Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers convicted of murdering their parents in Beverly Hills in 1989, are reunited in the same California state prison after having been kept apart in separate prisons since their convictions in 1996, more than 20 years ago.
Lyle Menendez made a transfer request from Mule Creek State Prison in Northern California to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, according to CNN, which cited a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Lyle Menendez was transferred on Feb. 22, but on Wednesday, he was moved into the same housing unit as his brother Erik.
According to CNN, the prison board saw no reason why Erik and Lyle should be kept apart. They’ve each been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle and and Erik shot their wealthy parents in their mansion using shotguns they bought just days before the murders. Their father had been a successful Cuban-American business executive, while their mother was a homemaker and a socialite. Both had been shot in the kneecap (among other wounds) which made authorities believe the brothers wanted it to look like a mob hit.
The Menendez case was highly publicized and has been the subject of a recent ABC documentary, “Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers – American Sons, American Murderers,” which dug into the family’s more troubled history than originally understood. It was a ratings juggernaut.
The brothers were also the subject of a “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” in 2017, starring Edie Falco as their defense attorney Leslie Abramson.