Additional charges have been filed against three family members in the horrific, disturbing exorcism death of little Arely Hernandez. The 3-year-old girl was killed throughout a gruesome 12-hour ritual abuse in an alleged California church at the hands of her own closest loved ones in September.
Uncle Rene Aaron Hernandez-Santos, 19, and grandpa, Rene Trigueros Hernandez, 59, were charged with felony abuse Friday by Santa Clara County authorities.
The girl’s own Mother, Claudia Hernandez, 25, was charged in January, arraigned, and remanded to prison, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office. She smothered and strangled her child up until she passed away of asphyxia, authorities said.
“Evidence shows that the now-three charged suspects in the child’s death believed that they were expelling an ‘evil demon’ from the child’s body,” the office said in a statement. “The mother believed that her daughter was possessed by a demon because the little girl would wake up in the middle of the night and cry.”
The three suspects “at various points were praying, strangling, and pushing on the child’s 38-pound body to cause her to vomit up the evil spirit,” the statement continued.
Arely had sustained “multiple injuries around her eyes, face, neck and chest,” according to court documents obtained by KRON.
The girl’s grandfather is the pastor at the “small, makeshift” church on South 2nd Street in San Jose.
“A child is gone because of unimaginable behavior by the same people who should have been taking care of her,” said Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
Four months after Arely’s death, a video was uploaded to YouTube, allegedly showing Hernandez talking about her daughter’s death.
The woman alleged to be Claudia Hernandez is heard to say,
“Everyone wants to know what happened to her, you know, her cause of death. A lot of people turned on me after my daughter passed away; a lot of people thought a lot of things because of how that situation looked. If you weren’t there, you don’t know what happened. I know what happened.”
“When she passed away she was with me. Of course, I’m her mom, why would she not be with me?” the woman says.
“I could sit here and be negative. But there’s no point in me doing that. I cannot change what is. It is what it is,” the woman says.
The video is approximately forty minutes long and shows the woman smiling and laughing as she nonchalantly discusses the grisly death of her little girl.
WARNING: Video may be disturbing for some viewers.
