Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez would be an “asset to the community” if they were to be released from prison, their friend X-Raided exclusively tells In Touch.

The rapper, 50, says he became close with the brothers while he was behind bars at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, and bore witness to the positive changes they made at the prison.

“The administration had trust in us, we instilled programs to help others. Lyle crafted the Lifecare and Hospice Program. He crafted, drew it up, wrote it up, submitted it to the corrections committee and got it approved to take care of the elderly population,” X-Raided, whose real name is Anerae Veshaughn Brown, explains.

“They’re exemplary prisoners,” he says of Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57. “They both got degrees in there. Their records outperformed me and everyone else.”

X-Raided, who wrote a song called “Sins of the Father” about Erik and Lyle, says that the brothers “built up a lot of goodwill” at the prison, where they have been incarcerated together since Lyle was transferred to Richard J. Donovan in 2018. Erik had already been at the prison since 2013.

“They brought AA programs into the yard, meditation programs, anger management programs, life-care and hospice programs — they built up all these programs. Their example inspired me to share the message and motivate others. They really were appreciated in there by the time I left there in 2018,” X-Raided continues.

Erik and Lyle are both serving life sentences in prison for the 1989 murders of their parents, José Menendez and Kitty Menendez. However, numerous family members of the brothers have asked for a resentencing, citing the alleged abuse that Erik and Lyle endured for years before their parents were killed.

“The boys were abused as children. They were abused their whole life. … And this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s just that simple,” their lawyer Cliff Gardner once said during a 48 Hours interview.

In October 2024, former L.A. District Attorney George Gascón officially recommended that Erik and Lyle be resentenced.

“We are going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder. Because there was two murders involved that would be 50 years to life,” Gascon said at the time. “However, because of their age, under the law because they were under 26 years of age at the time that these crimes occurred, they will be eligible for parole immediately.”

Though current L.A. District Attorney Nathan Hochman made a motion to withdraw the resentencing petition, a judge denied the motion on April 11.

The resentencing hearing will take place on Thursday, April 17, and Friday, April 18.

When asked by In Touch why he believes Erik and Lyle should be free, X-Raided says, “I truly believe they aren’t those kids anymore. I believe they were horribly abused, so to deny the abuse defense now, at this point in our history, as a country and what we know about psychology and human development, all this evidence that we have to acknowledge that they were abused at an early age … they committed the crime and have explained why they committed the crime. They’ve done 35 years.”

X-Raided continues, “It was undeniably a horrible crime, and there were a hundred other choices they could have made, but they didn’t make those choices. They aren’t those kids anymore, and they don’t pose an unreasonable risk for violating recidivism in the community. They should be freed.”

This article originally appeared as part of the April 28, 2025, cover story “Life Behind Bars.”