A Colton father once accused of murdering his 4-year-old son has instead pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment, closing out a case that stretched back to a 2010 death investigators reopened in 2025 amid new leads, revised witness statements and coordinated investigations involving the religious group tied to the boy's care. Andre Thomas Sr., 49, agreed to the plea bargain on Wednesday in San Bernardino County, avoiding a trial that could have sent him to prison for 15 years to life had he been convicted of second-degree murder.
Thomas had faced the possibility of a second-degree murder trial in the death of his son Timothy, who was 4 years old when he died from untreated appendicitis in January 2010, according to testimony reported by The Press-Enterprise. At the time, Timothy was living apart from his parents after Thomas and his wife signed custody of their children over to Darryl Muzic Martin and Shelley “Kat” Martin, who led the His Way Spirit Led Assemblies religious order the Thomas family belonged to. According to the outlet's reporting, congregants prayed to “Dr. Jesus” to heal Timothy rather than seeking medical care for him, and Colton police ultimately concluded that Thomas had been negligent.
The case sat dormant for well over a decade until Colton police reopened the investigation into Timothy's death in December 2025, arresting Thomas that same month as part of a broader law enforcement push against the church. Thomas pleaded not guilty to the murder allegation before Wednesday's arrangement. Attorneys Justin Crocker and James Gass worked out the plea agreement before Judge Colin J. Bilash could rule on the matter, with Crocker telling the judge that Thomas's family endorsed the deal.
What the Plea Deal Requires
Under the terms, Thomas pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment and will not be sentenced for two years. He must obey all laws during that pre-trial release period, respond to all subpoenas to testify, and complete a 52-week parenting class. If he complies, the felony child endangerment charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor after two years of good behavior, after which Thomas may petition for dismissal — meaning the conviction would not appear on his record until sentencing, and he could avoid additional time in custody altogether.
Bilash told Thomas the arrangement plainly: “It's basically stay out of trouble and come back in two years,” according to the paper's account. Gass said he believed his client was not guilty but did not want to risk a murder trial, adding that he expected Thomas would ultimately receive a dismissal. Thomas, who had been out of custody for one month, took the plea to avoid exposing his family to a lengthy trial, per the same account. Bilash separately described Timothy's death as “a horrible situation. Unspeakable.”
The Church at the Center of Multiple Investigations
Thomas's case is one piece of a much larger prosecution against His Way Spirit Led Assemblies leadership. Darryl Muzic Martin and Shelley “Kat” Martin were ordered to stand trial for murder in Timothy's death and have pleaded not guilty to those charges. Witnesses testified that Shelley Martin required congregants to obey her without question, telling followers that God spoke through her and referring to herself as the “prophetess.” Those who disobeyed her, per witness testimony, faced consequences including physical punishment. Court testimony reported by the Los Angeles Times further detailed that Shelley Martin claimed to be a physical embodiment of the Holy Spirit and likened herself to Neo from “The Matrix,” describing herself as having awoken from reality into a perfect being.
The Martins' arrests in December 2025 stemmed from a multi-agency operation involving Colton Police, Redlands Police, the California Department of Justice, and the Riverside County Sheriff's Office, which executed search warrants across Hemet and Colton, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office. Those same searches turned up illegal weapons at group-linked properties, including automatic firearms, ghost guns, a machine gun, and explosives, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
A Second Murder Case Tied to the Same Group
The Martins also face separate murder and conspiracy charges in the 2023 killing of Emilio Ghanem, a 40-year-old former church member who disappeared after opening a pest control business that competed with the church's own company. Ghanem was last seen at a Starbucks in Redlands before his rented Nissan Frontier pickup truck was later found burnt in the Mojave Desert along with physical evidence, prompting detectives to reclassify his missing-persons case as a homicide, according to CBS News. The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office has contended that the Martins ordered Rudy Moreno and Ramon Ruiz Duran Jr. to kill Ghanem.
Duran was arrested in Nashville in January and extradited to California to face the charges after being taken into custody at his workplace by local and California detectives, the station reported. Both Moreno and Duran have pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and face trial. Former church members testified that male congregants worked long hours for minimal pay — as little as $12 per hour — at the church-owned pest control firm Fullshield Inc., later renamed MaxGuard, while the Martins performed no labor for the firm, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Unresolved Questions and a Separate Disappearance
Beyond the Thomas and Ghanem cases, Claremont Police are separately investigating the 2017 disappearance of Ruben Moreno, brother of murder co-defendant Rudy Moreno, who was reported missing in 2019 from the group's Claremont home and had not been seen since 2017. Family members did not officially report him missing until 2019, CBS News has noted. It remains an open question whether Ruben Moreno's disappearance connects to the broader pattern of allegations against the group.
California law draws a sharp line in cases like Timothy's. Under the 1988 California Supreme Court ruling in Walker v. Superior Court, Penal Code Section 270 permits spiritual prayer in lieu of medical care only for misdemeanor child neglect — that exemption does not shield parents or guardians from felony child endangerment or manslaughter charges when a child faces severe bodily harm or death. Felony child endangerment under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death carries a statutory penalty of up to six years in state prison, though Thomas's negotiated plea allows for dismissal after two years of compliance without additional custody time. Hoodline previously covered the initial murder charges filed against Shelley Martin, Darryl Martin, Rudy Moreno, and Thomas in December.
According to San Bernardino County Community Indicators, substantiated child abuse and neglect allegations decreased 8% between 2024 and 2025, from 3,910 to 3,578 reports.
