Erik and Lyle Menendez's Cousin Says Their Family Is Hoping for a Summer Release: 'Best-Case Scenario'

Erik and Lyle Menendez’s cousin said their family is hoping the brothers, who are currently behind bars, are out of jail by this summer.

Anamaria Baralt, whose mother is Erik and Lyle’s father’s sister, noted they “can’t put a timeline” on Erik and Lyle’s release but if it happens this summer, it would be a “best-case scenario.”

She noted the brothers “have incredible patience. And at this point, they feel like we all do — that if delays are necessary in order to get justice, then that is OK.”

As OK! reported, Erik and Lyle finally have a chance at getting out of prison after a resentencing hearing took place on May 13. Multiple family members spoke out at the hearing, campaigning for the brothers to be freed after being in jail for murdering their parents in 1989.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic heard the testimonies, ultimately ruling to resentence Erik and Lyle to 50 years to life, finally giving them a chance to be freed at a parole hearing. He said he had given the situation “long thought” and, while the crime they committed was “absolutely horrible,” he believed “they’ve done enough over the last 35 years that one day they should get that chance [to be released].”

"Life without parole gives an inmate no hope,” he elaborated, “ no reason to do anything good. And I give them a lot of credit. It's remarkable what they did when they had no hope of getting out.”

Anamaria spoke out at the hearing, begging for the judge to give her cousins a sentence less than life without parole.

“We all on both sides of the family say 35 years is enough,” she stated. “They are universally forgiven by both sides of their families. I don’t think they are the same people they were 30 years ago.”

Mark Geragos, a defense lawyer, argued they killed their parents only out of fear their father might murder them to conceal years of sexually abusing them, something Anamaria also reiterated. She added they’ve evolved and are “very aware of the consequences of their actions.”

While most of their family has advocated for Erik and Lyle’s release, their mother’s brother Milton, who died in 2025, was opposed to them being let out of prison.

District attorney Nathan Hochman also spoke out against them being let back into society, stating, “The Menendez brothers have never come fully clean for all the lies, the cover-up, the deceit, that they have engaged in for more than 30 years.” He also claimed Erik and Lyle did not demonstrate “insight” into the murders of their parents, suggesting they were not truthful about the reason they murdered them.

In Touch spoke to Anamaria.