Attys: Exorcism led to murder confession, but it was suicide

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A suburban Kansas City man who confessed to killing the wife of his prayer group leader had just undergone an exorcism when he gave his account to police and therefore wasn't in his right mind, his attorneys said in a motion to exclude those incriminating statements from his trial next month.

Micah Moore, 25, formerly of Grandview, Mo., recanted his confession in the death of Bethany Deaton after getting some sleep, his attorneys said.

The 27-year-old Deaton's body was found in her locked minivan at Longview Lake on Oct. 30, 2012, with a loosely tied bag over her head and a suicide note and empty 100-count bottle of acetaminophen nearby. On the basis of that evidence, the Jackson County, Mo. coroner initially listed the cause of death as suicide.

Other than Moore's Nov. 2012 confession, there is no evidence Deaton's death was the result of a crime, Moore's attorneys wrote in their motion.

Moore and Deaton were part of a roughly 20-member prayer group who came to the Kansas City area from Texas to be part of International House of Prayer University, an evangelical Christian organization focused on missions and preparation for the end of time.

Members lived in a communal-type arrangement in Grandview, where Tyler Deaton, Bethany's husband, controlled everything from how members spent their free time to when they were required to worship, Moore's attorneys said.

After turning himself in to police on Nov. 9, 2012, Moore told investigators Tyler Deaton had ordered him to kill Bethany to keep her from revealing the group's secrets, including that Tyler Deaton was having sexual relations with male group members.

But Moore's attorneys argue the confession should be thrown out. They say it isn't legitimate because it came only after an evening prayer service in which exorcisms were performed.

During an evening prayer session on Nov. 8, 2012, an International House of Prayer-affiliated group called Prisoners of Hope put "their hands on the cult members, shouting at demons to leave and scream-praying in tongues, soon had many in the group crying and yelling and falling to the floor," Moore's attorneys wrote.

They argue Bethany Deaton was a deeply disturbed woman whose husband of only two months rejected her physical advances and had her shunned by the rest of the group, driving her to suicide.

"At a time when she had been physically rejected in the most humiliating way a woman can be rejected, she was also being socially rejected," the motion asserts.

Moore's murder trial is scheduled to begin on November 17.