**BONUS** "BREAKING: ERIK MENENDEZ DENIED PAROLE - Cellphones, Prison Gangs & Tax Fraud Doom 'Model Inmate'"

0:03 Kalaroga Shark Media. This is Read Carter with breaking news from celebrity trials. Eric Menendez has been denied parole. The California Parole Board just said no to the man who shotgunned his parents in their Beverly Hills mansion thirty six years ago. And folks, wait until you hear why. Forget everything you've heard about the Menendez brothers being model inmates, Forget Kim Kardashian's tearful prison visits. Forget the Netflix documentaries painting them as victims. What came out in today's hearing was a portrait of a man who spent three decades in prison, running scams, using drugs, associating with gangs, and get this, becoming so addicted to contraband cell phones that he was watching porn on devices he paid one thousand dollars to smuggle in. This is your breaking news special.

0:57 Let's dive into exactly why Eric Menndez will die in prison. The hearing lasted hours. The decision was swift, no parole for Eric Menendez. And before we get into the devastating details that sank his case, let me remind you what he did on August twentieth, nineteen eighty nine, thirty six years and one day before this hearing, Eric and Lyle Menendez drove to San Diego, bought shotguns with cash using fake IDs, drove home, and executed their parents while they watched TV. Jose Menendez was shot five times, including once in the back of the head. Kitty Menendez, their mother crawled across the floor wounded, trying to escape before they reloaded and delivered the final fatal blast. Then they called nine to one one and pretended to be grieving sons who just discovered their murdered parents. Within months, they were buying Rolexes, Porsches, courtside NBA tickets. Eric hired a private tennis coach to go pro Lyle bought a restaurant. They were literally spending blood money while playing traumatized orphans. Today, Eric Menendez sat before the parole board via video from Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility and tried to convince them he was reformed, that he was a changed man, that thirty six years was enough. The board said no, and here's why. Let's start with the cell phones. Not one

2:27 cell phone, multiple cell phones. Eric Menendez admitted admitted to repeatedly obtaining contraband phones in prison, paying up to one thousand dollars each. You know what he used them for? To watch YouTube videos, to call his wife and wait for it, to watch pornography. This is your model inmate, folks, a fifty four year old man so addicted to contraband phones that he risked his chance at freedom to watch porn in his cell. But it gets worse. When asked why he kept getting phones despite the risk, he said, and I quote, I really became addicted to the phones. He knew fifty or sixty other inmates who had them. He justified it by saying if he didn't buy them, someone else would. That's the mentality of a drug dealer, not a reformed killer. Then there's the prison gang association.

3:18 Eric Menendez aligned himself with a gang called the twenty fives or Dossinko. Why. He claims it was for protection, but that's not all they provided. The gang also supplied him with marijuana, and in twenty thirteen, they approached him about participating in a tax fraud scheme. Yes, you heard that right. Your model inmate was involved in tax fraud from behind bars. Deputy District Attorney habi Balian put it perfectly. When one continues to diminish their responsibility for a crime and continues to make the same false excuses that they've made for thirty plus years, one is still that same dangerous person that they were when they shotgunned their parents.

4:00 The board also questioned Eric about fights with other inmates in nineteen ninety seven. He admitted to acting aggressively in another incident. He claimed self defense, but acknowledged fighting back. This isn't someone who's learned to control his violence. It's someone who's learned to justify it. And then there's the drugs and alcohol. Eric Menendez admitted to drinking in prison. He admitted to using heroin his excuse, he was miserable and looking to ease that sadness within me. You know who else is, said the families of murder victims who don't get to numb their pain with illegal substances. The contraband didn't stop at phones and drugs. He was caught with art supplies, candles, spray cans. He decorated his cell with stolen supplies like he was on HGTV's prison Makeover edition.

4:56 Now let's talk about what he said during the hearing about the murders themselves. He claimed he and Lyle bought the shotguns because they thought their parents might try to kill them or that his father would come to rape him, But when asked why they killed their mother too, his answer was chilling. Step by step, My mom had shown she was united with my dad on that night. I saw them as one person. He saw them as one person, so he killed them both. He also admitted the spending spreeze after the murders were incredibly callous acts. No kidding. You blow your mother's head off then buy a rolex with her money. That's not callous, that's sociopathic. The celebrity machine has been working overtime for these brothers. Kim Kardashian visited them, wrote essays about them, said, we owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods. You know what, those little boys grew up to be killers, and one of them just spent the last decade in prison running scams, using drugs, and watching porn on a legal phones. Chris Jenner revealed on her reality show that Eric used to play tennis with Robert Kardashian's senior in the nineteen eighties, used to come to their Beverly Hills house on weekends.

6:10 Then he went home and planned his parents' murders. The board asked about his rehabilitation work, the hospice program, the beautification projects. You know what came out. He helped a World War II veteran convicted of sexual violence crimes. He said he saw it as making amends for his father, making amends for his father by helping another sexual predator make it make sense. Eric claimed everything changed in November twenty twenty four when he realized he might actually get parole. Suddenly the consequences mattered. Suddenly he wanted to stop breaking rules. How convenient after thirty five years of rule breaking. He has an epiphany right before his parole, hearing the gang members thought he'd become an informant. At one point, even criminals in prison didn't trust Eric Menendez, but were supposed to trust him on the streets. I did not like who I was in twenty thirteen, he told the board.

