Claudia Hernandez #fundie #psycho nypost.com
[note: this is an update to this post]
A California mom accused of fatally torturing her 3-year-old daughter in a horrific family “exorcism” is asking a judge to toss the case — claiming in a twisted defense that she’s being prosecuted over her faith.
The outrageous assertion was laid out in new documents filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court earlier this month as accused killer mom Claudia Elisa Hernandez prepares to appear in front of a judge Jan. 22, more than three years after the death of her tragic daughter Arely.
The judge will consider arguments from Hernandez involving California’s Racial Justice Act — as her camp claims she and her family are entitled to a religious exemption on the basis they are Pentecostal Christians who believe in demonic possession and divine healing.
The El Salvadoran mom, now in her late 20s, was joined by her father and brother in sickly assaulting the tot because they believed she was “possessed by an evil spirit” — all because the child had woken up screaming.
“They arrived at 6:30 a.m. [Sept. 24, 2022], and over the next 12 hours, they violently pinned her down and stuck fingers down her throat to make her vomit, which they believed would help her get the spirit out,’ ” the cops wrote.
All the while, the bewildered dying little girl was repeatedly begging her torturers’ to stop — and telling her mother, “I love you,” officials have said.
[…]
Her lawyers have now filed a joint motion on behalf of Hernandez and her co-defendant brother and father arguing police and prosecutors targeted the family because of their religious beliefs and cultural background. Prosecutors are seeking 25 years to life behind bars for Arely’s accused killers.
Hernandez’s father, a pastor who immigrated from El Salvador, had previously taken part in prayer rituals meant to expel evil spirits, the document noted.