LOS ANGELES — Our sister station, ABC7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles, has learned that Erik Menendez is out of the hospital and back in prison.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says the 54-year-old was hospitalized last month with kidney stones.
Erik and his brother Lyle have a scheduled parole hearing at the end of this month.
The brothers were convicted of murdering their father, Jose Menendez – a powerful record executive – and their mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Their first trials resulted in hung juries. At the second trial for both brothers, the judge excluded a substantial amount of evidence, including testimony from several family members who witnessed or heard about the abuse. The brothers were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In May, a judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in response to a resentencing petition, making them eligible for parole.
The new evidence included a newly discovered letter from Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in which he describes being abused by his father, and a declaration from Menudo boy band member Roy Rossello that he was raped by Jose Menendez in the 1980s.
While prosecutors argued that the evidence was untimely and inadmissible, Ryan sided with the Menendez brothers, saying they had provided sufficient proof of why the evidence could have changed the outcome of their convictions.
Governor Newsom has not commented on the incident.
Under clemency, Newsom can release the brothers at any point.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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