Former member of Southern California religious group with alleged ties to two deaths speaks out

A former member of the Inland Empire-based His Way Spirit Led Assemblies is speaking out after several of the leaders of the religious group were charged with two murders on Monday. 

Background

Shelly Bailey "Kat" Martin, Darryl Muzic Martin and Rudy Moreno, all high-ranking members of the group, were charged with murder by the San Bernardino County District Attorney for their alleged part in the deaths of 40-year-old Emilio Ghanem and 4-year-old Timothy Thomas. 

Ghanem, who was a member for several years, was reported missing in 2023 after he was last seen at a Starbucks in Redlands. His disappearance was being investigated as a missing person for years until recent evidence, including a burnt-out vehicle in the Mojave Desert, led detectives to classify the case as a homicide. 

"Kat" Martin, who is also known to members of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies as "The Prophetess" and "Prophetess Kathryn," was charged with Ghanem's murder, as was Rudy Moreno.

Investigators believe that Ghanem left the religious group to move to Nashville, Tennessee in 2023. He had started his own pest control company after working for Fullshield, Inc., a company known as Maxguard, which the religious group owns, Redlands police say. They say that Ghanem returned to the area to gather business for his own company and then disappeared.

On Monday, prosecutors said that a motive in his death was "greed."

"Kat" Martin, Darryl Muzic Martin, Rudy Moreno and Andre Thomas were all arrested last week after authorities served search warrants at properties in Hemet and Colton, investigators said. 

Both of the Martins and Andre Thomas, Timothy Thomas' father, were also arrested and charged with the alleged murder of the 4-year-old boy in 2010. Prosecutors said that child neglect led to his "very painful death," which was attributed to a burst appendix nearly 15 years ago. 

All four defendants pleaded not guilty to charges during a San Bernardino County court appearance on Tuesday. They are due back in court on Dec. 26. CBS Los Angeles has reached out to their individual legal representatives, but has not yet heard back. 

The group has also been connected to the disappearance of Ruben Moreno, a 41-year-old man who was reported missing from Claremont in 2019, who is also Rudy Moreno's brother. 

No arrests or charges have been made in Moreno's disappearance, as police continue their search. He was reportedly last seen at a home in Claremont, which he shared with other members of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies.

Becoming a member of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies

Anthony Duran and his family joined the group in 2017, when his mother chose to try to reconnect with her brother, who is a pastor at the church, which has connections to Redlands, Hemet and Claremont in the Inland Empire. 

To become a member, Duran said that they had to be "saved." During his sister's saving, Duran says that "Kat" Martin, known to members of the church as "The Prophetess" or "Prophetess Kathryn," referenced people, events and things his sister had done that no one else knew about. 

"There was things that my mother didn't know, my dad didn't know. I was the one who knew," he said. "It was really crazy, and it was one of those moments where you think about it, and you're like, 'Okay, maybe this is real. Right?'"

He says that after his sister was saved, Prophetess Kathryn turned her attention to him. 

Duran said that at this moment, he felt super uncomfortable, and the air in the room felt heavy, as if weights were on his shoulders. 

"I'm standing in the middle of this room, and I put my hands up and he starts praying over me and he's saying, 'Fire!' Screaming, and he's speaking in tongues," Duran said. "I just felt electricity, like, running through my bones. It was crazy."

He said that the experience had a dramatic emotional effect on him, leaving him uncontrollably crying.

Life as a member

Duran says that once he moved into the Swarthmore House, he was put to work immediately. He was pulled out of his senior year of high school and began working in construction with Fullshield, Inc., which he said also served as a pest control company.

 "It was automatic that I was going to be helping with working on the construction side," Duran said. 

From there, Duran said he would work up to 17 hours a day. Despite the long hours, he was only paid about $12 an hour and was sometimes not allowed to cash the checks he was given. 

"If God says you're not getting paid, you're not getting paid," Duran said.

Along with his construction duties, Duran also said that members had to work security shifts at the sprawling Swarthmore House compound. He said that there was someone on duty around the clock and that they were tasked with patrolling the massive property, which included crows' nests in some of the trees. 

"We would sit up there … and we'd be watching from the trees," Duran said. "Everybody had to do their part."

When he first started, Duran said he was typically armed with a compound bow or a high-powered airsoft gun, but one day, things suddenly changed and they were allowed to carry guns.

He said that the religious group's leaders would sometimes relay a warning from God, relayed through The Prophetess, that a member's family was trying to steal them from the church against their will. 

"They'd say, 'We need to protect the home,'" Duran said. "I don't think anybody ever was really trying to come after us. I felt like it was more of a control thing. Keep us scared, keep us wanting to protect them."

