Note: This story contains details about the violent death of a child.

Three Pentecostals who are facing criminal charges for the exorcism-related death of a 3-year-old girl in San Jose, California, are asking the court to throw the case out. They say the investigation and prosecution were tainted by racism.

Pentecostal pastor Rene Trigueros Hernandez , 63, and his children Claudia Hernandez, 29, and Rene “Aaron” Hernandez, 23, are accused of killing Claudia’s daughter, Arely Naomi Proctor, in September 2021.

The Hernandezes’ attorneys don’t deny that the child died on the floor of Iglesia Evangelica Apostoles y Profetas, after a day-long failed effort to cast out a demon. But they are arguing that Santa Clara County officials did not consider the possibility that the attempted exorcism might be “a genuine effort at faith healing, without criminal intent.”

Therefore, the defense attorneys say, law enforcement and prosecutors demonstrated “systemic bias or animus” against the Salvadoran immigrant Christians, whose faith is “centered in an absolute belief in divine, supernatural intervention.”

California’s Racial Justice Act prohibits criminal convictions “on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin,” even if that bias is unintentional and can’t be shown to impact the outcome of the legal process. The 2020 law, expanded and strengthened by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2025, says coded language, the use of stereotypes or disproportionate prosecution are enough to delegitimize a criminal case.

“Racism in any form or amount, at any stage of a criminal trial, is intolerable,” state legislators wrote, and should be considered “a miscarriage of justice.”

County prosecutors reject the idea that criminal charges against the Hernandezes were influenced by prejudice. They will argue in a Jan. 22 hearing that no one cared that the Hernandezes were from El Salvador.

According to officials, the investigation strictly focused on the horrific details of a child’s death.

Extensive physical injuries after exorcism

When a medical examiner autopsied Proctor’s body in 2021, she had bruises on her arms, legs and neck. Blood was running from her mouth. There were internal injuries in her brain, heart and pancreas and an acute hemorrhage in her trachea, court records show.

The 3-year-old died of asphyxiation, according to the San Jose police, who called it a homicide.

The girl’s mother reportedly told police the injuries happened in an exorcism that lasted from about 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“Three trusted adults forcibly grabbed her by the neck, torso, back and legs,” Assistant District Attorney Rebekah Wise told the court. “The evidence shows that while this assault was ongoing, Arley struggled to escape.”

Claudia Hernandez allegedly told police that she decided her daughter was possessed by a demon because the girl was screaming in her sleep, saying “no, no, no.” During the day, the child was also acting weird and didn’t want milk, she added.

Claudia Hernandez told detectives she believed her child became possessed while watching videos on her phone, court documents show. She allegedly described the demon as short, with ugly teeth and burnt hair.

The mother, in her mid 20s at the time, told police she wanted her daughter to vomit out the spirit and tried to force her to throw up, she said.

The girl resisted, clamping her mouth shut, Claudia Hernandez reportedly told police.

Claudia Hernandez allegedly got her brother and father to help pray and cast out the evil spirit. As the girl continued to struggle, they allegedly held her down—all three at once.

The child allegedly pleaded with them to stop, saying “no” and, at another point, telling her mother “Te amo,” or “I love you.” Claudia Hernandez told detectives she didn’t believe that was really her daughter speaking, though.

“It was something else,” she reportedly said. “What I believe is that she … was possessed, you know, cause I go to church and the whole spiritual thing, right?”

The family told detectives they have had extensive experience with exorcism, including one case in El Salvador where a woman was possessed by a demon shaped like a crocodile. The elder Rene Hernandez said he and 11 other men cast it out after six hours or prayer.

The younger Rene Hernandez told detectives that in addition to the typical Pentecostal practice of speaking in tongues, he had a spiritual gift of reprimanding.

The Hernandezes’ defense attorneys say detectives were skeptical of the Pentecostal accounts of divine gifts and spiritual forces. Because of that prejudice, they didn’t consider the possibility there was no criminal intent in the girl’s death.

“A critical issue in this case is intentional vs. unintentional,” one of the lawyers said in a previous hearing. “Intent is at the heart of this case. All three defendants said they had no intent to hurt Arely.”

Fighting demons “hand to hand”

Many Christians believe demons are active forces in the world. Pentecostals, in particular, often have a vivid and visceral demonology.

Historian Grant Wacker has said one early leader in the movement that started in the 20th century described demons attaching themselves to people “like ticks on cattle.” Another early American Pentecostal encouraged Christians to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit so they could fight off Satan’s hordes “hand to hand.”

Exorcisms are fairly common for Pentecostals in the United States and Latin America. It is rare for someone to try to cast a spirit out of a child, though, and unusual for intercession to turn so violent that it leaves physical injuries.

The San Jose detectives said they did not question the Hernandezes’ beliefs, according to court documents. They asked for details about what happened on Sept. 24, 2021, including how long the exorcism lasted, whether the girl had seemed ill before it began and how she received injuries on her body.

Rene “Aaron” Hernandez allegedly demonstrated how the family had held the girl’s body using a doll. He said he had been involved in two exorcisms before trying to cast a spirit out of his niece, according to court records, but the previous incidents had not involved a child.

At one point, the younger Rene Hernandez allegedly said he thought the exorcism had worked and something came out of the child. But then she was very still and he thought she was dead, he told detectives.

The family allegedly kept praying and didn’t call 911 for several more hours.

Claudia Hernandez posted a long YouTube video about her daughter in 2022, nine months after Proctor died. 

“My baby was such a sweet baby,” she said. “She was so sweet like, she would tell me ‘I love you’ so many times. She’s like, my baby, you know?”

The mother of the deceased child told the camera she wasn’t ready to talk in detail about what happened but complained about being misunderstood.

“I cannot change the past and I got to be positive about the situation,” Claudia Hernandez said. “People can think what they want to think. Whatever you want to think that happened is not valid, because you were not there.”

Prosecutors charged the Hernandezes with felony assault on a child causing death. Conviction carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

According to the defense attorneys, the severity of the indictment is unprecedented in California in any case involving attempts at faith healing. They claim that’s evidence of bias.

Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee.