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Convicted murderer Eric Menendez now shares Gospel with fellow inmates

FILE PHOTO: Erik Menendez (R) and brother Lyle listen to court proceedings during an appearance in the August 1989 case of the shotgun murder of their wealthy parents, in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. on May 17, 1991. | Reuters/Lee Celano

Erik Menendez, who was convicted along with his brother Lyle of murdering their own parents, has reportedly turned to God and is now sharing the Gospel with fellow inmates.

In an interview with ABC News, the brothers' paternal aunt Marta Cano said that Erik had recently asked her to send him some books and told her that he had been teaching religion to a group of inmates.

"So, he was really making sure that the prisoners knew that there is a God that loves us. That was marvelous to me because he never got that at home," Cano told ABC News.

Lyle, 50, and Erik, 47, were reunited last week after spending more than two decades in separate prisons.

The brothers were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 after being convicted of the gruesome murder of their own parents in 1989.

They reportedly used two 12-gauge shotguns to shoot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, as the couple were watching TV in their Beverly Hills home.

During the court proceedings, their attorneys argued that they were sexually and emotionally abused by their father, and neglected by their mother.

Leslie Abramson, who represented Erik in court, contended that her client "could not take the worst of it anymore" and asked for help from his brother.

The two were initially sent to the same California processing center but were eventually split up, with Erik being sent to a penal institution near Sacramento and Lyle to a penitentiary near Sacramento.

Prosecutors, however, asserted that the two brothers had killed their own parents so that they could inherit their wealth.

During the reunion last Wednesday, the two brothers reportedly burst into tears when they came face to face at the Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

Erik had been incarcerated at the San Diego facility for several years, while Lyle was transferred there in February. Earlier this month, Erik was transferred to the same housing unit where Lyle is being detained.

Cano believes that the brothers had killed their parents as a "defense mechanism" and not an "in-cold-blood kind of thing."

She contended that her two nephews had matured since their incarceration. "The other good thing is they have been able to mature separately. Sometimes we cling on to somebody else, and we never mature," Cano told ABC News.

Cano is hoping that the brothers will eventually be set free despite their life sentences. "You have to leave some things in God's hands, and God takes care of them," she went on to say.