Erik Menendez

Passions

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Traits

Family

American homicide; the son of a wealthy video distributor with one older brother, Lyle. When the family moved to Calabasas, CA, Erik was an average student but a star on the tennis team. Both of the brothers ran with a crowd of young, spoiled rich kids, a few of whom engaged in theft for thrills. During the summer of 1988, Erik was implicated in a couple of large burglaries. When the family moved to Beverly Hills, CA, both boys were sent to a psychiatrist, Dr. Oziel. On the night of 8/20/1989, the boys came home with shotguns, entered the TV room and blew both of their parents away with five shotgun blasts. At 11:47 PM the police received a call from a sobbing Lyle crying, "They shot and killed my parents." Playing the role of grief-stricken orphans, the two boys showed little interest in the police investigations. Almost immediately following the murders, Erik bought a Jeep Wrangler and hired a $50,000 a year tennis coach. Together, the two boys spent $1 million in three months. When a personal friend of Dr. Oziel's, Judalyn Smyth, came forward to tell police what she had overheard, the boys were arrested and sent to trial. Their defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, pushed boundaries in her strategy. She claimed that Erik had been sexually abused from the age of five up to the time of the murders and only killed in self-defense, however she withheld the information that he was gay. On 1/13/1994, the jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. In their second trial, the boys were tried together. Jury selection began on 8/23/1995 and was completed on 9/28/1995 when the panel was seated. The trial opened on 10/11/1995, 9:15 AM PDT, Van Nuys, CA. On 3/14/1996, two jurors were dismissed for medical reasons and the trial was forced to start over again from scratch. Six days later, on 3/20/1996, the jury reached a verdict of guilty on the charge of first degree murder at 11:55 PM PST. Sentencing took place on 4/17/1996 and both boys were given life in prison without the possibility of parole. Erik married Tammi Ruth Saccoman, 37, who is self-employed in the fitness field at the CA State Prison near Sacramento on 6/12/1999. He does not qualify for conjugal visits, so a honeymoon is not planned. Link to Wikipedia biography