Lyle Menendez's stunning reaction to Emmy nomination for actor who played Erik on Netflix series

Daily Mail​

16-07-2025

Lyle Menendez called up actor Cooper Koch, who just played his brother Erik Menendez, to congratulate him on his Emmy nomination for the role.
The accolade came for the anthology series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which was co-created by Ryan Murphy and bowed on Netflix last September.
Erik and Lyle, the wealthy brothers at the center of the story, are still in prison for having murdered their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Jose and Kitty were killed for their money while the defense relied heavily on what was then called the 'abuse excuse,' claiming Lyle and Erik had been molested and physically assaulted by their parents for years.
A judge reduced the brothers' sentences earlier this year, rendering them eligible for parole, and their hearing is scheduled to take place this August.
Now Cooper has shared that when news broke of his Emmy nomination Tuesday, Lyle phoned him from behind bars to share his reaction, via The Awardist podcast.
'I spoke with Lyle today. He called to send his congrats and was very, very sweet, and he was jealous that I was at Wimbledon this weekend,' said the actor.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has received 11 Emmy nods, including for Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny's performances as Jose and Kitty.
Cooper has described his show as 'sort of like the end of an era' for the case, 'and what a great way to kind of put it to bed, and hopefully that will also go with the brothers getting released by the end of the summer.'
The Menendez brothers were due to face a parole board on June 13, but in May that hearing was pushed back to August 21 and 22.
The latest setback delays any possibility of freedom by at least nine weeks, after already spending 35 years behind bars for murdering both of their parents.
The brothers appeared in Los Angeles County Superior Court last Tuesday, where Judge Michael Jesic reduced their sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life.
The change means they're eligible to apply for parole under California 's youthful offender law because they committed the crime under the age of 26.
But the June 13 date was already scheduled as a separate pathway to freedom. Governor Gavin Newsom was due to reveal whether he would consider clemency for the brothers.
The brothers were ordered in 1996 to spend the rest of their lives in prison for fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not give a reason for delaying the hearing.
Newsom has the authority to grant immediate clemency to the brothers at any time, but securing parole could be a months or years-long process.
The brothers were ordered in 1996 to spend the rest of their lives in prison for fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home.
The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings.
Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
'I'm not saying they should be released, it's not for me to decide,' Jesic said. 'I do believe they've done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.'
The brothers are broadly supported by their relatives, many of whom testified on their behalf during court proceedings. One said the duo had been 'universally forgiven by the family' for their actions.
'Today, 35 years later, I am deeply ashamed of who I was,' Lyle told the court. 'I killed my mom and dad. I make no excuses and also no justification. The impact of my violent actions on my family... is unfathomable.'
The defense began by calling Ana Maria Baralt, a cousin of Erik and Lyle, who testified that the brothers have repeatedly expressed remorse for their actions.
'We all, on both sides of the family, believe that 35 years is enough,' Baralt said. 'They are universally forgiven by our family.'
Diane Hernandez, who also testified during Erik and Lyle's first trial, spoke about the abuse she witnessed in the Menendez household when she lived with them and the so-called 'hallway rule.'
'When Jose was with one of the boys … you couldn't even go up the stairs to be on the same floor,' Hernandez said of the father.
The previous LA County District Attorney George Gascón had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers last fall by asking a judge to reduce their sentences.
Gascón's office said the case would've been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and the brothers' rehabilitation over three decades in prison.
A resentencing petition laid out by Gascón focuses on the brothers' accomplishments and rehabilitation.
Since their conviction, the brothers have received an education, participated in self-help classes and started various support groups for their fellow inmates.
But current district attorney Nathan Hochman said he believes the brothers are not ready for resentencing because 'they have not come clean' about their crimes.
His office also has said it does not believe they were sexually abused.
'Our position is not "no," it's not "never," it's "not yet,"' Hochman said. 'They have not fully accepted responsibility for all their criminal conduct.'
On August 20, 1989, armed with two shotguns, the brothers shot both parents to death as they watched a movie at their Beverly Hills mansion.
Their trial prompted worldwide headlines. Prosecutors said their motive was greed, as they stood to inherit $14 million from their parents.
The brothers insisted they acted against a father who sexually abused them for years and a mother who turned a blind eye to the abuse.
The first trial ended with a hung jury. But at a second trial in 1996 - where the judge refused to allow any evidence about the brothers being molested by their father - they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
New interest in the case was sparked by the recent Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the true crime documentary The Menendez Brothers.
Both films explain how the brothers claimed to police that they returned home from the theater to find their parents had been slaughtered.
At first it was feared that a vicious killer was on the loose in Beverly Hills, one of America's wealthiest communities.
But cops switched their suspicions to Lyle and Erik after they set about spending their inheritance soon after their parents' deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.
In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents' deaths and their arrests in March 1990, seven months after the murders.
Erik - who said his father abused him from the age of six to 12 - insisted in the new documentary that it's 'absurd' to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
'Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive,' he said.
'One of the things that stopped me from killing myself was that I would be a complete failure to my dad.'