Erik Menendez to Speak Out About Family’s Murder in New A&E Series

In a time where the country’s fascination with the Menendez murders is in a bit of a revival, Erik Menendez is speaking out about the brutal murders of his parents in A&E’s new limited series The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All.

In the tailer for the docuseries, the younger Menendez brother, now 46, speaks on the phone from prison in San Diego, Calif.

“I’m Erik Menendez. I’m speaking to you from the Donovan Correctional Facility,” he says in the trailer. “I’m serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. I’ve heard many different versions of my life told in the media, and those stories are fictional. I think it’s time people hear the truth in my own words without the restrictions of a court room.”

Menendez expresses regret at his parents’ murders and says he killed them that night in 1989 because he wanted “the abuse to stop.”

More: The Menendez Brothers’ Cousin Breaks Her Silence With Game-Changing Statement

“From the moment after, I wanted to go back in time,” he says. “It was so wrong. I didn’t want my parents dead — I just wanted the abuse to stop. Years and years of pain exploded that night in an unimaginable violence. It is my own personal hell.”

The new TV series will include interviews with Menendez as well as never-before-seen photos and new interviews with prosecutors, police, family, friends and medical experts.

Among those interviewed in the series are former Los Angeles District Attorney Christopher Darden (a prosecutor from the O.J. Simpson murder trial), news icon Larry King, Erik’s wife Tammi Menendez and Associated Press trial reporter Linda Deutsch.

“My only hope in speaking out is that people may have a more complete understanding. A more complete understanding of the events that led up to my actions on the night of August 20th, and really a fuller picture of what really happened in my life,” Menendez said in a press release for the new series.

He says he wants to make people aware of his complicated life and the events that occurred that “led up to my involvement and responsibility for what is an ongoing and enduring family tragedy.”

“The tragedy didn’t end on that night, as devastating as that night was,” Mendez added. “It didn’t end there for my family, and it continues on to this day, and that sadness is something that I am trying to make up for with them and with my parents for the rest of my life. It will never end.”

On Aug. 20, 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez shot their wealthy parents in their California mansion with shotguns they bought just days before the murders. After two trials and three juries, the brothers were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors argued that the boys killed their parents to receive the family fortune, while the defense argued that the killings were in retaliation for the years of abuse suffered at the hands of their parents.

The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All premieres on A&E starting Thursday, November 30 at 10:00 pm ET/PT.