Monday’s preliminary hearing finally began in the case of a young girl killed in what police describe as an exorcism-like ritual back in 2021.
She’s only identified as Arely Doe. It happened inside a backyard church the family used to run.
One of the lead investigators in the case took the stand to describe his interviews with the three defendants.
He said the girl's mother Claudia Hernandez told him “God had taken her Child” because Arely was possessed with a demon.
He also said that Hernandez told the girl’s uncle everything was going to be OK and “we won’t be found guilty for what we did.”
Allegedly saying in that interview that she killed her daughter but did not mean to.
The investigator also said the grandfather described how he held the girl tightly across his chest for two hours, saying the 3-year-old was acting like the girl in the movie “The Exorcist.”
But the grandfather says it wasn’t an exorcism, even though they were trying to rid her of being possessed. And none of the three defendants tried any life-saving measures.
Defense lawyers objected to certain lines of questioning, but will get their chance to cross examine.
The defendant’s family was in court, but did not want to comment.
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Attorneys for all sides said they can’t talk until it’s over. But NBC Bay Area spoke to lawyer Steven Clark, who is not associated with this case, about why the preliminary hearing will be so detailed.
“The DA wants to lay out their case because they need to show what each individual defendant did relative to the death of this young child. So it's important that this is just a probable cause hearing, but at the same time this is setting the case up for trial,” said Clark.
The preliminary hearing is expected to last through next Tuesday, at which point the judge will decide if there is enough evidence to move the case to trial.
