraged, and the proceeding restarted only after the state corrections agency agreed to withhold an audio recording of Friday’s hearing to allow for a court challenge.Aug. 22, 2025, 11:55 p.m. ETThe Menendez brothers, Lyle, left, and Erik, in 1991. They earned college degrees in prison and participated in a variety of classes and programs.Credit...Kevork Djansezian/Associated PressWhile in prison, Erik and Lyle Menendez have earned degrees from the University of California, Irvine, and have pursued rehabilitation through a variety of programs, classes and projects.Erik has overseen groups that focus on meditation, addiction and alternatives to violence, and has worked in hospice care helping older inmates. Lyle, though, has tended to take a broader approach.“Almost like a C.E.O. of a company,” said Gabe Rosales, who teaches guitar and songwriting to prisoners and has known the brothers for years.Lyle has taken more ambitious leadership roles while incarcerated, serving as a liaison between the inmate population and the prison administration, working to secure more inmate privileges. He has also been involved in inmate government, and once worked with administrators to help racially integrate housing.And at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, he oversaw an effort to redesign the physical space of the prison, with landscaping, murals and an outdoor area for training therapy dogs.While commissioners overseeing Erik’s parole hearing praised him for the groups he participated in and the classes he completed, they said they were concerned by his illegal cellphone usage. Cellphones, like controlled substances and weapons, are considered contraband.Lyle, on Friday, faced similar questioning about cellphones.Patrick Reardon, the deputy commissioner on the parole panel, described an “inconsistency” between Lyle’s projects and his role on the inmate advisory council, saying Lyle’s constant possession of a cellphone fit a pattern of deceit.Lyle said he had turned to cellphones to communicate with the outside world once he moved in 2018 to R.J. Donovan, where he was reunited with his brother. He was suddenly far away from his wife. And, he said, he was worried that prison staff would sell information about him to the news media that they learned from monitoring his calls over the prison phone system.Lyle said that after the television series “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” was released in 2017, he noticed that staff showed greater interest in what he was doing.Lyle said he started thinking about the consequences of illegal cellphones only last fall, when the district attorney of Los Angeles filed a petition in support of his resentencing, even though he had already lost his right to conjugal visits with his wife over cellphone violations. Up until then, he believed he would never leave prison, having been sentenced to life without parole.A cellphone, he said, made his life “exponentially better and more connected.”Still, Lyle’s overall disciplinary record in prison appeared better than Erik’s. He had infractions for drugs, as well as fighting on two occasions and participating in a tax fraud scheme behind bars.Aug. 22, 2025, 11:41 p.m. ETTim ArangoReporting from Los AngelesJulie Garland, the commissioner on the state panel, said she considered the fact that Lyle Menendez’s cellphone violations stopped only after a legal process was underway that led to his sentence being reduced from life without parole. “Citizens are expected to follow the rules whether or not there is some incentive to do so,” she said.Aug. 22, 2025, 11:35 p.m. ETTim ArangoReporting from Los AngelesThe family of Lyle Menendez released a statement shortly after the proceeding concluded. “While we are of course disappointed by today’s decision as well, we are not discouraged,” it said. They vowed to continue fighting for his release and for the release of his brother, Erik Menendez, in future parole hearings and a habeas petition that is under review by a Los Angeles court.Aug. 22, 2025, 11:30 p.m. ETTim ArangoReporting from Los AngelesJulie Garland, the commissioner, said the murders by the brothers showed a “remarkable level of callousness and disregard for others.” She also cited Lyle Menendez’s illegal use of cellphones inside prison.Aug. 22, 2025, 11:21 p.m. ETLyle, left, and Erik Menendez in 1990.Credit...Nick Ut/Associated PressDespite the similar outcome, Lyle Menendez’s parole hearing was different from his brother’s from the moment it began.After watching Erik Menendez be denied parole a day earlier, Lyle’s parole attorney, Heidi Rummel, on Friday noted that the board on Thursday did not ask many questions about the trauma Erik has said he endured.Julie Garland, the parole commissioner overseeing Lyle’s hearing, then appeared to adopt a different approach and tone from the commissioner who oversaw Erik’s hearing when she began her own questioning.She noted that the documents submitted on Lyle’s behalf were “clearly heartfelt, well-written, informative.” And with her first question, she asked Lyle whether the sexual abuse he had endured had affected his decision-making.“It was confusing, caused a lot of shame in me,” Lyle said. “That pretty much characterized my relationship with my father.”Ms. Garland would go on to question Lyle about many of the same topics Erik was asked about: his criminal history, including burglaries; his purchase of guns; and his concerns about money. Like his brother, Lyle was also interrogated about his behavior in prison and his illegal use of cellphones — violations that commissioners cited in denying Erik parole. And there were times the commissioners cut Lyle off or interjected, seeming to have lost patience with him.But perhaps in an effort to avoid his brother’s fate, Lyle often tried different approaches when commissioners asked him questions on topics they cited Thursday as among the reasons they denied Erik parole.When discussing his relationship with his mother, Lyle made clear that she had sexually abused him, a revelation that had been raised in the first murder trial. He said he no longer believed that his parents were going to kill him imminently at the time he and Erik murdered them, though Lyle did say that “at the time, I had that honest belief.”Lyle also offered a new explanation for why he used cellphones in prison: He wanted privacy for his calls because he was worried that the prison staff members who monitored his conversations would sell tidbits to the tabloids.None of his efforts, however, helped him secure a different outcome from his brother.