Cooper Koch revealed how Erik Menéndez reacted to him and brother Lyle Menéndez being resentenced to 50 years to life.
“I’m so grateful that that happened,” Koch, 28, who played Erik on Ryan Murphy’s miniseries Monsters, told Variety on Tuesday, May 20. “And so is Erik [Menéndez], I spoke to him yesterday and he is so excited.”
Koch said “the most inspiring” thing he heard from Erik, 54, concerned his plans after potentially getting released following a decision from the parole board
“He is going to be an advocate for other people who have L.W.O.P, which is life without parole,” Koch explained about Erik’s plans to make “a lot of change” in the prison system. “His life is going to surround making change in the prison system, and I just think that is so beautiful.”
According to Koch, Erik has hope that if he and Lyle, 57, are released, in “10 years, people look back and they say, ‘We really made the right decision. Thank God we let them out.’”
Erik and Lyle were arrested in 1990 on two counts of first-degree murder after their parents, Kitty and José Menéndez, were found shot in their home. The siblings later admitted to killing their parents following years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse. They were ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life without parole in 1996 after two high-profile trials.
While their prior attempts to appeal the decision were denied, recent TV projects such as Monsters and The Menéndez Brothers seemingly offered Erik and Lyle another chance at freedom. (Despite Erik expressing frustration with details included in Murphy’s Monsters, Erik and Koch developed a friendship.)
“The reason why he’s been with me for so long is because I auditioned to play him seven years ago for the Law & Order series and for the Lifetime movie,” Koch told GQ Australia in December 2024, referring to 2017’s Law & Order True Crime and Menendez: Blood Brothers.
Koch nearly landed the role both times. “I got to the final rounds in both and I ultimately didn’t get it. But I felt like I had to play this part,” he recalled. “I got the audition [for Monsters] and I watched the trial videos for the first time.”
In October 2024, now-former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón recommended that a judge reduce Erik and Lyle’s sentence to 50 years. The request got more complicated when Gascón lost his bid for reelection one month later. Nathan Hochman took over and wasn’t as supportive of Erik and Lyle’s legal attempts to be released from prison.
During a hearing earlier this month, the brothers were resentenced to 50 years to life, which now makes them eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law since they committed their crime under the age of 26. The state parole board must still decide whether to release them from prison.
A hearing was initially set for June 13 but has now been rescheduled to August 21 and 22, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced on Monday, May 19, according to ABC News.
There is a chance that California Governor Gavin Newsom could seek to grant the brothers clemency but he has expressed plans to hold back on a decision until after the final hearing. Newsom, 57, requested the parole board conduct a comprehensive risk assessment investigation into if Erik and Lyle could pose a risk to public safety in the event they are released.
