Leaders of Hemet religious group charged with 2 murders over 13-year span
HEMET, Calif. (KABC) -- The leaders of a mysterious religious organization based in Hemet are accused of murdering a 4-year-old boy in Colton as well as a 40-year-old man reported missing in Redlands.
Daryl Muzik Martin, 58, and his wife Shelly Kathryn Martin, 62, are charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Timothy Thomas in 2010, and Emilio Ghanem in 2023.
The Martins are the leaders of an organization known as His Way Spirit Led Assemblies.
The 4-year-old victim's parents were members of the organization at the time of his death; Ghanem had recently left the organization when he went missing.
"What you have here are two separate very winding roads of cases that are now beginning to lead to justice," said San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson.
What happened to Emilio Ghanem?
Ghanem was reported missing to Redlands police in May 2023 after meeting with one of the church leaders at a Starbucks in Redlands.
The truck Ghanem had rented was later spotted by a surveillance camera in a nearby city, but Ghanem was never seen or heard from again. The Redlands Police Department began investigating Ghanem's disappearance as a homicide in August 2025 when his truck was discovered.
"The truck was subsequently located abandoned in the Mojave Desert, burned and containing evidence consistent with homicide," said Redlands Police Chief Rachel Tober.
That's when the Colton Police Department reopened the investigation into the death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas, who died of appendicitis in 2010.
What happened to 4-year-old Timothy Thomas?
A month before the boy died, his parents had turned him over to the custody of church leaders, with whom he lived in a home in Colton.
When he started developing pain in his lower body, police said church leaders failed to get him proper medical attention. Nearly seven days later, he was dead.
"Shelly and Daryl Martin took an active role in preventing Timothy from receiving medical attention, and his father Andre Thomas was complicit," said Colton Police Chief Anthony Vega. "Timothy's death could have been prevented had he been allowed to receive medical attention for his appendicitis."
"Four-year-old Timothy agonized for days until his passing," added Vega.
Along with the Martins, the boy's father, Andre Thomas, is also charged with murder.
Shelly Martin and fellow church member Rudy Moreno are charged with the murder of Ghannem. Daryl and Shelly Martin, along with Rudy Moreno, have all pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and are being held without bail.
During a news conference Monday afternoon when the district attorney announced the filing of murder charges, he was asked why law enforcement has described the religious organization as secretive and manipulative.
"Obviously, the secretive nature of [Thomas's death] was to not tell anyone that a 4-year-old is fighting for his life on the floor of a house in Colton," said Anderson.
"When you're talking about Mr. Ghanem, nobody was talking about why don't we see a guy who was a part of our religious group for a number of years. We had a meeting with him, and then he never is seen or heard from again, and nobody's interested in where he may be that was part of that group ... that sounds pretty secretive to me."
