Law&Crime Sidebar - 3-Year-Old Killed by Exorcism from Mom, Family Who Showed No Remorse, Investigators Say

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

In the weeks before her arrest, Claudia Hernandez posted a video on YouTube, remembering her 3-year-old daughter Arely. The child died during an alleged exorcism performed by Hernandez, her brother, and her father, inside a makeshift church in San Jose, California. Prosecutors laid out what an investigation revealed in order to push the case forward to trial. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has the horrific details of what Arely went through in the last 24 hours of her life.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve ever been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/YouTubeTakeoverHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Prosecutors in California are trying to keep a woman locked up after they say she tortured and killed her three-year-old daughter during an alleged exorcism. We're digging into this. We're digging into this very bizarre and brutal case as the state seeks to keep Claudia Hernandez and two members of her family away from the public. Plus, what the defendant herself had to say about the toddler after her gruesome death. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Let me lay out this story as alleged by prosecutors in California. In 2021, Claudia Hernandez was at a

makeshift churched in the back of a home in San Jose, California with her daughter, three-year-old Aurelli Naomi Proctor. According to court documents, Hernandez believed that Aureli was possessed by a demon that needed to be cast out through an exorcism. No, this is not the Daibel case. This is unfortunately another one that we're covering because Hernandez's father, René Hernandez, was the pastor of that church. and Hernandez and her brother, who's also named Renee Hernandez,

allegedly took a rally to the church on September 24th, 2021. According to court documents, the three family members held a rally down for approximately 20 hours torturing her by grabbing her neck, torso, back, legs, smothering her, holding her in positions, repeatedly trying to force her to throw up, all of this allegedly to expel the demon. And sadly, as a result of all of this, prosecutors say Arelli died, succumbed to her injuries. The coroner's report determined that Arelli died from asphyxiation

and had blood in her lungs, that she had brain swelling, that she had injuries on her neck and inside of her mouth. I mean, it doesn't get any more horrific than this. But here's the thing. The prosecutor has said that Hernandez has shown zero remorse because she still believes she did nothing wrong. Now that, of course, begs the question from a legal point of view, could the insanity defense be on the table?

Now, we have talked before about how rare it is for that to work, obviously, because if it were readily available and accessible, defendants would constantly use it as a way to get at a prison time. But here in California, we're talking about whether a defendant can show by a preponderance of the evidence more likely than not, it's a lower standard. whether he or she, at the time of the offense, was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of what they did and of distinguishing between right and wrong. Again, a very high bar, but is that possibly on the table here?

Is that what we're talking about? I'm going to explain why. January 2020, just days before she was arrested, Hernandez seemingly posted a video online about her daughter. During the 45-minute video, Hernandez seems to recount. memories of Aurelli from the time she was conceived until her death. At times she appears to be holding back tears, but then there are other times where it almost seems like she makes light of what happened. It's so hard now, you know, because going from having her every day to

not having her at all, you know, it's, it's so hard. It's hard, you know, and it's a thing that I'm not gonna see her grow up you know like how i thought that i was going to see her up you know like but you know it's okay it's okay because i know she's in a better place and god knows why he allows these things you know and not everybody wants to know what happened to her like her the cost of her death and i will talk to you guys about it you know i will but when i'm ready i i i can see here and be negative about the thing like, oh, like, I wish you could go back, and this and this and that. But it's like, there is no point of me doing that, you know, because I cannot change what it is. You know, it is what it is.

So I've learned to think positive, you know, because it's, it's many reasons why God took her. Okay, if what prosecutors are alleging is true, it is an incredibly disturbing reaction to the death of your own three year old child. 26-year-old Hernandez, her 20-year-old brother, and her 60-year-old father were each charged with one felony count of assault on a child younger than eight causing death. The court ruled all three will be held without bail until their trial, and if convicted, they each face 25 years to life in prison. Now, as an aside, we couldn't confirm why the trio were not charged with murder,

when you're talking about potentially life in prison. Perhaps at this point in time, prosecutors don't believe that the case rises to the level of an intentional or premeditated killing. Maybe that's what's going on here. But again, very serious charge with very serious consequences. Hey, everybody, I want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring today's Law and Crime YouTube Takeover. If you've seen our videos, you know Morgan and Morgan is a proud sponsor of us here at Law and Crime and that our content proves that the world is not always safe. and one of the scariest things that can happen to you is if you get hurt, right? Such a traumatic moment.

