Tammi Menendez is expressing her gratitude.
One day after Los Angeles County Judge Michael Jesic reduced her husband Erik Menendez and his brother Lyle Menendez‘s life in prison without parole sentences to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole, Erik’s wife shared a short note to well-wishers.
“High time the Menendez brothers got a break… Congratulations @TammiMenendez1 …so happy for you wish this chance…” one user wrote on X May 14, to which Tammi responded, “Thank you so much!”
During the May 13 resentencing hearing, the judge ruled that Erik, 54—who wed Tammi in a 1999 prison ceremony—Tammi’s husband, 54, and Lyle, 57, were eligible for resentencing, issuing his new sentencing guidelines not long after.
The brothers have already served 35 years in prison after being convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for the 1989 killings of their parents José Menendez and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. (They had previously been tried in 1993, which resulted in a hung jury, leading to the 1995 retrial.)
Before issuing his new sentence, the judge said he couldn’t “make a finding that they are an unreasonable risk” if released from prison.
The new sentences automatically make Erik and Lyle eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law as the duo committed the crimes when they were under the age of 26. (Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21 at the time of the murders.)
The siblings’ fate is now in the hands of the state’s Board of Parole Hearings, which is already scheduled a June 13 hearing to determine if they are suitable for release, after which the matter will be subject to review by California Governor Gavin Newsom. The brothers are also seeking clemency from the governor in a separate bid for freedom that their lawyers submitted in October.
During their resentencing hearing, Erik and Lyle—appearing via videolink—expressed remorse and noted that they took responsibility for the murders of their mom and dad, who the brothers had alleged had physically, emotionally and sexually abused them for years.
“My actions were criminal, selfish, cruel and cowardly,” Erik told the court, per NBC News. “I have no excuse, no justification for what I did.”
Lyle issued his own statement to the court. “I killed my mom and dad,” adding, “I make no excuses. I take full responsibility.”
He added that he “was in a codependent relationship” with Erik over shared trauma. “Today, 35 years later, I am deeply ashamed of who I was,” Lyle said, later adding, “I made a promise I would never use violence to solve a problem.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who had opposed the resentencing hearing, said in a statement that the decision to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez was a “monumental one that has significant implications for the families involved, the community, and the principles of justice.”
He added, “Our office’s motions to withdraw the resentencing motion filed by the previous administration ensured that the Court was presented with all the facts before making such a consequential decision.”
As for the brothers’ legal team, one of their lawyers, Mark Geragos, expressed optimism for their future.
“Redemption is possible,” he told reporters after the resentencing. “The Menendez brothers have done remarkable work and today is a great day.”
Read on for more on the brothers and their personal lives.
Anna Eriksson
Lyle Menendez, then 28, married model and salon receptionist Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996, the day he and brother Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 double murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Anna started writing to Lyle in 1993 during his first trial, which ended in a mistrial, and then moved to California to be near him the following year. She became a reliable presence at the months-long retrial that began in 1995 and resulted in convictions in March 1996, according to the Los Angeles Times.
They couldn’t take their vows in person, however, Lyle instead taking the plunge over speaker phone, the groom in custody and the bride in the office of defense attorney Leslie Abramson.
He seemingly hoped to be able to wed Anna in person, once he knew where he’d end up.
“We do have a marriage proceeding,” California Correctional Institution spokesman Lt. Jack Pitko told the LA Times in September 1996 once Lyle and Erik had been ordered to separate prisons. “There’s a waiting list…But I don’t see why he shouldn’t be able to get married if he follows all the rules.”
Anna filed for divorce in 2001 after, according to multiple reports from the time, she allegedly found out Lyle was exchanging letters with other women.
Rebecca Sneed
Lyle didn’t rush into anything when he married journalist Rebecca Sneed, reportedly 33 at the time, in November 2003: He had known her for 10 years, first through letters and eventually from in-person visits, a prison spokesperson told the Associated Press in confirming the nuptials.
The ceremony took place at Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento, where Lyle resided until he was reunited with Erik in 2018 at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in southern San Diego County.
“Our interaction tends to be very free of distractions and we probably have more intimate conversations than most married spouses do, who are distracted by life’s events,” Lyle told People in 2017. At the time, Rebecca was living in Sacramento and was said to visit weekly.
“We try and talk on the phone every day, sometimes several times a day,” Lyle added. “I have a very steady, involved marriage and that helps sustain me and brings a lot of peace and joy. It’s a counter to the unpredictable, very stressful environment here.”
Rebecca “put up with a lot,” he acknowledged. “But she has the courage to deal with the obstacles. It would be easier to leave, but I’m profoundly grateful that she doesn’t.”
The bloom has since come off the rose, however: Ahead of a decision on whether Lyle and Erik should be resentenced and possibly set free in the near future, Rebecca confirmed that she and Lyle are separated.
“Lyle and I have been separated for a while now but remain best friends and family,” she wrote Nov. 22 on her official Facebook page. “I continue to run his Facebook pages, with input from him, and I am forever committed to the enduring fight for Lyle and Erik’s freedom, as has been so evident over the years.”
She added, “I’ll continue to update you all on the progress of the case because I believe we all have the common goal of seeing the guys walk free! I will never stop fighting for them.”
And because tabloid rumors don’t stop outside the prison gates, the post also noted, “This is NOT a cheating scandal.”
Tammi Saccoman
Erik’s wife Tammi Menendez, now 62, was married to Chuck Saccoman when she first spied the younger Menendez brother on TV in 1993 and felt a special place in her heart for the 22-year-old murder defendant.
As she later told People, she informed her husband she was going to write to Erik and Chuck gave her his blessing.
“I saw Tammi’s letter and I felt something. I received thousands of letters, but I set this one aside. I got a feeling,” Erik told the publication. “And I wrote her back. Tammi and I continued to correspond. I enjoyed writing to her. It was a slow friendship. It was special to me because it was not associated with the trial and the media. Tammi was someone not in the craziness.”
However, as Tammi detailed in her 2005 book They Said We’d Never Make It: My Life With Erik Menendez, she doubted the brothers’ abuse defense at first. (And she told MSNBC that Erik mentioned having a girlfriend of several years early on.)
But in 1996, as Tammi has detailed in her book and interviews, she found out that Chuck had abused her teenage daughter from a previous relationship. (They also shared a then-9-month-old daughter.)
Chuck turned himself into police and died by suicide two days later, according to People.
After Chuck died, “I reached out to Erik,” she told the publication in 2005. “He comforted me. Our letters started taking on a more serious tone.”
Tammi admitted she was “really nervous” when she finally met Erik in person at Folsom State Prison in August 1997.
“Erik had no idea what I looked like; I’d only sent him a tiny, 1-by-1 picture,” she explained. “But when he walked into the room, he was so full of life, he hopped down the stairs. It was like I was meeting an old friend.”
They married in 1999, a Twinkie serving as their wedding cake.
And they’ve been together ever since, though Tammi has acknowledged that the lack of conjugal visits can be tough.
“A kiss when you come in, a kiss when you leave,” she described the routine on MSNBC in December 2005. ‘You can hold hands and that part of it is very difficult, and people don’t understand.”
Erik said he tried not to think about what was then the likelihood that he would never get out of prison.
“Tammi is what gets me through,” he told People in 2005. “I can’t think about the sentence. When I do, I do it with a great sadness and a primal fear. I break into a cold sweat. It’s so frightening I just haven’t come to terms with it.”
But on a more optimistic note, Tammi had also taught him “how to be a good husband,” Erik said. “There is no makeup sex, only a 15-minute phone call, so you really have to try to make things work.”
