Who is Filimon Hurtado? Man burns two babies alive to expose alleged celebrity human trafficking ring
Warning: This article contains graphic content that could be triggering for some readers. Discretion advised.
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA: A 29-year-old man, identified as Filimon Hurtado, who is arrested for burning five-month-old and 18-month-old babies to death, told investigators he did it because he wanted to expose a celebrity human trafficking ring. Defense attorneys are now setting up insanity defense against the charges, which could carry death penalty.
According to The Daily Beast, in May, five-month-old Calyx Hurtado and Cataleya Hurtado, 18 months, died after Hurtado, their uncle, set fire to their home in west central Fresno and watched them dying. Following this, the firefighters responded to the scene and found the remains of the two babies on a bed in the main bedroom of the property. And the children’s mother, a 32-year-old Hispanic woman, was also found with severe burns to her body, who is now fighting for her life.
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Fresno Fire Department investigator Nathan Dansby said, "They were both deceased. Both of them had a lot of heat damage on the top side of their bodies." A Facebook post by the Fresno Police Department read, "when investigators interviewed the suspect, he made admissions to setting the house on fire because he wanted to kill everyone in the home. He had no reasonable explanation as to why he committed this horrendous act. The suspect did not have any prior criminal history. Suspect Hurtado was admitted to a local hospital under the current guard of an officer and is recovering from substantial burns."
However, during a conversation recorded in an ambulance, Hurtado, a construction worker, allegedly explained the details of the killings. He said, as quoted by ABC30, "I poured gasoline at the bottom of the door. I started the fire. [His sister] tried to put it out. She was acting very nonchalant. She didn’t know what was wrong. She was asking me what was wrong. I knocked her over and poured gas all over her body." When questioned about why he did this, Hurtado told he needed to do something extreme than killing himself in order to expose a celebrity human trafficking and cloning ring that he claimed had victimized him in 2017. He said, "Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi, they both abducted me from the hookah bar."
Netflix’s 'Stranger Things' star Brown was 13 in 2017, and her current boyfriend, Bongiovi, the son of rocker Jon Bon Jovi, was 15. Hurtado told investigators that the duo "murdered me a few times" and "teleported me here and there," before claiming "I’m not real. I’m really not real." Prior to setting up the house on fire, he also shared a video to his YouTube page detailing his conspiracy theory. He claimed the entire ring is "tied to the occult." When Fire Department investigator asked him, "Do you regret any of this stuff here?” Hurtado replied, “No. This task is much bigger than myself.”
On Monday, October 17, Judge Michael Idiart ruled that there was enough evidence for Hurtado to stand trial for the murders. On the other hand, the district attorney has not determined if it will pursue a death sentence. However, Hurtado’s defense team believes he will plead not guilty by reason of insanity.