Rebecca Sneed Is Important To Lyle Menendez

It might come as a surprise that Lyle Menendez — who is incarcerated for the 1989 murders of his parents, along with his brother Erik — has been married twice since his arrest in 1990. But while Erik's wife Tammi Menendez has written a book about her marriage, Lyle’s wife, Rebecca Sneed, is hardly in the public eye. So who is Rebecca Sneed?

Lyle Menendez Has Been Married Twice

Lyle Menendez's second wife began writing to him when he was still married to ex-Playboy model Anna Erikkson, who he married through a prison phone call in 1997, according to The Buffalo News. The couple then divorced in 2001, according to Inside Edition. It wasn't until 2003 that Lyle married Rebecca Sneed in the visiting area of the Mule Creek State Prison, making her his second wife, according to NBC News.

Lyle Menendez’s Second Wife Is An Attorney

When Lyle first met Sneed through letters, she was a magazine editor, according to Rolling Stone, but it's unclear what magazine she worked for at the time or if her initial intention was to simply speak to him on a more personal level for the sake of the media. Today, Sneed goes by the last name of Menendez and works as an attorney, but has still remained relatively silent about her marriage to the Menendez brother.

In 2008, Sneed graduated from Lincoln University Law School of San Jose and now works as an attorney with Erickson Arbuthnot in Sacramento, California, according to LinkedIn. Lyle and Sneed have now been married for more than 15 years now, and while their relationship is very unconventional, in a 2017 interview with ABC News, Lyle said that they have been able to make it work. “I’ve found I can have a healthy marriage that is complicated and built around conversation and finding creative ways to communicate, sharing, without all the props that are normally there in marriage in terms of going out to dinner and having as much intimate time together and so on,” he said.

Lyle Menendez Is Serving Two Life Sentences

In case you are not familiar with the Menendez brothers, then here is a primer. On Aug. 20, 1989, Erik and Lyle used shotguns at close range to kill their parents in their family's multi-million dollar Beverly Hills mansion. Although the brothers had tried to plead self-defense after years of alleged abuse, according to the Associated Press, the prosecution believed their crimes were motivated by the millions of dollars they stood to gain as inheritance, according to Rolling Stone. Both Erik and Lyle were sentenced to life sentences in 1996, according to the New York Times.

The brothers are the subject of the 2017 ABC special, Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers – American Sons, American Murderers, which included brand new interviews and "never before seen" home videos of the Menendez family shortly before the murder of Lyle and Erik's parents. Now, you can stream the documentary special, Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers – American Sons, American Murderers, on ABC’s website.