Father kills 6-year-old while trying to ‘cast the demon out’ of him, Arizona cops say
An Arizona father admitted to killing his son last week in a hot-water exorcism that left the 6-year-old’s body 15 percent burned, according to authorities.
Firefighters discovered the boy Thursday in the back of a home on the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, where he was “completely naked” and “did not appear to be breathing,” according to a criminal complaint. He was pronounced dead at a Tuscon hospital.
Pablo Martinez, a 31-year-old who lives on the reservation outside Tucson, faces federal murder charges in his child’s death, according to the complaint filed on Friday in U.S. District Court. He’s in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, KOLD reports.
First responders reached the home around 4:30 p.m. Thursday on reports of a child burn, and found Martinez and the boy’s adoptive mother, Romelia Martinez, standing outside, the complaint said. Firefighters gave the boy medical care while police asked the parents what had happened — to which the mother allegedly responded “something to the effect of ‘He can tell you.’”
The father told police that “they would not understand” and were “not in the right mindset or belief,” but then put his hands up in the air and “said something to the effect of ‘I did it,’” according to the complaint. Martinez told officers the boy “was demonic, had a demon inside him, and that he needed to save him,” the complaint said.
The mother also told police the boy “had been acting demonic,” according to the complaint.
Speaking to the FBI and tribal police, the mother said Martinez had offered to bathe their two children that day, the complaint said.
But at some point during the bath, the other child left the bath and the mother “heard a gurgling sound coming from the bathroom.” The door was locked so the mother unlocked it, and when she looked inside she found Martinez holding the child under the faucet in the tub. She screamed at him to stop, the complaint said.
Martinez responded that “he had to do it,” the mother said, adding that she called 911 as the father poured cold water on the boy and tried performing CPR, according to the complaint.
Martinez also spoke to tribal police and the FBI, telling them that “within the last week he had noticed that his son … had a demon inside of him,” according to the complaint. Martinez said he “saw something evil” in the boy during the bath and “knew he had to cast the demon out.”
After the boy exhibited an “unnatural fit of rage,” Martinez said he held the boy’s head under the faucet, poured hot water into his mouth and “noticed that the hot water was casting out the demon,” the complaint said.
Martinez estimated that the child was under water for five to 10 minutes, according to the complaint — and the other child was also in the bathtub at the time, until that child “left at some point crying,” according to the complaint.
That’s when the mother came into the bathroom, tried to call a pastor and then called 911 as Martinez “observed water coming out of” the boy’s mouth, the complaint said.
Michael John Martinez Areinoff has been assigned as Martinez’s public defender, but “Areinoff said he has no comment on the case at this time,” the Arizona Republic reports.
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe said a joint investigation between tribal police and the FBI is ongoing, CNN reports. The mother is a tribal member but the father is not, KGUN reports.
This story was originally published October 1, 2019 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Father kills 6-year-old while trying to ‘cast the demon out’ of him, Arizona cops say."
