ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — Two women who police say killed two children while performing what they thought was an exorcism will remain held without bond and have psychiatric evaluations to determine if they are competent to stand trial, a judge said Tuesday.
The women, 28-year-old Zakieya Latrice Avery and 21-year-old Monifa Denise Sanford, have told investigators that they believed evil spirits moved successively between the bodies of the children and that an exorcism was needed to drive the demons out, said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, releasing new details. The women also reported seeing the eyes of each of the children blackening and after the intended exorcism took a shower, cleaned up the scene and “prepared the children to see God,” he said.
The women identified themselves as members of a group called “Demon Assassins,” and police are looking to interview other people who might be part of the same organization.
Avery and Sanford face charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of two of Avery’s children, ages 1 and 2. Two older siblings were also found injured with stab wounds and might have died had a neighbor not called 911, police said.
Police who responded to Avery’s home in Germantown, where she lived with the four children and Sanford, found the two children’s bodies in the master bedroom.
The father of the children does not live in the area, police said.
The women face a possible life sentence if convicted, but a screening will first determine if they’re mentally competent to stand trial.
Edward Leyden, a lawyer for Sanford, told reporters after the hearing that “everyone who is involved in this case is in deep pain.”
“It obviously has details that are salacious and we just ask folks to give an opportunity for all of us to get a handle on just what happened here,” Leyden said of the case, “so that when the time comes to present this to a judge and a jury, all of the facts are her
(AP Photo: An undated photo released by the Montgomery County, Md., police department shows Monifa Denise Sanford.)
