In a San Bernardino courtroom this week, jurors heard testimony that sounded less like church doctrine and more like something out of a nightmare.
A former member of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies told the court that its leader claimed to be a prophetess — and the physical embodiment of God.
Kelli Byrd, who once belonged to the group, testified Thursday that Shelley Bailey “Kat” Martin referred to herself as “Prophetess Kathryn,” insisted that the Holy Spirit lived inside her body, and claimed that God spoke directly through her. Byrd’s testimony offered a rare glimpse inside a group authorities and former members have described as cult-like.
Martin, 62, now sits at the center of two murder cases spanning more than a decade.
She, her husband Darryl Muzic Martin, and Andre Thomas are charged with murder in the 2010 death of Thomas’ four-year-old son, Timothy Thomas. Prosecutors say the child died of a ruptured appendix while in the Martins’ temporary custody — a death they describe as the result of extreme neglect that led to “very painful” suffering.
In a separate case, Martin is charged alongside Rudy Moreno and Ramon Ruiz Duran Jr. in the 2023 murder of former group member Emilio Ghanem, who vanished shortly after leaving the organization. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.
As Byrd testified, Martin sat silently in court.
According to Byrd, Martin would enter what followers called a “gift of prophecy,” a state in which her body would convulse and her voice would deepen as she delivered what she described as messages “from the throne of God.”
“Her body would start thrashing and her voice would become deep and low,” Byrd said, recalling how Martin claimed divine authority over the group.
Prosecutors allege that authority was enforced through fear, isolation, and total control. In Ghanem’s case, they say greed was the motive. His disappearance in Redlands in 2023 was initially treated as a missing-person case until detectives uncovered evidence — including a burned vehicle found in the Mojave Desert — that led them to reclassify the case as a homicide.
The case involving Timothy Thomas lingered unresolved for years. At the time of the boy’s death, authorities suspected neglect but declined to file charges, citing uncooperative witnesses and conflicting testimony. Those witnesses later recanted, telling investigators they had testified under pressure from the Martins, according to Colton Police Sgt. Shawn McFarland.
The cases resurfaced after police departments in Redlands, Colton, and Claremont compared notes last year and launched a joint investigation. Arrests followed in December, with Ramon Ruiz Duran Jr. later taken into custody in Nashville in January and extradited to San Bernardino County.
Former members have since described a life of near-total control inside His Way Spirit Led Assemblies. Founded in Nashville in 1998, the group moved to California in 2000 and operated out of homes across the Inland Empire for decades, Byrd testified.
Anthony Duran, the nephew of defendant Ramon Duran, told The Los Angeles Times that he escaped the group in 2020 when he was 20 years old.
“You had no choice in anything,” he said. “You can’t go here. You can’t go there. You can only go to work and come home.”
Members were discouraged from reading the Bible themselves, Duran said, and instead relied entirely on church leaders for interpretation. Martin allegedly told followers that she carried God’s spirit so heavily it left her barely able to walk.
“She was God,” Duran said.
Authorities have also linked the group to the 2019 disappearance of Ruben Moreno, the brother of defendant Rudy Moreno, who vanished from a Claremont home shared with other members. No charges have been filed in that case, though police say the investigation remains open.
Now, with testimony laying bare the inner workings of the group, prosecutors are attempting to show how belief, obedience, and fear may have paved the way for death — and how a woman who claimed to speak for God now faces judgment in a very different court.
