Child Exorcism Killings: Mom Sent to Mental Hospital

GERMANTOWN, MD — A Germantown mother and leader of a "Demon Assassins" group who stabbed two of her children to death during a 2014 exorcism will be sent to a state psychiatric hospital, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge ordered Thursday.

On Monday, Zakieya Avery pleaded guilty to murder at the start of her trial for killing Avery's youngest two children on Jan. 17, 2014. Avery's other two children — then ages 5 and 8 — were severely wounded but survived the attack.

Avery and her roommate, Monifa Sanford, were both charged with murder in the fatal attacks. When interviewed by police, the women reportedly described seeing the children’s eyes blacken as demons entered their bodies, jumping from one child to the next. They claimed the exorcism was needed to cast out the demons.

Police discovered the bodies of a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old in the master bedroom of the women's Germantown townhouse.

Avery was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Her attorneys argued that she was not mentally competent at the time of the stabbings. While Avery faced four consecutive life sentences, Judge Terrence McGann ruled Thursday that she was not criminally responsible in the deaths of her children, WTOP reports.

Judge McGann said in court that given Avery’s statements about being impregnated by an imaginary boyfriend and witness testimony that she was “responding to internal stimuli” shortly before the murders, she was delusional. McGann said that based on Avery’s diagnoses of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, she was not criminally responsible for her actions when she "butchered" her children.

Police said Avery and Sanford met through Exousia Ministries in Germantown. Sanford was a professed member of a group called “Demon Assassins,” which police say was led by Avery.

Both Avery and Sanford were sent to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup, for psychological tests after their arrest. In April 2014, Sanford, who was charged with same offenses, entered a plea of not criminally responsible, which is basically pleading insanity at the time of the crime, prosecutors said. She has since been confined to the state mental hospital.

Patch’s Earlier Stories:

• Roommate Charged in ‘Exorcism’ Killings Transferred to Maximum Security Hospital
• Mother to Undergo Psychiatric Evaluation, Held Without Bond in Toddlers' Death
• Police: Children Killed in Attempted 'Exorcism'

The night before the attack, Avery and Sanford put the children in a car parked outside their home while they prepared the exorcism, NBC Washington reports. A neighbor later called police after noticing the children and having a strange encounter with Avery. Officers who went to the house could not get anyone to come to the door and contacted Child Protective Services.

After their arrests, the women told detectives that they tried several ways to remove the presence of demons from the children, first by attempting to break the neck of the youngest child, and then strangulation, and finally stabbing.
»Photo of Zakieya Avery, courtesy of Montgomery County Police