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You only pay them if you win. So if you're injured, you could start your claim at for the people.com slash YouTube takeover or by dialing pound law. That's pound 529 on your phone. Okay. So now let's dig into some of these court documents because, as I said, the state was making sure that these three would not be released into the public, right? And so the state, and they clearly won, they're going to be locked up, as I said, until trial. But the state's holding order memorandum is what we want to get into and explains what the state believes happened based on testimony given at a preliminary hearing. And it really goes into detail. And I warn you, it is incredibly tough to hear. But important to. here, nonetheless. It states, quote, during this assault, Aurelli Doe fought for her life as three trusted adults forcibly grabbed her by her neck, torso back, and legs, smothered her by repeatedly attempting to pry open her mouth to make her vomit, and held her with so much force that she

had internal bleeding and injuries. The evidence shows that while this assault was ongoing, Aurelli struggled to escape from her abusers. She clamped her mouth in resistance to the adults who were trying to pry it open. During the assault, the victim repeatedly said no. As she was fighting for her life at the hands of her mother, grandfather, an uncle, she told her mother, I love you. When pressure was applied to her neck and torso, she was repeatedly rendered unconscious for moments at a time.

This ongoing assault resulted in the tragic death of Arelli. My gosh, fighting back like this, how incredibly brave was she? Now, first responders found Arelli's body on the floor of that makeshift church. So why did Hernandez believe that her daughter was possessed and needed a so-called prayer ceremony? Well, the officer who was on scene that night, the night that O'Reilly died, spoke with Hernandez. Quote, she explained that the previous night Erelli was screaming and crying. Claudia said she knew it was not her baby because O'Reilly was always happy. Claudia then continued to describe to Officer Reyes how Arelli looked different the night before, saying her eyes were different.

She described Erelli calming down when she comforted her. She said she put her to bed around 11 p.m. She then went to sleep at 12 a.m. Claudia's brother was sleeping in the bed with them and Erelli Doe was in the middle. The filing recounts that several times over the course of the next day, either Hernandez or her brother would decide that Erelli needed to throw up and they tried to force her to do that. but the little girl allegedly bit both of them when they tried to force her mouth open. She also describes that the three-year-old was being strong. She then explained that she has seen movies that show objects can get possessed.

She told her brother they had to remove everything from the room. They moved all the furniture from the room except for the bed. The next morning, Hernandez and her brother took a rally to the church at the back of the private residence. Quote, Claudia, was asked if a priest was there with her, and she said no. Claudia described the church as her dad's church and said he was a preacher there. And the statement details about how all three people, again, held Aurelli in an effort to force her to vomit. Disgusting. And around 6 p.m. O'Reilly was cold to the touch.

Claudia said she thought maybe she was dead, but she never seen a dead body. So what did they do? They continued to pray. This is what the allegation is. She moved her onto the floor and then kept praying. Claudia called her mom, sister, best friend, husband, and boss before she called 9-1-1. That's a lot of people to call before you allegedly call law enforcement. Another officer took Claudia to what's called the Witness Center and was comforting her.

It's part of the filing reads, quote, Claudia said Arelli changed at night. The first noticeable change was when Arelli was demanding her shirt and went to the closet and threw all of her shirts out. Claudia said Arelli's scream was so hard, she thought it was not her. While Arelli was in the shower, Claudia described that her eyes looked different. Claudia told Arelli she loved her and Arelli did not say anything back. Aurelli then fell asleep very fast. Claudia said she never does that. Hernandez said later in the statement that Raleigh always slept on her side, but that night she slept on her back.