7:05 From twenty thirteen on, I was living for a different purpose. That's eleven years ago. He's been claiming transformation for over a decade, while still getting caught with phones, still associating with gangs, still breaking every rule they put in front of him. He said he committed to stop using drugs on October fourteenth, twenty twenty three, his mother's birthday. You killed your mother and now you're using her birthday as your sobriety date. The narcissism is staggering. At the end, he apologized to his family, said he was unimaginably sorry for what he put them through, not sorry for murdering his parents, sorry for what he put his supporters through.

7:47 The parole board saw through at all. They saw what the celebrity supporters refused to see. Eric Menendez is the same manipulative, violent, rule breaking person he was when he walked into that living room with a shotgun thirty six years ago. Tomorrow, his brother Lyle faces the same board. Want to bet how that's going to go. We'll be right back with more analysis of this breaking news and what it means for Lyle Menendez's hearing tomorrow. Let's talk about what this denial really means. First, it completely destroys the narrative that's been building for the last two years.

8:33 The Netflix series, the documentaries, the celebrity support, the carefully crafted image of two abused boys who made one terrible mistake and spent three decades becoming model prisoners. That narrative just got blown apart by Eric's own admissions. He wasn't a model prisoner. He was a criminal who happened to be in prison, running scams, using drugs, breaking rules, and then lying about it until he couldn't lie anymore. The California Parole Board has to determine if someone poses an unreasonable risk to public safety. A man who can't follow rules in a controlled environment with twenty four to seven supervision is absolutely a risk on the streets. Think about the cell phone addiction. He paid one thousand dollars for illegal phones. That's more than most people's rent. Where did that money come from, Who was funding his contraband purchases, And if he's that desperate for a phone in prison, what's he going to do for his fixes on the outside.

9:30 The gang association is even more troubling. He aligned himself with the twenty fives for protection, but ended up participating in their criminal enterprises. This is a man who will attach himself to whatever power structure keeps him safe and comfortable, regardless of the moral cost. The tax fraud scheme from twenty thirteen shows he was still actively committing crimes twenty four years after murdering his parents. This isn't rehabilitation, its continuation. Now, let's address the elephant in the room, the abuse claims. Eric testified today that he believed his father would rape him if he didn't kill him first, that leaving meant death.

10:11 That his mother knew about the abuse and sided with his father. But here's what the prosecutor pointed out. He's been telling the same story for thirty years, minimizing his responsibility, making excuses, and while he's telling this story, he's also running criminal enterprises from his cell. Which version of Eric Menendez do we believe the traumatized abuse victim or the guy watching porn on a contraband phone while running tax fraud schemes with prison gangs. The parole board clearly didn't buy the victim narrative, not when it's coming from someone who's been lying and breaking rules for three decades. What really sealed his fate was the timeline of his supposed transformation.

10:52 He claims everything changed in November twenty twenty four, when he realized parole was possible. He stopped you using drugs on his mother's birthday in October twenty twenty three. These are recent dates, folks. We're talking about changes he claims to have made in the last year or two after thirty four years of bad behavior. That's not rehabilitation, that's desperation. The Deputy DA nailed it when he said Eric was just saying what wants to be heard. He knew the parole board was coming, he knew the world was watching, so he crafted a story of recent redemption. But the receipts told a different story. The disciplinary records, the contraband violations, the gang associations, the fights, the drugs. You can't fake three decades of behavior. You can't erase a pattern that consistent. Tomorrow, Lyle Menendez faces the same board. He's got the same problems.

11:52 Cell phone violations, rule breaking, decades of minimizing responsibility for executing his parents. But here's what's really interesting. The brothers have been in the same facility since twenty eighteen. They've been coordinating their stories, their rehabilitation narratives, their parole strategies. If Eric couldn't sell his transformation story with all that preparation, what chance does Lyle have The celebrity supporters are going to spin this as an injustice. Kim Kardashian will probably post about how devastated she is. The Netflix documentaries will frame it as the system failing abuse victims. But here's the truth. The system worked today. A manipulative killer who spent three decades breaking rules in prison was denied the chance to break rules on the streets. A man who couldn't be trusted with a cell phone policy wasn't trusted with freedom. The parole board looked past the celebrity endorsements, past the documentary sob stories, past the carefully crafted narrative of redemption, and saw Eric Menendez for what he is, a dangerous, manipulative individual who hasn't changed since the night he reloaded a shotgun to finish off his wounded mother.

13:05 Thirty six years ago, Jose and Kitty Menendez were executed in their living room by their own sons. Today, just as said, those sons haven't earned the right to walk free, and based on what we learned in this hearing, they never will. This has been a Celebrity Trials breaking news special. Eric Menendez has been denied parole after a hearing that exposed years of contraband, phones, gang associations, drug use, and criminal schemes behind bars. Tomorrow, Lyle Menendez faces the same board. Given what we've learned about their coordinated activities in prison, his chances look equally grim. The Menendez brothers wanted us to believe they were transformed men, rehabilitated and ready to rejoin society. Today, the California Parole Board said what many of us have been thinking. Can't rehabilitate someone who won't stop committing crimes. For our regular listeners, will have complete coverage of Lyle's hearing tomorrow night, plus our regular Friday episode covering the week's trials. This is read Carter, reminding you that sometimes the system works, sometimes killers actually stay in prison, and sometimes celebrity endorsements and Netflix documentaries can't wash away the blood on your hands. Eric Menendez will die in prison tomorrow. We find out if his brother will join him. Good night,