San Jose exorcism death: Detective testimony about child ritual opens preliminary hearing

The child’s grandfather also told Vallejo that the girl struggled throughout the ritual, which he interpreted as “power” that he could not “destroy,” the lieutenant testified.

Wise also asked Vallejo about Trigueros Hernandez’s recollection of a years-past exorcism in El Salvador. According to Vallejo, Trigueros Hernandez described being part of a 12-man crew who held a woman down and prayed for six hours to cure her of a “spell cast on her.” Vallejo said the defendant claimed the woman’s stomach inflated throughout the exorcism, and at the end, a 12-to-18-inch lizard was “expelled from the woman’s vagina, and it was caught.”

Returning to the San Jose exorcism, Vallejo said the grandfather and uncle recalled the moment they noticed Arely appeared to be lifeless, pale in appearance, “like someone had passed.” Authorities allege that the defendants made no attempt to call for help for hours after the child became unresponsive.

Monday’s session left little time for the defense attorneys’ cross examination, but from the start, Dana Fite, representing Trigueros Hernandez, sought to establish the absence of homicidal intent by the defendants.

“None of these individuals said they intended to kill Arely, correct?” Fite asked, prompting an affirmative answer from Vallejo.

“In essence, they were trying to help her, to get rid of the demon, correct?” Fite continued.

The exorcism death did not draw public attention until nearly eight months after it occurred, by apparent happenstance: Police investigating an unrelated kidnapping searched the church attended by two suspects who later pleaded no contest in that case. That pointed public scrutiny at the church and the revelation of the exorcism, which was freely acknowledged by Trigueros Hernandez and congregants.

The preliminary hearing for the three defendants is expected to last through March 25, after which Judge Chew will rule whether there is enough evidence to allow the charges to proceed toward trial.

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