SAN DIEGO (CNS) — Erik Menendez, who is imprisoned in San Diego with his brother Lyle for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents, has been hospitalized with what his attorney Tuesday called a serious medical condition.
"Erik Menendez was transported to an outside medical facility on July 18," according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "While medical privacy laws restrict us from providing more details, he remains there in fair condition."
Mark Geragos, attorney for the Menendez Brothers, told TMZ that Erik "is having a serious medical condition right now," but he refused to elaborate. TMZ and the Los Angeles Times both reported that the medical issue is kidney stones.
The brothers are imprisoned at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. It was unclear at which hospital Erik Menendez is being treated.
Geragos suggested that because of his medical condition, Erik Menendez should be granted a furlough from prison to help him prepare for an upcoming Aug. 21-22 parole hearing.
"I think right now that is the appropriate thing to do...," he told TMZ.
The brothers had been serving sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, but in May, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic re-sentenced them to 50 years to life in prison, making them immediately eligible for parole consideration because they were younger than 26 when the crime occurred.
If the parole board recommends the brothers for parole, the issue will then be forwarded to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will have 90 days to review the matter and could reject the parole grant. Attorneys for the brothers have also submitted a request for Newsom to consider granting the pair clemency.
Lyle Menendez, 57, and Erik Menendez, 54, have spent about 35 years behind bars without the possibility of parole for the Aug. 20, 1989, killings of Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez in their Beverly Hills home. The Menendez brothers claim the killings were committed after years of abuse, including alleged sexual abuse by their father.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman, however, has opposed efforts to secure their release, saying they have repeatedly lied about the motivation for the killings. He said the brothers most notably contended earlier that they carried out the crime because they believed their parents were planning to kill them.
However, Jesic said during a hearing in May he was convinced the brothers deserved a new sentence due to all the work they did in prison on behalf of the inmate population. The judge also noted unexpected letters he received in favor of the Menendez brothers from correction officers, including a lieutenant.
In a 2023 court petition, attorneys for the brothers pointed to two new pieces of evidence they contend corroborate the brothers' allegations of long-term sexual abuse at the hands of their father -- a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in early 1989 or late 1988, and recent allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.
