Nicholas Alexander Chavez Gives Insight On The Menéndez Case

Nicholas Alexander Chavez, the star of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story,” expressed his sympathy for the Menéndez brothers following the release of the Netflix series.

The 25-year-old actor opened up about portraying Lyle Menéndez in “Monsters” and shared his feelings about the anticipation surrounding the series’ debut.

Lyle and Erik Menéndez, portrayed by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch in the series, are currently incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California after being convicted of murdering their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, on August 20, 1989.

“I really sympathize with the brothers, the fact that this was the most traumatic moment of their life, and then having that put on television for the world to see,” Chavez told People Magazine of the series’ release. “I would imagine that would be incredibly heavy.”

When asked if he had communicated with Lyle during the filming of the show, Chavez clarified that he had not spoken to him directly and mentioned that he had only been informed about Erik’s response.

Erik recently took to Facebook to criticize the show’s depiction of himself and Lyle, asserting that the portrayal of “the facts” of their lives is “inaccurate.”

“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” Erik said in a statement on his brother’s Facebook page. “I can only believe they were done so on purpose.”

“It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent,” he added.

Like the first “Monsters” project, the responses have been mixed, but Chavez says they “should be.”

“It’s sensitive subject matter and I imagine that everyone is forming their own interpretations of what happened as we imagined and intended that they would,” Chavez told People.

The Menéndez murders have captured national attention over the years and have inspired numerous documentaries. According to the brothers, the killings were the result of years of alleged sexual abuse inflicted by their Hollywood executive father, which they claim was overlooked by their mother.

He later addressed the violence they faced during their childhood, arguing that the show does not accurately reflect the true extent of their experiences.

“It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward,” Erik said after watching the series. “Back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women.”

José and Kitty Menéndez were tragically found shot to death in their living room, with investigators discovering the gruesome scene involving two 12-gauge shotguns. The brutality of the crime was so shocking that authorities initially considered a possible mob connection, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

“The bodies were distorted,” former Beverly Hills police captain and murder investigator, Russ Olson said on an episode of the true-crime documentary, ‘Snapped.’ “They had no resemblance of what you would expect a human being to look like.”

Ultimately, Erik and Lyle Menéndez were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and are currently incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.