Erik Menendez Investigated After Receiving Pot-Stuffed Prison Package

10/15/2020 02:56 am EDT

Officials at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego are investigating Erik Menendez after he received a package containing marijuana, reports TMZ. The infamous prisoner, convicted alongside brother Lyle Menendez for murdering their parents in August 1989, has reportedly been moved to isolation in the Administrative Segregation Unit while prison officials investigate if Menendez planned on distributing the weed, using it as currency, or using it personally.

TMZ reports that if Menendez was determined to have had someone on the outside send him the marijuana, the case would be referred to the District Attorney's Office for possible prosecution. There wouldn't be much for Menendez to have added to his sentence, however, as he and his brother were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the death of their parents, whom they admitted to shooting in what they claim was an act motivated by physical and sexual abuse.

In 2005, Menendez opened up to PEOPLE about his sentence, saying he felt his sentence should be shortened. "I'm not saying what I did was right or justifiable. I needed to go to prison. But place another child in my life and see what happens. I felt it was either my life or my parents' life," he said at the time, comparing his childhood to "kerosene all over the floor that a match could light at any time." He described his reaction to the circumstances was "so destructive," continuing, "I killed the two people I loved the most."

"I loved my dad. Listen, how much anger can you have towards someone after killing them? I loved my parents," he theorized. "And that is my real prison. I look forward to dying. Oh, people say that I had everything, that I was rich and lived in Beverly Hills. But if you had photos of the events of my childhood, they would be crime photos. I was dying long before the night I killed my parents. I don't justify what I did. I needed to go to prison. And I can't be okay without it."

Now, Menendez said she doesn't "deserve" to be imprisoned. "I may well get out of prison one day. I am still working on my appeal. I don't know if that is realistic," he said in 2005. "But the death of hope is the death of the heart. I can't think about it. If I was serving any good purpose in being here for life, then I could say it was the right thing. But I'm not."

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