Leader and high-ranking member of alleged cult-like California religious group arrested for alleged murder
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Two members of an alleged cult-like religious organization in Southern California, including the group’s leader, were arrested on suspicion of murder.
The Hemet-based religious group called “His Way Spirit Led Assemblies” has been at the center of an ongoing investigation after a former member of the group, Emilio Ghanem, 40, was reported missing in May 2023.
On Dec. 11, Redlands police arrested two members of the group, Darryl Martin, 58, the leader, and Rudy Moreno, 43, a high-ranking member, for murder and gun charges at the group’s headquarters.
It’s been nearly two years since Ghanem was last seen alive at a Starbucks in Redlands.
According to his family, Ghanem had spent the last two decades of his life as a devout member of the religious group, whose members worked at a pest control company called Fullshield Inc., now known as “Maxguard,” according to the Redlands Police Department.
In April 2023, Ghanem left both the religious group and MaxGuard behind and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to reunite with his family and begin a new chapter in his life. His sisters said Ghanem had started his own pest control company in Nashville and went back to SoCal to open a satellite office with the intent of recapturing some of his old clients.
His family said the move allegedly drew the attention of Maxguard, which served him with a cease and desist letter on May 8, 2023, accusing him of competing with the company for business.
While visiting the Inland Empire, Ghanem was staying at an Airbnb in Moreno Valley. On May 25, 2023, he met with another former member for coffee at a Starbucks in Redlands. The former member spoke to KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade, but did not wish to be identified out of safety concerns.
After the Starbucks meeting, Ghanem had planned to meet with a high-ranking member of the religious group, believing that person wanted help to leave the organization as he had, but the former member he met at Starbucks believes it was all a ruse.
“Emilio asked me about him on a couple of occasions, what I thought,” he recalled. “When Emilio was telling me he was going to help him escape and get out of there, I never felt that to be true. I just felt it was going to end badly and I think that’s what happened.”
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