Church emerges as nexus in San Jose infant kidnapping, exorcism death of 3-year-old girl

A small, nondescript church in San Jose appears to be a connecting thread between last month’s kidnapping of a San Jose infant and the killing of 3-year-old girl, whose September death in an alleged exorcism has been ruled a homicide.

The Iglesia Evangelica Apostoles y Profetas church was swarmed by police twice over the last seven months — first early last fall when a mother called 911 to report that her child died from asphyxiation after family members at the church spent hours trying to rid her body of evil spirits, and again in late April during an 18-hour long search for a 3-month-old child, according to a police report and the landlord for the church, who was present during the searches.

Mothers of both children, as well as the grandmother of the kidnapped boy, attended the church, according to Santiago Garcia, 52, who owns the home the church operates out of, just south of downtown San Jose.

Questions remain about the incidents — chief among them the motivations behind the widely publicized late April kidnapping. and what, if any, connection it may have had with the earlier death of a child at the church. Claudia Hernandez, the mother of child who died last year, has been charged in her death. And two people — Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez and Jose Roman Portillo — face several felony charges in connection to the kidnapping,

Garcia said he was outside the house when the exorcism happened, but didn’t realize what was going on inside until the 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,” Garcia said. “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.”

Members of churches in California affiliated with the San Jose church say the worship center is an outlier that appears to have strayed from the typical worship practices of their sect, part of movement started by a Canadian missionary who spread evangelical Pentecostalism throughout Latin America, most notably in El Salvador and Bolivia. Though there are many branches of the church, the San Jose congregation appears to be part of the Iglesias Apostoles y Profetas Libres, an alliance of churches with similar doctrines and dogmas in California.

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,” citing personal issues with San Jose pastor Rene Hueso and differences in doctrine and practices. The church no longer belongs to their alliance, Escobar said, despite previously worshiping together on separate occasions.

Hueso, Escobar said, “took an attitude of separating himself from his Brothers.” He called exorcism a “dark practice” that isn’t part of the church’s doctrine, and was shocked to learn that an exorcism was performed on a child in San Jose.

“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.”