Ex-congregant links Inland Empire religious group’s ‘Prophetess’ leader to deaths in murder case 

Shelley “Kat” Martin, leader of the Inland Empire-based His Way Spirit Led Assemblies, concocted a cover story after a 4-year-old boy whose ruptured appendix was treated with nothing more than prayer died in 2010, a former congregant testified on Monday, Feb. 9.

That ex-congregant, Kelli Byrd, also testified in Superior Court in San Bernardino about 40-year-old Emilio Ghanem, who departed the church and formed his own pest control company in competition with one operated by the church and hasn’t been seen since 2023...