Menendez brothers resentenced, eligible for parole after 35 years: Saga of child sex abuse, murder of parents in Hollywood

Menendez brothers resentenced, eligible for parole: A US judge resentenced Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez on Tuesday (May 13) to 50 years to life in prison, which makes the brothers eligible for parole after more than 35 years behind bars for the murder of their parents.

This is the latest in the saga of the brothers' years of court battles to get released.

They murdered their parents, Hollywood executive José Menendez and his wife Kitty, on 20 August 1989.

The brothers, lodged in a San Diego prison, appeared through video to address Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic, who delivered the verdict.

What was the crime of the Menendez brothers?

Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents using shotguns at their Hollywood mansion after barging into their mansion in Hollywood.

The crime, subsequent manhunt and televised trials transfixed America in the late 1980s and 1990s.

For many years, the brothers were kept in separate prisons, but now they see each other at mealtime and during exercise.

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The custody and trial of the Menendez brothers

After the murder of their parents, the brothers were questioned by investigators, but were not listed as suspects. They then went on a spending spree using their father's money.

The authorities initially thought that Jose and wife were killed by the mafia, but soon zeroed in on the brothers.

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The brothers had been in custody since 1990.Their first trial ended in a deadlock.

But they were convicted of first-degree murder in a second trial and were sentenced in July 1996 to two consecutive life terms without parole.During the trial, the judge barred many of their claims of sexual abuse.

Shocking details of child abuse

During the trials, the Menendez brothers revealed shocking details of childhood sexual abuse.

It was an incredulous story for many, who thought that the brothers had made up the tales of abuse.

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Lyle, the elder brother who is now 57 years old, said tearfully in the court that the reason for the murder was the constant verbal and occasional sexual abuse of Erik, now 54, by their father.

Lyle said he had also been sexually abused by his father, and wanted to protect his brother.

In lengthy testimonies, the brothers narrated how they felt trapped in their own home because, coming from a conservative and respected Cuban immigrant family, they could not tell the story to others.

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Much of the 1980s and 1990s Amercia was not willing to believe that male children could be subjected to sexual abuse, and that too by their father.

During their testimony, the brothers said that their mother Kitty was aware of the abuse going on in their house, but did not prevent it or protect the kids.

Menendez brothers: A public culture phenomenon

Subjects of a Netflix documentary, The Menendez Brothers, and the fictional series Monsters,the duo was18 and 21 years old at the time of the killings.

Their trial was among the first to be televised in the Live court TV era of the 1990s.

Erik married Tammi Ruth Saccoman in Folsom State Prison on 12 June 1999. Lyle married Rebecca Sneed at the Mule Creek State Prison in November 2003.

Many relatives of the Menendez family and other supporters, including celebrity Kim Kardashian, had been campaigning for the release of the brothers.