The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office on Monday, Dec. 15, announced murder charges against the leaders of what one official described as a “secretive and manipulative” Hemet-based church after probes of the deaths of a missing former congregant and a young boy who died in the leaders’ care, officials said.
Warrants were served on Thursday, Dec. 11, in Colton and at the base of operations of the His Way Spirit Led Assemblies in Hemet, and arrests were made.
“What you have are two separate, winding-road investigations that are coming together,” District Attorney Jason Anderson said at a news conference at the DA’ Office’s headquarters in San Bernardino.
Shelley Bailey “Kat” Martin, 62, who calls herself “Prophetess” and heads the church with her husband, was charged with two counts of murder: one for ex-congregant Emilio Ghanem, 40, who hasn’t been seen since 2023 and whose body has not been found; and another for the 2010 death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas, who was placed in the care of Martin and her husband by his parents and died of a ruptured appendix, authorities said.
The husband, Darryl Muzic Martin, 58, who goes by “Pastor Muzic,” was charged with murder in Timothy’s death.
Anderson alleged that the Martins knew Timothy was ill and suffering yet failed to seek medical care.
Timothy’s father, Andre Thomas, was also charged with murder in his son’s death. And congregant Rudy Franco Moreno was charged with murder in the apparent death of Ghanem.
Moreno is the brother of another missing ex-congregant, Ruben Moreno. Claremont police are still investigating his disappearance.
On Monday, Dec. 15, in Superior Court in San Bernardino, Shelley Martin pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy, Darryl Martin pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, and Moreno pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and one count of conspiracy. Thomas was scheduled to appear in court on Monday to enter a plea to one count of murder.
Ghanem, a member of the church for two decades, disappeared on May 25, 2023, after visiting a Starbucks in Redlands. This was shortly after quitting the church, where he worked for its pest-control company. He then formed his own pest-control company, prompting the church to send him a cease-and-desist letter and accuse him of stealing its customers, Redlands police have said.
His rented Nissan Frontier was seen on surveillance video in Grand Terrace.
“The truck was subsequently located abandoned in the Mojave Desert, burned and containing evidence consistent with a homicide,” Redlands Police Chief Rachel Tolber said.
“The secretive and manipulative actions by the Martins and the members of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies presented particular challenges to the department’s investigation,” Tolber continued. “This case required extraordinary time, resources and determination. Redlands police detectives executed dozens of search warrants, analyzed extensive amounts of digital and physical evidence, conducted many interviews, all of these across multiple jurisdictions.”
The state Department of Justice, Colton police, the District Attorney’s Office, and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department collaborated with Redlands police.
Other church members were arrested on suspicion of weapons violations, she said.
Colton Police Chief Anthony Vega said Timothy was known to his family as Timo.
“The victims certainly deserve to have their story told,” Vega said. “Timo was a 4-year-old child who experienced an agonizing death on January 16th, 2010, because the suspects in this investigation refused to provide Timo with medical assistance when he suffered from appendicitis.
The Colton Police Department has never forgotten Timo,” the chief said. “Although his death was 15 years ago, the graphic details of what our officers saw that evening was disturbing and still weighs heavy on them today.”
Colton police suspected neglect, but the DA’s Office declined to file charges at the time.
Anderson, the DA, blamed the Martins for misleading investigators. But witnesses provided new information after police reopened the case.
Anderson said the Martins and the boy’s father had the duty to care for Timothy but failed to do so.
“The motive of that appeared to be control,” Anderson said. “We have a manner of death, we have a cause of death, and we’ve been fortunate to have witnesses come forward and describe who and what were happening at the time that little guy died.”
As to Ghanem’s death, Anderson said, there has been no evidence that he is alive.
“The motive there obviously was not only control, but greed,” Anderson said. “They valued money over him.”
How would Anderson describe the church?
“I think it’s a tightly controlled religious organization that is centered around their beliefs and also centered around being a business,” he said. “The secretive nature of it was, ‘Don’t tell anybody’ — there was a 4-year-old who’s fighting for his life on the floor of a house in Colton.
“(When) you’re talking about Mr. Ghanem, the secret there is nobody was talking about, ‘Why don’t we see a guy who was part of our religious group for a number of years?’ ” Anderson said. ” ‘We had a meeting with him and then he is never seen or heard from again,’ and nobody’s interested where he may be.”