Ex-member testifies about religious group in murder case

Onetime follower of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies describes its leaders, practices.

- BY CLARA HARTER

Photographs by ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

DEFENDANTS Darryl Muzic Martin and Shelley Bailey "Kat" Martin in court Thursday in San Bernardino.

Shelley Bailey “Kat” Martin taught members of her secretive religious group that she was like the character Neo from “The Matrix” — awoken from this realm by God and transformed into a perfect being, according to testimony from a former member.

The self-proclaimed “prophetess” appeared in San Bernardino County Superior Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing alongside four other defendants to face murder charges in the death of a 4-year-old boy and a former group member. The other defendants are her husband, Darryl Muzic Martin, 58, current member Rudy Moreno, former member Ramon Ruiz Duran Jr. and former member Andre Thomas, prosecutors say.

The Martins are leaders of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies, a religious group that imposed excessive control over members’ lives and finances and operated for years across the Inland Empire, prosecutors say.

Shelley Martin, 62; Moreno, 43; and Duran, 44, are charged with murdering former member Emilio Ghanem, who disappeared in 2023 shortly after parting ways with the group. The Martins and Andre Thomas are charged with murder in the death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas while he was in the temporary custody of the Martins in 2010, according to the Colton Police Department. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Attorneys representing the defendants declined to comment to The Times or did not respond to requests for comment.

Former group member Kelli Byrd testified for two hours on Thursday, providing a rare glimpse inside the religious group that had operated in secret for decades.

Byrd told the court that Shelley Martin referred to herself as Prophetess Kathryn, claimed she was a physical embodiment of the Holy Spirit and that God spoke directly through her.