A somewhat novel defense is being mounted for a mother, uncle, and grandfather accused in the death of a three-year-old girl in San Jose who was allegedly tortured, starved, and abused for 12 hours before being asphyxiated, all in the name of an exorcism.

The incident made headlines in May 2022 only after a small, makeshift Pentacostal church on a residential street in San Jose became linked to the high-profile kidnapping of infant Brandon Cuellar. One of the accused kidnappers, 43-year-old Yesenia Ramirez, was a member of the church, which was led by pastor Rene Huezo, aka Rene Trigueros Hernandez.

The church was called Iglesia Evangelica Apostoles y Profetas.

Hernandez was implicated, months earlier, in the death of his granddaughter, three-year-old Arely Naomi Proctor. The girl was found dead by police, likely several hours after she actually died, at the church, and was later determined to have died from asphyxiation or strangulation.

Police found that Hernandez, along with daughter Claudia Hernandez and son  Rene “Aaron” Hernandez Santos, had participated in an exorcism ritual over 12 hours in which they withheld food and water, and allegedly strangled the girl and tried to get her to vomit, to rid her of a "demon." Claudia Hernandez had brought the girl in for the exorcism after she had begun, for unknown reasons, crying and screaming in the middle of the night.

Following the girl's death, Claudia Hernandez posted a disturbingly nonchalant video to social media in which she spoke about the girl's death, saying, "It is what it is."

Now, as KRON4 reports, attorneys for all three family members have filed a so-called RJA motion under the state's Racial Justice Act, seeking to have the case thrown out. It sounds like a last-ditch effort before the trio heads to trial, seeking to have the case dismissed based on the fact that authorities misunderstood the family's religious beliefs, and that the entire case was "infected with bias."

The attorneys are trying to cast the prosecution as unique, saying that no one in California has ever been prosecuted for "a genuine effort at faith healing, with no ulterior criminal motive."

As Salvadoran Pentacostal Christians, the defense attorneys argue, their faith is "grounded in the biblical world and centered in an absolute belief in divine, supernatural intervention." The motion even describes an exorcism ritual that Rene Hernandez participated in in El Salvador in which, witnesses claimed, a possessed woman expelled a 12- to 18-inch lizard from her vagina.

And, per the motion, the fatal violence that occurred should be seen in this context. "In some churches, exorcism is a calm ritual involving prayers. In others, however, it is wild and sometimes even violent, involving a group holding the possessed person down," the motion states.

The motion also finds evidence of bias in police officers' and detectives treatment of the suspects, asking them repeatedly about mental health issues, and referring in a police report to the "makeshift" pseudo-church.

Santa Clara County Judge Hanley Chew ruled two years ago that there was sufficient evidence for the three Hernandezes to stand trial, and the DA's office is seeking sentences of 25 years to life.

Previously: Defendants Face Judge In 2021 Exorcism Murder Case of San Jose Three-Year-Old