Lyle Menéndez From Netflix’s Monsters Shared An Update From Prison

Trigger Warning: This piece contains discussion of sexual abuse.

In 2022, the debut season of Netflix’s Monster anthology garnered record viewership numbers for its dramatization of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Two years later, the crime drama is back with a very different subject: Lyle and Erik Menéndez, the Beverly Hills brothers who shot and killed their parents, Kitty and José, in 1989.

“I have a tremendous amount of empathy for Lyle and what he’s experienced,” Nicholas Chavez, who plays the older Menéndez brother, said in a Netflix interview. “I think that as actors, we’re tasked with tackling these really, really difficult roles, and it’s very easy to become emotionally attached to the characters that we play.”

Here’s where Lyle Menéndez is today, 35 years after the events of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story.

They Were Sentenced To Life In Prison

The older Menéndez brother briefly studied at Princeton University before he and Erik shot their parents at home in August 1989.

Lyle and Erik testified that they endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse growing up. As The New York Times reported during the brothers’ 1993 trial, Lyle stated that he had confronted José about sexually abusing Erik. “I felt we were in danger. I felt he had no choice but that he would kill us, that he would get rid of us in some way because he thought I was going to ruin him,” Lyle said at the time.

The first trial ended in two deadlocked juries — one for each brother. At the retrial, which ended in 1996, they were each convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Where Is Lyle Today?

While the ending of Monsters sees Lyle and Erik sent to different prisons, they were reunited at the same San Diego facility in 2018.

Robert Rand, a journalist covering the brothers since 1989, told ABC that the brothers “burst into tears immediately” upon seeing each other.

According to a 2024 update from 48 Hours on CBS News, both brothers are married to women from outside prison. “I think it has made a huge difference to have love and support like that,” Lyle told Natalie Morales in a phone interview.

Today, he said, he works with fellow inmates who have been through sexual abuse.

There’s Been An Update

The same 48 Hours report points out several recent developments that could play a role in the future of the Menéndez brothers’ case, including a recently resurfaced letter Erik had written to his cousin the year before the murders, where he described worsening abuse by his father.

Last year, Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, alleged that he’d been sexually abused by José Menéndez — formerly an RCA Records executive — as a child, per Variety.

Equipped with these discoveries, Cliff Gardner and Mark Geragos filed a habeas corpus petition, hoping the case may be reevaluated in light of new information. “In my mind, it [the evidence] clearly is enough,” Geragos told Newsweek. “I think they should be resentenced.”

This September, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told People that the office “is investigating the claims submitted in the petition.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org.