STAND BY HIS SIDE Erik Menendez’ wife Tammi looks ...

In pictures exclusive to The U.S. Sun, Tammi was seen looking solemn as she walked out of her red Tesla in Las Vegas.

The 62-year-old wore a black and purple quarter-zip top advertising her business with her bleach-blonde hair tucked behind her ears.

Erik and his brother Lyle were convicted of fatally shooting their parents with shotguns in their Los Angeles home on August 20, 1989. 

The brothers alleged that their father, famed RCA Records executive Jose Menendez, sexually abused both of them for years while their mother ignored the situation, leading them to kill their parents out of self-defense.

The duo’s initial 1993 trial was declared a mistrial, but when they were retried in 1995, the brothers were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Both Erik and Lyle were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate jails.

For years, the case seemed like a done deal until evidence resurfaced a year before a massive resurgence of public interest in the brothers’ case with thanks to Netflix.

In 2023, the Menendez brothers’ lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition, questioning whether the pair were being detained legally. 

The petition included a shocking letter from Erik to his cousin Andy Cano, which lawyers claims had the power to potentially free the brothers.

In the letter, which was allegedly sent eight months before the murders, Erik details the horrific abuse from his father.

“It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now,” he wrote. 

Although the letter was allegedly written months before the murder, it was not used as evidence in the second trial when the brothers were convicted.

The brothers and Tammi have publicly pushed the state to reconsider their sentence since the letter resurfaced, and since the Netflix show about Erik and Lyle sparked a furious interest in their case. 

Just last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed he had ordered the state parole board to complete a comprehensive risk assessment investigation on the duo.

He said it would determine if the brothers pose an “unreasonable risk to public safety,” Fox News reported.

It came just days after California District Attorney Nathan Hochman called Erik’s letter into question in a stunning and unexpected takedown of the alleged evidence of abuse the family had been so reliant on.

Tammi was among the family members who slammed Hochman after they were blindsided by his resistance to resentencing the brothers in a sudden press conference last month.  

“We looked again at the credibility of the letters, particularly this Andy Cano 1988 supposed letter weighed in the continuum of lies, and it calls into drastic question whether this is in fact a 1988 letter written by Erik Menendez to Andy Cano about this sexual abuse,” Hochman said in the news conference. 

“If they had evidence that sex abuse had been communicated not just six years before the events, but nine months before the 1989 killings, it would absolutely have come out during one or both of the testimonies.”

Erik Menendez’s letter to his cousin

A hand written letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin about his dad’s alleged abuse has sparked a review of the case that could set him and his brother free from jail.

Erik’s letter was written in December 1988, eight months before the double murders in August 1989.

The letter reads in full:

“I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now. I can’t explain it. He so overweight that I can’t stand to see him.

“I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.

“I need to put it out of my mind. I know what you said before but I’m afraid. You just don’t know dad like I do. He’s crazy!

“He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.

“Am I a serious whimpus? I don’t know I’ll make it through this. I can handle it, Andy. I need to stop thinking about it.”

Hochman recommended that the judge in the Menendez brothers resentencing hearing – scheduled for March 20 – does not allow for a new trial and rejects the habeas petition.

He said he had not yet made a decision on whether he would recommend resentencing.

Tammi, who has always vehemently defended her husband, called out Hochman for his “misrepresentation of the truth.”

“Hochman is appearing on every news channel that will have him to discuss the Menendez case, insisting he’s treating it like any other case in his office,” she wrote on X. 

“Just another misrepresentation of the truth!”

MONSTERS CONTROVERSY

A massive wave of renewed interest in the Menendez brothers’ case emerged following the release of Ryan Murphy’s crime drama Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story earlier this year.

In the nine-episode series, the story of Erik and Lyle is portrayed by Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez. 

In the series, Murphy shows both the story of sexual abuse that the brothers told the court and the evidence that the prosecution brought to the table.

However, The Menendez brothers were not too pleased with how Murphy depicted them.

Tammi shared Erik’s belief that the show was a “dishonest portrayal” of the crimes.

Despite not having seen the show, Erik called it “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episode nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations.”

Murphy replied to the long statement saying it must have been “hard” to watch his life played back. 

“I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show,” he said. 

“It’s really, really hard, if it’s your life, to see your life up onscreen.”

HOW TAMMI MET ERIK

Despite being locked up, both brothers married, and Tammi has stood by her man for many years, even though they are not allowed conjugal visits.

Their contact began when she wrote to him in prison and they married on June 12, 1999, in the waiting room at Folsom State Prison, with a twinkie as their wedding cake.

They share a daughter, Talia, who considers Erik her father, although they aren’t biologically related.

Tammi has faced a lot of criticism throughout the relationship but has always defended the killer, even writing a book in 2005, They Said We’d Never Make It.

In an interview with NBC to promote the book, she admitted she has questioned herself over the years but called Erik her “best friend.”

She said, “Everybody questions me. You know, is she crazy? Is she nuts? You know I get all that and so it has been a very emotional experience. 

“The only one that supports me is my mother, and his family is supportive.  But other than that, it is very difficult…”

It is not known how often Tammi now visits her husband at the jail. 

The U.S. Sun understands Tammi runs a pet grooming business nearby and generally keeps a low profile.

Tammi has also launched a Discord channel called ‘The Menendez Hideaway’ in which Erik can communicate with his supporters with audio messages and live calls from prison

Timeline of the Menendez brothers case

Erik and Lyle Menendez’s case dates back more than three decades since their parents were found shot to death at their Beverly Hills mansion.

Below is a timeline of the brothers’ case, starting at the gruesome crime scene:

August 20, 1989 – José and Kitty Menendez are found dead from multiple shotgun wounds.

March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested outside his parents’ Beverly Hills mansion.

March 11, 1990 – Erik surrenders to police after flying back into Los Angeles from Israel.

December 1992 – Murder charges against the brothers are officially filed.

July 20, 1993 – The murder trial, highly publicized on Court TV, begins in Los Angeles with Erik and Lyle each having a separate jury.

January 28, 1994 – The first trial ends with two deadlocked juries.

October 11, 1995 – Lyle and Erik’s second trial begins with one jury.

March 20, 1996 – The Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

July 2, 1996 – Lyle and Erik are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons.

February 22, 2018 – Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison, where Erik is held.

April 4, 2018 – Lyle was moved into the same housing unit as Erik – the first time the brothers were reunited in over 20 years.

May 2023 – Lyle and Erik’s attorney files a habeas corpus petition after Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, made sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez in a Peacock docuseries.

September 19, 2024 – Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story releases on Netflix.

October 3, 2024 – Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón says his office is reviewing new evidence in connection with Lyle and Erik’s convictions.

October 7, 2024 – The Menendez Brothers documentary film comes out on Netflix.

October 16, 2024 – Family members of the Menendez brothers hold a press conference begging for the siblings to be released from prison.

October 24, 2024 – Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommends the brothers be resentenced.

November 25, 2024 – The Menendez brothers appear in court for a status hearing to learn their resentencing hearing is pushed back from December 11 to allow new DA Nathan Hochman more time to review the case.

January 30-31, 2025 – Erik and Lyle’s resentencing hearing was initially set but had to be rescheduled due to the California wildfires.

March 20-21, 2025 – The brothers are set to go before a judge for their resentencing hearing.