He said that church leaders made members cut off anyone who wasn't a part of the church, including family and friends, and that their living spaces were unclean and that they typically lacked basic needs like toiletries. They were also not allowed to seek medical attention, which signified a lack of faith in God's ability to heal them. Instead, members were told to pray more, Duran said. 

Emilio Ghanem and Ruben Moreno's disappearances

Duran was a member of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies when Ruben Moreno was last seen in 2019. 

"He was a really great guy," Duran said. "I really loved him."

Duran said that Moreno was around the Swarthmore House often, but that the group leaders "kept him on missions or in prayer" because he was an elder of the church. 

"He literally would show up every now and then, and it would be for a little bit, and you would talk to him, say hello … and then he would just kind of go back into where they had him in his room," Duran said. "Lock the door and that's kind of all you would see of him."

One day, Ruben Moreno eventually stopped coming around, which Duran said elicited some questioning from other members. 

They were told that "he was on a mission from God." Sometimes, leaders would ignore their questions entirely, Duran said.

When asked if he knows where Ruben Moreno is today? 

"I do not," Duran said. 

Duran also said that he used to work closely with Ghanem when they both worked for Fullshield, Inc. 

"Emilio was a really great guy as well," Duran said. "I really liked Emilio. We worked pretty closely. I helped him with subterranean termite jobs, you know, termite repairs, anything on the pest control side he needed."

He says that the two of them lived together at a different church property in Colton. Duran says that Ghanem was one of the group's longest-tenured members. 

When Duran finally left the group in 2020, Ghanem remained. He wouldn't leave until 2023, when he left for Nashville. 

The leaders of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies

Members of the church were told not to read the Bible, and that instead, church leaders would teach them. One of those teachers was "The Prophetess," who Duran said would tell members she "carried the spirit" so heavily that she was barely able to walk. 

"She was God," Duran said. 

Despite this, he said that "Kat" Martin and other leaders, like Darryl Muzic Martin, would try to portray a humble demeanor.

"Pastor Muzic, he is a very humble man, from the looks of it, right?" Duran said. "Prophetess Kathryn, on the other hand, she seemed to me like a dictator. From the day I met her, she had given me a word that she was gonna, that God was gonna have my head."

When she channeled God, Duran said that she would start speaking in something similar to a British accent. 

"She would start shaking and convulsing, and then she would just kind of, like, open her eyes real wide and start talking in this British accent," Duran recalled. "Kind of just trying to be really, like, boisterous and big, but completely different than how she talks now."

The Prophetess was also "not allowed to be around everybody in the church" and only allowed to be around the "purest of the pure," Duran said, stating that was why they had multiple homes.

Despite being told that they had a "welcome to leave" policy, members were strongly discouraged from leaving. Some members, he recalled, were beaten in front of the ministry for expressing a desire to leave.

In other instances, people were sometimes forced to fast or stay at home to eat, sleep and pray, according to Duran.

"Nothing, except for God," he said.

Leaving His Way Spirit Led Assemblies

"I left in the middle of the night, as well as multiple members did," Duran said. 

He said his decision came amid a family rift that included his mother. He said that when she blatantly lied to his face on the day he decided to leave, telling him they were leaving to run errands while they were actually dressed for a dinner cruise, which they were going to without him.

"I said, 'I love you.' That was it, didn't speak to her for the next six years," he said. "It took a lot."

Duran says that he waited until his family left the house, grabbed trash bags full of whatever he could and snuck out through the side. 

"As soon as I got in the truck ... That's it, I'm gone," he said. "Foots on the gas and I didn't stop there."

He says that, aside from his older sister, who escaped a few months ago, he hasn't spoken with his family much recently and that they've all blocked him on the social media platforms they use. 

When he told his mother that he was soon going to have a baby, Duran says she told him that she didn't "want to see you or that demon child."

"That was the last time I spoke to her. ... That's what really hurt the most, it's my family," Duran said. "My mom did tell me, if any of my kids leave, you're gone, and you're not part of the family anymore. So, she held up to that."

When asked how he reconciles that relationship with his mom?

"You don't," Duran said. 

Despite his mother making him join the church and their fallout, Duran credits his mother for his ability to rebound and establish himself once again. He is still working to reestablish a relationship with his father and sister, who both left the group as well. 

Duran said he wanted to tell his story as soon as he heard that the leaders of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies were arrested. 

"I was so ready for so many people to hear," he said. "I'm telling everybody, because that's, they were the main people I was afraid of."

As for how he feels about The Prophetess and other group leaders now, Duran said he hopes that they can see the negative impact they've had. 

"I know they don't care, but they know they ruined a lot of people's lives," he said. "They know they did. They did it on purpose. She knew what she was doing from the start."