It's fascinating to hear her trying to find these little points of difference. that officer's part of the filing continues at 5 p.m. Claudia said they had to pray for Raleigh again. This time when they prayed, Raleigh threw up a liquid that it was a purplish color. After Raleigh actually spit it out, they laid her down and continued praying. She then checked on her about 6 p.m. and Raleigh was cold. Her lips were blue and purple and her hands were cold. This was the last time Claudia believed Raleigh to be alive. Claudia said that she told Renee Jr. to continue to pray. I actually can't tell what's more disturbing, the alleged abuse, or the fact that it seems

based on this account, this mother kept distorting certain observations as signs that her daughter was possessed, you know, reinforcing that theory of possession. But again, the legal question becomes, did she really honestly believe this? now here is something interesting the document says that hernandez had not told aurelli's father that she believed the girl was possessed and didn't tell him they were going to the church something also interesting that came up during these interviews with hernandez is that she doesn't seem to have been particularly involved in this church according to these court documents she hadn't been to a church service since 2016 but it recently

started going there to pray. Quote, Claudia said she does not necessarily believe in possession because of the church she goes to, but because of other things she has experienced in her life where at the school, like places that I've been that I know that are like, it's just things that I know that are possessed or people, you know? She said she always believed in it since she was a kid. She described it as being like a medium. When asked if she thinks she caused her daughter's death, Claudia replied,

in a way. Claudia admitted that although she thought Arelli was possessed, she had no idea if the method they were using would lead the demon to be expelled. At one point, Hernandez was left alone in an interview room with her brother known in the filing as Renee Jr. Now, of course, as we know, everything is recorded in these rooms, like everything is recorded on jailhouse phone calls too. It always surprises me that people don't realize that, or maybe they do. But investigators are listening in, whether they're in that room or not, they're listening in. So, quote, Claudia told Renee Jr. that while she was in the other room, the other interview room, God came to her and told her that God had taken a rally on Thursday, and it was because of demons.

Claudia told Renee Jr. that God gave her the solution, and everything was going to be okay. Claudia also said that God told her they were not going to be guilty. A few weeks after Raleigh's death, Hernandez reached out to a detective on the case for a meeting, during that meeting, she explained that she had begun praying daily to God and that he was appearing to her in visions. She said God had told her the day that Arelli would die. Lieutenant Vallejo confronted Claudia with the fact that they said they were holding Arelli's head and it would go down and her body would go limp.

Claudia confirmed that when Arelli's body would go limp, it was when Claudia was holding her neck. They asked Claudia how many times Arelli passed out while they were holding her and she responded, maybe like three or four. During one of the interviews with Renee Jr., he told the detective that he believed he was given the gift of tongues and the gift of healing, all from God. Quote, he described what they did to Arelli as an exorcism. He said he had previously done two, but he had never done an exorcism on a child. Renée Sr. was also interviewed in the weeks and months after O'Reilly's death. He openly admitted to being in the room during the prayer ceremony, but

said it was not an exorcism. So I'm kind of seeing a little bit of a difference here between these co-defendants. Quote, when he arrived, they told him that Aurelli had an evil spirit. Claudia told him that the girl was going to die. He said, Claudia had already bought everything because she knew God was going to take her. He described a dress that Claudia had bought for Aureli for her funeral. When I asked how he could know this to be true and why Aureli was only going to live to be three, Renee Sr. shrugged his shoulders. Renee senior said he believed everything Claudia was saying to him. Claudia said that Arelli would scream and was not a normal girl.

So again, I asked the question, if that's true, is it not surprising? They were in charge with premeditated murder here. If you know when she's going to die, it's something to ask. But again, very serious charges they're facing nonetheless. It's just, I'm not sure I would quite understand. Maybe we'll get more insight into this as this case progresses. but unbelievably tragic and disturbing details and I mean I think people know this by now when I cover these cases it's the ones that deal with children that those are the ones that really get to me

and you know thinking about what she went through in those final moments you know you hear how brave she was but how absolutely frightening and scary that was for her that's the that's the part that always gets me these three family members though they're going to remain behind bars pending trial and a trial setting date is scheduled for August. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.