Exorcism death is ruled a homicide
Child, 3, died at church that may be linked to kidnapping of infant
A small, nondescript church in San Jose has emerged as a connecting thread between last month's kidnapping of a San Jose infant and an alleged exorcism that killed a 3-year-old girl, whose September death has been ruled a homicide.
In late April, the Iglesia Evangelica Apostoles y Profetas church was swarmed by police during an 18-hour long search for a 3-monthold boy, according to the church's landlord. It was the second time in seven months that police had descended on the church over an endangered child.
In the earlier incident, newly reviewed court records reveal, the child — 3-year-old Arely Naomi Proctor — died after family members starved and asphyxiated her for hours in an attempt to rid her body of “evil spirits.”
The death was ruled a homicide by the Santa Clara County coroner's office but was never made public by San Jose police. The girl's mother, Claudia Hernandez, 25, has been arrested and charged with assault on a child resulting in death, a felony.
Many troubling questions remain about the killing, including why the two other people suspected of participating in the apparent exorcism — Hernandez's father and the church's leader, Rene Huezo, and her brother — have not been charged.
Santiago Garcia, who owns the house that the church uses for worship, said he was outside when the exorcism happened but didn't realize what was going on inside until police arrived — an experience that left him rattled.
“The grandpa told me they were praying, and they think that by praying, the Holy Ghost will come and save her,” said Garcia, 52. “The mom said she was trying to squeeze her body to bring her demons out. I can't believe she said that. It's very awful. Very, very awful.”
According to court records, Hernandez told police she started to believe her daughter was possessed on Sept. 23, 2021, when the girl would “wake up and scream or cry periodically.” That night, Hernandez gathered with her brother in a bedroom at her house and prayed for the girl while withholding food from her.
Before sunrise the next morning, Hernandez and her relative took Arely to the church and began the alleged exorcism, court documents said. They were joined by Hernandez's father, who is not named in the documents. But the church's landlord identified him as Huezo, the church's pastor.
Hernandez tried to force the girl to vomit, at times going so far as to stick a finger down the girl's throat and squeeze her neck, believing it would drive any spirits from her daughter's body, according to the court documents. All three people — Hernandez, her father and her daughter's uncle — took turns trying to force Arely to vomit, alternating positions by holding her neck, her abdomen and her legs, the documents say.
Arely died around 6 to 6:30 p.m. that night — about 12 hours after arriving at the church, Hernandez told investigators. Still, Hernandez waited an hour or two to call 911 and only did so at the urging of family members, the documents said. Emergency workers found the girl lying on the floor, and there was no evidence that anyone had tried to resuscitate her, investigators reported.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner later ruled the death a homicide by means of asphyxia due to suffocation, resulting from combined mechanical asphyxia and smothering. The medical examiner also found Arely had gone about 21 hours without food and only had about 6 ounces of water to drink in that time.
Hernandez, arrested Jan. 31, is being held without bail at Elmwood Correctional Women's Facility in Milpitas. She is scheduled to appear in court June 13, when she is expected to enter a plea in the case.
A police spokesperson, Christian Camarillo, declined to say why Hernandez was not arrested until four months after her daughter's death. Police records in the case remain sealed due to an “ongoing investigation,” according to publicly available court documents.
The Santa Clara District Attorney's Office also would not comment on the case but said it did not announce the charges against Hernandez to avoid interfering with the investigation. Calls to Hernandez's public defender were not returned May 6.
The San Jose congregation appears to be an outlier even among its own sect — the Iglesias Apostoles y Profetas Libres, an alliance of Pentecostal churches with similar doctrines and dogmas in California.
People at other churches in the network said the San Jose church and its pastor seem to have strayed from typical worship practices. Pastor Rafael Escobar, who leads a sister church in Reseda, said the San Jose congregation has “not been in communion with us for two years” and no longer belongs to their alliance, Escobar said, despite previously worshiping together on separate occasions.
Huezo, Escobar said, “took an attitude of separating himself from his Brothers.” Asked about the church's use of exorcism, Escobar expressed shock, calling it “dark practice” that isn't part of the church's doctrine.
“Church rooted in God has nothing to do with exorcisms at all. You can't mix that stuff with God,” Escobar said. “Those are satanic things. God's power is one thing, and another is exorcisms and darkness. It's not common at all in our church, and we don't practice it. It's very strange he would do that. It really shocks me a lot.”
Prior to the exorcism, no other incidents had been reported at the church in the 14 years that Garcia had rented the building to them, the landlord said. He said he has asked the congregation to leave by September, due to the repeated police presence.
Garcia also confirmed that San Jose police swarmed the building on April 25 while searching for a 3-month-old boy who was snatched from his grandmother's San Jose apartment earlier that afternoon, though the search was not noted in police reports. The boy was found safe after 18 hours later.
Two people — Yesenia Ramirez, 43, and Jose Portillo, 28 — were charged with conspiracy to commit a felony, kidnapping a child under the age of 14 and firstdegree burglary in connection with the kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint. They remain held without bail at Santa Clara County jail.
The motives for the kidnapping — and if, or how, it might be connected to Iglesia Evangelica Apostoles y Profetas church — remains a mystery. Prosecutors allege Ramirez and Portillo had stockpiled diapers and baby formula and even acquired a child's rocker while hatching a plan to abduct the infant, according to court papers.
Cody Salfen, an attorney for Ramirez, said he was not sure what Ramirez's specific ties are to Iglesia Evangelica Apostoles y Profetas. But the church, he said, is “kind of the hub of the spokes here.”
“That's obviously a common factor that exists between all or most of the people involved in this case.”
Staff writer Jason Green contributed to this report.