( CNN ) -- Two brothers who were released from prison Monday after nearly 25 years say their convictions were based on mistaken identity . Raymond and Thomas Highers , appearing on `` Erin Burnett OutFront '' on Thursday , said they were in the neighborhood the 1987 night a drug dealer was killed in a Detroit home . But not only was a witness wrong about them being the men fleeing from the house , those two men were n't the killers either , one of the brothers said . `` They were more or less victims themselves of the crime and were told at gunpoint to leave , '' Raymond Highers told CNN . `` We were mistaken for those young , white men . '' After Facebook posts lead to new trial , convicted brothers granted bond . The brothers were granted bond after a chance Facebook encounter led to new testimony from a man who says he was one of those two white teens who were at the house to buy drugs that night . John Hielscher , a teenager at the time of the killing , said in an affidavit that he went to the house with friends to buy marijuana and had a gun put to his head by a group of four or five young , African-American men , the Detroit Free Press reported . `` I can remember it as if it was yesterday . It was almost up to my head , '' Hielscher said in a recent interview with the newspaper . `` The gunman said , `` Get the f -- - out of here . '' As they were running away , they heard a shot , he said . Fearing repercussions , he put the night behind him . A former roommate , Kevin Zieleniewski , contacted Hielscher after he had a 2009 Facebook exchange with a woman who posted about the Highers being in prison . Their 1988 convictions were based partly on the testimony of a witness who saw two men go into the house and run out after a gunshot , said Valerie Newman , Thomas Highers ' attorney . That led authorities to presume they were the killers and they were the Highers . With the new testimony `` those presumptions are evaporated , '' she said . `` The prosecution has absolutely no case . '' Asked if the brothers , born 11 months apart and now 46 , knew the men who allegedly were the killers , Timothy Highers said , `` Absolutely not . We got embroiled in it just by being in the neighborhood that night basically . '' The Highers await a new trial after Wayne County Court Judge Lawrence Talon threw out their life sentences in July . A pretrial hearing is set for August 29 . Under Michigan state law , a judge must review an inmate 's conduct in prison before release , even if the inmate 's conviction is set aside . On Monday , the Highers ' former warden and a clinical psychologist testified on the brothers ' behalf at a bond hearing . Carol Howes , former warden of the Lakeland Correctional Facility , where the brothers were periodically incarcerated , said she believes they 're innocent . `` I 've known them for over a decade . I 've never known them to lie to me about anything , '' Howes told CNN . `` They have consistently said that they were innocent . '' The brothers went home Monday after posting bond . `` We 're feeling very happy and elated , '' Thomas Highers said Thursday . `` The last few days have been like a whirlwind ... meeting new family and getting to know everybody once again . '' The Wayne County Prosecutor 's Office is appealing the granting of a new trial . CNN 's Julia Greenberg contributed to this report .
Raymond , Timothy Highers say they were in the neighborhood the night a drug dealer was killed . A witness said he saw them enter a house about when a shot was fired . Brothers were given life and for nearly 25 years they have insisted they are innocent . A chance Facebook encounter led to testimony that prompted a judge to order a new trial .