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Erik Menendez, who at age 15 was convicted with his brother Lyle in the 1989 murders of their parents, was denied parole this week by a California board. The board of parole Hearings said Erik, now in his 50s, remains “an unreasonable risk to public safety.”

The board’s nearly 10-hour parole hearing this week focused on Erik’s rehabilitation and prison record and the reasons for and against granting parole. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office recommended that Erik’s parole request be denied, while more than a dozen family members testified in support. The board agreed with the prosecutors, citing not only Erik’s criminal history as a teenager and the nature of the killings but also “serious violations” in prison.

Erik will have to wait three years to apply for parole again. In remarks reported by the Associated Press, Parole Commissioner Robert Barton said the decision was “not based on the serious nature of your offense alone” but also Erik’s behavior in prison.

“One can present a risk to public safety in many ways, with various types of criminal conduct, including those you engaged in in prison,” Barton told Erik at the end of the hearing. He encouraged Erik to “utilize your great support network to the fullest to avoid further violations.”

Erik, now in his 50s, has had nine rule violations since his incarceration for offenses such as possession of drugs and having items such as a cell phone and lighter, according to the AP. Several prison workers have submitted letters to the board on his behalf, saying he is a “model inmate.” Barton questioned this characterization, given Erik’s track record of rule-breaking. Erik said he had only begun to think he might be released last year and that his “consequential thinking has changed” as a result.

Family members who spoke in his defense, many of them crying, acknowledged the decades of pain and divisions in the family caused by the murders. They also spoke of forgiveness. “To say that our family has experienced pain does not quite capture what the last 35 years have been like,” Tiffani Lucero-Pastor, the great-niece of the Menendez brothers’ mother, Kitty, said in a statement read to the board. “It has divided us. It has caused us panic and anxiety.”

Others said Kitty’s inaction against the alleged abuse in the home only deepened the brothers’ fear. “Mom’s absence of protection deepened their fear and confusion,” Karen Mae Vandermolen-Copley, Kitty’s niece, said in the statement. Kitty’s brother Milton Andersen, was the only relative known to be opposed to Erik’s parole, but he died earlier this year.

In a statement after the ruling, the family expressed disappointment but respect for the board’s decision. “Our belief in Erik remains unwavering,” the statement read. “His remorse, growth, and the positive impact he’s had on others speak for themselves. We will continue to stand by him and hold to the hope he can return home soon.”

Lyle Menendez to Face Parole Hearing, Governor Holds Final Say

Erik’s older brother, Lyle Menendez, will face the same parole board next week. The hearing will be held on Friday, and the board will similarly review his record of rehabilitation and conduct behind bars. The 54-year-old has been disciplined for slightly fewer infractions than Erik, but the actions he took during the killings could still come back to haunt him.

In the original 1993 trial, Lyle testified that he fired numerous blasts from a shotgun into both parents at close range. Parole Commissioner Robert Barton called attention to this this week, saying the manner of their mother’s death “was devoid of human compassion.”

Lyle has also been faulted for inconsistencies in his claims of abuse by his father. At one point, prosecutors said, he even encouraged his girlfriend to lie and claim their father had drugged and raped her. This and other details may complicate Lyle’s parole case, despite the support of many family members who will speak on his behalf.

The parole hearings follow the men’s resentencings in May from life without the possibility of parole to terms of 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole for the first time. The brothers’ case became one of California’s most high-profile murder trials, driven by their claims that they had acted out of fear after years of abuse. Prosecutors maintained the killings were financially motivated, noting their father’s fortune.

Governor Gavin Newsom has the last word on the brothers’ fate, with power under a 1988 state law to approve, deny, or modify parole board decisions for anyone convicted of murder and given an indeterminate term. The board’s decision will be subject to an internal review for up to 120 days. Newsom then has 30 days to act.

Legal experts say California governors are usually reluctant to release prisoners in high-profile cases. “Every governor is fairly allergic to releasing high-profile defendants,” Loyola Law School professor Christopher Hawthorne told the Los Angeles Times. While former governors Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger rarely allowed parole in such cases, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom have upended the trend in the past decade, making parole more accessible.

Still, the Menendez brothers’ notoriety could complicate things. “The governor has to weigh, number one, public safety and, two, whether these individuals have real insight into their crime and are remorseful,” Hawthorne said.

For now, Erik will remain behind bars, with at least three years before he can again apply for parole. Lyle will soon find out whether he will be allowed to try to leave prison or whether he and Erik will remain in the life terms they began more than three decades ago.